Staff profile

I am Assistant Professor in Archaeology, the Digital Visualization Lab Manager, and the Visual and Material Culture RIG lead. Before joining Durham in 2018, I was Lecturer in Archaeology at Cardiff University, where I convened and taught modules on the European and British Neolithic, archaeological theory and Geographical Information Systems. Here at Durham, I teach mainly on British, Iberian, European and World prehistory (Neolithic to Bronze Age), and digital visualization techniques.

My research specialism focuses on late prehistoric connectivity, social relations, monuments and art in Atlantic Europe (6th-1st millennia BC). I am interested in the application of new (and not so new) theoretical approaches, digital visualization techniques and spatial methods to the study of these themes. Field archaeology is one of my passions, and I have experience in leading international multidisciplinary research teams.

Some of my current research is centred on long distance interactions between Iberia and the Atlantic North during the Late Bronze Age, with a focus on the circulation of metals and the mining communities involved in that exchange (Maritime Encounters Project). Related to this is the new comparative analysis and interpretation of Bronze Age rock art traditions from Scandinavia and Iberia, which we are conducting through new high-resolution 3D and 2.5D digital and analogue documentation (RAW Project). Added to exploring the connections of Iberian communities with the Atlantic North through the flows of metals, people and ideas, we are conducting fieldwork at a major Bronze Age funerary complex situated in an important mining area in southern Spain, to get a better understanding of the people and the communities involved in those long-distance interactions (fieldwork at Cañaveral de León, Huelva). A constant theme in my research are standing stones and sculptures, which were used to commemorate the ancestors in prehistoric societies. I have conducted fieldwork at several findspots where we could shed new light on the complex lives of these monuments and the communities attached to them (in Cañaveral de León, Huelva, Mirasiviene in Seville or Almargen in Malaga province).

I completed my PhD on Iberian prehistoric sculpture and its European context at the University Complutense of Madrid in 2010, and received the Extraordinary Doctoral Award 2009/2010 of the Faculty of Humanities of that university. During my PhD I spent a year at the Anthropology Department of the University of California, Berkeley (USA) thanks to an Education Abroad Program (EAP) scholarship. I also secured a DAAD scholarship to conduct research for some months at the Johann-Wolfgang Goethe University and the Roman-Germanic Commission (RGK) in Frankfurt-am-Main (Germany). I was also awarded a Caja Madrid Foundation doctoral dissertation grant to conduct my PhD research. In 2011 I joined the Archaeological Computing Research Group at the University of Southampton as a postdoctoral researcher funded by the Spanish Government to conduct a two-year individual research project. After a year teaching as a lecturer in that department, I joined as a Research Associate the ‘Making a Mark: Imagery and process in the British and Irish Neolithic’ project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust (2014-16).

Selected current/recent projects

Maritime Encounters: A Counterpoint to the Dominant Terrestrial Narrative of European Prehistory
Ongoing (2022-2027) multi-disciplinary research project investigating maritime connectivity across Atlantic Europe from the late Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age. The project involves seventeen experts from archaeology, historical linguistics, genetics, oceanography, and anthropology based in 8 countries. I am leader of Subproject 4, focused on Late Bronze Age connections between the Iberian Peninsula and Scandinavia through the analysis of the procurement and circulation of metals, and the study of Iberian mining communities through their rock art, funerary, settlement and landscape contexts. As subproject leader I am responsible for the coordination and development of fieldwork and outputs related to this work package. PI: Johan Ling (University of Gothenburg, Sweden). Funding: 46,700,000.00 SEK (= £3.9 million), Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, RJ Program. Ref. M21-0018.

Rock Art, Words and Warriors (RAW) - Hällristningar och maritim interaktion i Atlantiska Europa
Ongoing (2019-2023) multidisciplinary research investigating Late Bronze Age maritime connectivity in Atlantic Europe, particularly between Iberia and Scandinavia, through the analysis of rock art and the circulation of metals (copper). The work entails the application of state of the art digital technologies and archaeological science techniques, and the production of Open Access datasets. As Co-I I am responsible for the coordination and development of fieldwork and outputs related to Iberia. PI: Johan Ling (University of Gothenburg, Sweden). Funding: 5.300.000 SEK (= £443,544), Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet). Ref. 2018-01387.

The Beaded Garments from the Copper Age Tholos of Montelirio (Seville, Spain).
Ongoing research (2020-) conducted by an international multidisciplinary team on the beaded costumes recovered from the tholos of Montelirio (Valencina de la Concepción). Marta Díaz-Guardamino is PI of the dating project, funded by NERC. Funding: £14,086. NEIF number: 2273.0420.

