Staff profile

Alejandra Gutiérrez is a finds specialist and an internationally renowned expert in medieval and later ceramics. She is especially interested in the study of material culture of the Middle Ages and Early Modern periods from both Britain and the Mediterranean.

Her particular interests include ceramics from the Mediterranean, especially Spanish and Portuguese wares, and the study of material culture from medieval and post-medieval contexts in Britain. In the UK she works with assemblages from the South-West of England. She has worked in the past for Cotswold Archaeological Trust as Research Assistant. She is a member of the Medieval Pottery Research Group and of the Finds Research Group.

Alejandra has published a variety of research papers, including a book on Mediterranean Pottery in Wessex Households (13th to 17th centuries) and an accompanying web-guide for the identification of medieval and later Spanish pottery (www.dur.ac.uk/spanish.pottery).

 

• Medieval and early modern archaeology
• Trade and exchange in the medieval and later periods
• Material culture
• Medieval and later pottery and finds
• Mediterranean pottery

• Bioarchaeology
• Landscapes of Complex Society
• Material and Visual Culture

• Ceramics
• Developing new approaches to dating ancient irrigation features
• Moncayo Archaeological Survey, NE Spain
• Religious orders on the frontier: monks on the edge of Christian Europe

• A guide to the identification of Spanish medieval pottery
• Artefacts Research Group at Durham
• Ceramics
• Developing new approaches to dating ancient irrigation features
• Moncayo Archaeological Survey, Zaragoza, Spain
• Religious orders on the frontier: monks on the edge of Christian Europe

• 2013: Invited speaker: 'El azúcar en la Inglaterra medieval y postmedieval'. O Açúcar: Paisagens, Civilização Material e Economia, ;Machico, Madeira, ;6 e 7 de Junho de 2013
• 2011: : External referee for Journal of Material Culture, World Archaeology, Post-Medieval Archaeology and Medieval Ceramics.
• 2011: Invited speaker: "De colores extraños": la loza dorada española en las Islas Británicas. International conference The wonders of the world. Lustre and luxury in European networks of exchange, Berlin, 17th-20th November 2011.

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• 2011: Invited speaker: "Of Sundry Colours and Moulds": Imports of Early Modern Pottery Along the Atlantic Seaboard. ; ; ; Velhos e Novos Mundos. Congresso International de Arqueologia Moderna, Lisbon, May 2011.
• 2009: Invited speaker: Relaciones e intercambio en el Atlántico Norte medieval: la evidencia cerámica. Simposio internacional «Gentes del Mar». Historia y Arqueología en el litoral del Arco Atlántico, Luanco, December 2009.

Authored book

• Gutiérrez, A. (2005). Un viaje a las fortificaciones medievales de Tarazona y el Moncayo Monasterio de Veruela, 16 septiembre-30 octubre, 2005. Zaragoza: Diputación Provincial de Zaragoza.
• Gutiérrez, A. (2000). Mediterranean Pottery in Wessex Households (13th to 17th centuries). Oxford: British Archaeological Reports 306.

Chapter in book

• Gutierrez, A (2021). Spanish and Portuguese ceramics found at Exeter. In Studies in the Roman and Medieval Archaeology of Exeter: Exeter, A Place in Time. in S Rippon & and N Holbrook (eds), Oxbow Books. Volume II: 515-537.
• Gerrard, C & Gutiérrez, A (2018). 'The Qanat in Spain: Archaeology and Environment'. In Water Management in Ancient Civilizations. Berkin, J Berlin: Edition Topoi. 197–226.
• Gutiérrez, A (2018). 'Overview: Trade and Other Contacts in Late Medieval Britain'. In The Oxford Handbook of Later Medieval Archaeology in Britain. in C. M. Gerrard, & A. Gutiérrez (eds) Oxford University Press. 3-19.
• Gutiérrez, A (2015). Spanish and Portuguese wares. In Glastonbury Abbey: archaeological investigations 1904-79. The Society of Antiquaries of London. 272-276.
• Gutiérrez, A (2011). 'The versatile bote: Spanish decorated jars and their uses'. In The Archaeology of Medieval Europe. Vol. 2 Twelfth to Sixteenth Centuries. Carver, M & Klapste, J Aarhus University Press. 305-307.
• Gutiérrez, A (2007). Medieval floor tiles. In The Shapwick Project. A rural landscape explored. Gerrard, CM Leeds: Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph. 25: 804-806.
• Gutiérrez, A. (2007). Post-Roman Pottery. In The Shapwick Project, Somerset, A Rural Landscape Explored. Gerrard, C. M. Leeds: Society for Medieval Archaeology. 25.
• Gutiérrez, A (2007). Bone, ivory and antler objects. In The Shapwick Project. A rural landscape explored. Gerrard, CM Leeds: Society for Medieval Archaeology. 25: 790-796.
• Gutiérrez, A (2006). The medieval and later pottery. In Landscape,Community and Colonisation: the North Somerset Levels during the 1st to 2nd millennia AD. Rippon, S London: CBA Research Report. 152: 211-221.
• Gutiérrez, A (2003). The Spanish jar. In Aelfric’s abbey. Excavations at Eynsham Abbey, Oxfordshire 1989–92. Hardy, A, Dodd, A & Keevil, G D Oxford: Thames Valley Landscapes Volume. 16: 199-201.
• Gutiérrez, A. (2000). The ceramic roofing material. In Ludgershall Castle. Excavations by Peter Addyman 1964–1972. Ellis, P Wiltshire Natural History and Archaeological Society Monograph Series 2. 223-228.
• Gutiérrez, A. (1999). 'Some Italo-Netherlandish pottery from Winchester and Wickham, Hampshire'. In Maiolica in the North. Gaimster, D. (ed). London: British Museum Occasional Paper 122. 151–155.

Conference Paper

• Gutiérrez, A. (2014), Cerámica española en el extranjero: un caso inglés, in Gelichi, S. eds, Atti del IX Congresso Internazionale sulla Ceramica Medievale nel Mediterraneo. Venice, Italy, Edizioni All’Insegna del Giglio, Venice, 467-472.
• Gutiérrez, A (2012), 'Of sundry colours and moulds': imports of early modern pottery along the Atlantic seaboard, in Texeira, A & Bettencourt, JA eds, 1: Velhos e Novos Mundos. Estudos de Arqueologia Moderna. Lisbon, Portugal, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, 37-50.

Edited book

• Gerrard, C.M. & Gutiérrez, A (2018). The Oxford Handbook of Later Medieval Archaeology in Britain. Oxford Handbooks. Oxford University Press.

Journal Article

• Gutiérrez, Alejandra (2022). Sugar refining at Plymouth: archaeological excavations at the Boatyard, Sutton Harbour. Post-Medieval Archaeology 56(2): 127-150.
• Gerrard, C M Forlin, P Froude, M Petley, D Gutierrez, A, Treasure, E, Milek, K & and Oliveira, N (2021). The archaeology of a landslide: Unravelling the Azores earthquake disaster of 1522 and its consequences. Journal of European Archaeology 24(3): 388-411.
• Alexander, M M,, Gutiérrez, A,, Millard, A R,, Richards, M P, & Gerrard, C M (2019). Economic and socio-cultural consequences of changing political rule on human and faunal diets in medieval Valencia (c. fifth–fifteenth century AD) as evidenced by stable isotopes. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 11(8): 3875-3893.
• Bailiff, I.K., Jankowski, N.R.J., Gerrard, C.M., Gutiérrez, A. & Wilkinson, K.N. (2019). Luminescence dating of sediment mounds: associated with shaft and gallery irrigation systems. Journal of Arid Environments 165: 34-45.
• Bailiff, I.K., Jankowski, N. Snape, L.M., Gerrard, C.M., Gutiérrez, A. & Wilkinson, K.N. (2018). Luminescence dating of qanat technology: prospects for further development. Water History 10(1): 73–84.
• Gutiérrez, A. (2017). 'The Pottery Analysis', in N. Corcos et al. 'Excavations in 2014 at Wade Street, Bristol - a documentary and archaeological analysis'. Internet Archaeology (45).
• Gutiérrez, A. (2016). ‘Ceramics’, in C. Mason, ‘Medieval occupation and late medieval tawing at Fairfield Gardens, Glastonbury’. The Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society (159): 83-92 (75-108).
• Gutiérrez, A. (2016). 'Appendix D: The Spanish and Portuguese wares', in S. Wrathmell,‘Penhow Castle, Gwent: survey and excavation, 1976-9, part 2: regional and imported pottery and other finds from the castle ditch'. Monmouth Antiquary 32: 62-69 (3-100)
• Bailiff, I.K., Gerrard, C.M., Gutiérrez, A., Snape-Kennedy, L.M. & Wilkinson, K. N. (2015). Luminescence dating of irrigation systems: Application to a qanat in Aragon, Spain. Quaternary Geochronology 30(B): 452-459.
• Gerrard, C. & Gutiérrez, A. (2015). Melchor de Monserrat. Treasures of Malta 21(3): 61-68.
• Alexander, M M, Gerrard, C M, Gutiérrez, A & Millard, A R (2015). Diet, society, and economy in late medieval Spain: Stable isotope evidence from Muslims and Christians from Gandía, Valencia. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 156(2): 263-273.
• Gerrard, C & Gutiérrez, A (2012). Estudio arqueológico del Somontano del Moncayo: avance metodológico. Salduie: Estudios de prehistoria y arqueología 10: 259-270.
• Gutiérrez, A (2009). The pottery. In D E Y Young (ed), 'Excavation of an early medieval site at Brent Knoll, Somerset'. Somerset Archaeology and Natural History 152: 112-118 (105-138).
• Gutiérrez, A (2009). Pottery. In R Jackson, 'Excavations at the Old Council House, Corn Street, Bristol, 2005'. Bristol and Avon Archaeology 59-64 (47-78).
• Gutiérrez, A (2009). Flanged roof tile. In R Jackson, 'Excavations at the Old Council House, Corn Street, Bristol, 2005'. Bristol and Avon Archaeology 64-65 (47-78).
• Gutiérrez, A. (2007). Portuguese coarsewares in early modern England: reflections on an exceptional pottery assemblage from Southampton. Post-Medieval Archaeology 41(1): 64-79.
• Gutiérrez, A (2006). ‘Appendix 4: The sherd of Spanish pottery’, in R Parker, J Allan, M Fletcher, R Higham and M Laithwaite ‘The Bishop’s palace at Chudleigh’. Devon Archaeological Society 64: 235-236.
• Gutiérrez, A (2004). ‘Medieval pottery’, in P Ellis and P Leach (eds) ‘Roman and medieval remains at Manor Farm, Castle Cary’. Proceedings of the Somerset Natural History and Archaeology Society 147: 28-33.
• Gutiérrez, A. (2003). A Shipwreck Cargo of Sevillian Pottery from the Studland Bay Wreck, Dorset, UK. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 32(1): 24-41.