• Late prehistoric archaeology in western Europe (Neolithic to early Iron Age)
• Archaeologies of mobility (people, animals, things, knowledge)
• Biographical approaches to landscape, monuments, and material culture
• Prehistoric art in Europe
• Archaeological visualization (digital imaging, archaeological representation)

• 2016: Reviews Editor and Editorial Board Member of the European Journal of Archaeology:
• 2013: Deputy Reviews Editor and Editorial Board Member of the European Journal of Archaeology (2013-2016):
• 2013: Editor of the section ‘Theory and Interpretation in Archaeology’ of the journal Open Archaeology (De Gruyter):

Authored book

• Jones, A., & Diaz-Guardamino, M. (2019). Making a Mark: Image and Process in Neolithic Britain and Ireland. Oxbow Books

Book review

• Diaz-Guardamino, M. (online). PRIMITIVA BUENO RAMÍREZ, JOSÉ ANTONIO LINARES CATELA, RODRIGO DE BALBÍN BEHRMANN & ROSA BARROSO BERMEJO (eds.). 2019. Símbolos de la muerte en la Prehistoria Reciente del sur de Europa. El Dolmen de Soto, Huelva. España. Sevilla: Junta de Andalucía, Consejería de Cultura: Arqueología Monografías. Antiquity,
• Diaz-Guardamino, M. (2019). Philipp W. Stockhammer and Joseph Maran, eds. Appropriating Innovations: Entangled Knowledge in Eurasia 5000–1500 bce (Oxford & Philadelphia: Oxbow, 2017, iv and 268pp., several colour and b/w illustrations and maps, hbk, ISBN 978-1-78570-724-7). European Journal of Archaeology, 22(2), 305-309. https://doi.org/10.1017/eaa.2019.11
• Díaz-Guardamino, M. (2016). Knut Helskog. Communicating with the World of Beings: The World Heritage Rock Art Sites in Alta, Arctic Norway (Oxford and Philadelphia: Oxbow Books, 2014, 240pp., 222 colour and 41 b/w figs., hbk, ISBN 978-1-78297-411-6). European Journal of Archaeology, 19(3), https://doi.org/10.1080/14619571.2016.1192772
• Díaz-Guardamino, M. (2012). Åsa C. Fredell, Kristian Kristiansen and Felipe Criado Boado, eds. Representations and Communications: Creating an Archaeological Matrix of Late Prehistoric Art (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2010, x + 158pp., 53 figs., pbk, ISBN 978-1-84217-397-8). European Journal of Archaeology, 15(3), https://doi.org/10.1179/146195712x13419103979395

Chapter in book

• Díaz-Guardamino, M. (2021). The Temporality of Stone: Late Prehistoric Sculpture in Iberia. In S. Hüglin, A. Gramsch, & L. Seppänen (Eds.), Petrification Processes in Matter and Society (99-113). Springer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69388-6_9
• Jones, A., & Díaz-Guardamino, M. (2021). Making Time for Art: Passage Tomb Art and Portable Art in the British and Irish Neolithic. In J. Gjerde, & M. Strifeldt Arntzen (Eds.), Perspectives on Differences in Rock Art. Equinox Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1558/equinox.31918
• Díaz-Guardamino, M. (2020). Rock art as process: Iberian Late Bronze Age 'warrior' stelae in-the-making. In I.-M. Back Danielsson, & A. Jones (Eds.), Images in-the-making : art, process, archaeology. Manchester University Press
• Rogerio-Candelera, M., García Sanjuán, L., Díaz-Guardamino, M., & Wheatley, D. (2018). Were late prehistoric stelae painted? Digital image analysis-based research of the late prehistoric stelae of Mirasiviene (Lora del Río, Sevilla) and Montoro (Montoro, Córdoba), South Spain. In M. Mosquera, & M. Almoraima Gil (Eds.), Conserving Cultural Heritage (157-160). CRC Press
• De Francisco Olmos, J., García Sanjuán, L., Díaz-Guardamino, M., Hunt Ortiz, M., Mora Molina, C., Montero Ruiz, I., & Murillo-Barroso, M. (2018). Las Monedas del Dolmen de Menga. In L. García Sanjuán, C. Mora Molina, & G. Aranda Jimenez (Eds.), La Intervención de 2005 en el Dolmen de Menga. Temporalidad, Biografía y Cultura Material en un Monumento del Patrimonio Mundial. Consejería de Cultura de la Junta de Andalucía and Universidad de Sevilla
• Jones, A., Cochrane, A., & Díaz-Guardamino, M. (2017). Art in the making: Neolithic societies in Britain, Ireland and Iberia. In P. Bickle, V. Cummings, D. Hofmann, & J. Pollard (Eds.), The Neolithic of Europe: Papers in Honour of Alasdair Whittle (201-221). Oxbow Books
• Jones, A., & Díaz-Guardamino, M. (2017). ‘Enigmatic images from remote prehistory’: rock art and ontology from a European Perspective. In B. David, & I. McNiven (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Rock Art. Oxford University Press
• Jones, A., & Díaz-Guardamino, M. (2017). Making and Remaking: The Decorated Artefacts from Knowth: The Results of RTI Analysis. In G. Eogan, & K. Cleary (Eds.), Excavations at Knowth 6: The Passage Tomb Archaeology of the Great Mound at Knowth (475-478). Royal Irish Academy
• Díaz-Guardamino, M., Wheatley, D., Williams, E., & Garrido, J. (2016). Los textiles elaborados con cuentas perforadas de Montelirio. In A. Fernández Flores, L. García Sanjuán, & M. Díaz-Zorita (Eds.), Montelirio. Un Gran Monumento Megalítico de la Edad del Cobre (345-364). Junta de Andalucía
• Díaz-Guardamino, M. (2015). Stones-in-Movement: Tracing the Itineraries of Menhirs, Stelae and Statue-Menhirs in Iberian Landscapes. In R. Joyce, & S. Gillespie (Eds.), Things in Motion: Object Itineraries in Anthropological Practice (101-122). SAR Press
• García Sanjuán, L., & Díaz-Guardamino, M. (2015). The Outstanding Biographies of Prehistoric Monuments in Iron Age, Roman, and Medieval Spain. In M. Díaz-Guardamino, L. García Sanjuán, & D. Wheatley (Eds.), The Lives of Prehistoric Monuments in Iron Age, Roman, and Medieval Europe (183-204). Oxford University Press
• Díaz-Guardamino, M., García Sanjuán, L., & Wheatley, D. (2015). The Lives of Prehistoric Monuments in Iron Age, Roman, and Medieval Europe. An Introduction. In M. Díaz-Guardamino, L. García Sanjuán, & D. Wheatley (Eds.), The Lives of Prehistoric Monuments in Iron Age, Roman, and Medieval Europe (3-17). Oxford University Press
• Díaz-Guardamino, M. (2012). Estelas decoradas del Bronce Final en la Península Ibérica: datos para su articulación cronológica. In J. Jiménez Ávila (Ed.), Sidereum Ana II, El río Guadiana en el Bronce Final (389-415). Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
• Díaz-Guardamino, M. (2011). Iconografía, lugares y relaciones sociales: reflexiones en torno a las estelas y estatuas-menhir atribuidas a la Edad del Bronce en la Península Ibérica. In R. Vilaça (Ed.), Estelas e Estátuas-menir: da Pré à Proto-história (63-88). Câmara Municipal do Sabugal

Doctoral Thesis

• Díaz-Guardamino, M. Las estelas decoradas en la Prehistoria de la Península Ibérica. (Thesis). Universidad Comlutense de Madrid. https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1617963

Edited book

• Díaz-Guardamino, M., García Sanjuán, L., & Wheatley, D. (Eds.). (2015). The Lives of Prehistoric Monuments in Iron Age, Roman, and Medieval Europe. Oxford University Press

Journal Article

• García Sanjuán, L., Wheatley, D., Lozano Rodríguez, J., Shaw Evangelista, L., González García, A., Cintas-Peña, M., Díaz-Guardamino, M., Nieto, V., Montero Artús, R., Kanz, F., Rebay-Salisbury, K., Jiménez Espejo, F., & Rivera Jiménez, T. (online). In the Bosom of the Earth. A New Megalithic Monument at the Antequera World Heritage Site (Spain). Antiquity, 97(393), 576 -595. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2023.35
• Díaz-Guardamino, M. (2023). ‘Idols’ in late prehistoric Iberia. Antiquity, 97(395), 1332-1335. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2023.68
• Diaz-Guardamino, M. (2023). Rock art technology, Reflectance Transformation Imaging and experimental archaeology: recent research on Iberian Late Bronze Age warrior stelae. Complutum (Madrid), 34(Especial), 145-162. https://doi.org/10.5209/cmpl.85238
• Jones, A. M., & Díaz-Guardamino, M. (2022). Making a Mark: Process, Pattern and Change in the British and Irish Neolithic. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 32(3), 389-407. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0959774321000512
• Diaz-Guardamino, M., Ling, J., Koch, J., Schulz Paulsson, B., Horn, C., & Paulsson, J. (2022). The local appropriation of warrior ideals in Late Bronze Age Europe: a review of the rock art site of Arroyo Tamujoso 8 and the ‘warrior’ stela of Cancho Roano (Badajoz, Spain). Trabajos de Prehistoria, 79(2), 329-345. https://doi.org/10.3989/tp.2022.12302
• Rivera Jiménez, T., García Sanjuán, L., Díaz-Guardamino, M., Donaire Romero, T., Morales González, J. A., Lozano Rodríguez, J. A., Rogerio Candelera, M. Á., Bermejo Meléndez, J., & Aguilera Collado, E. (2021). The Cañaveral de León stela (Huelva, Spain). A monumental sculpture in a landscape of settlements and pathways. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 40(Part A), Article 103251. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.103251
• Díaz-Guardamino, M., García Sanjuán, L., Wheatley, D., Lozano Rodríguez, J., Rogerio Candelera, M., & Casado Ariza, M. (2020). Late Prehistoric Stelae, Persistent Places and Connected Worlds: A Multi-Disciplinary Review of the Evidence at Almargen (Lands of Antequera, Spain). Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 30(1), 69-96. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0959774319000490
• Díaz-Guardamino, M., García Sanjuán, L., Wheatley, D., Lozano Rodríguez, J., Rogerio Candelera, M., Krueger, M., Hunt, M., Murillo-Barroso, M., & Balsera Nieto, V. (2019). Rethinking Iberian 'Warrior' Stelae: A Multidisciplinary Investigation of Mirasiviene and Its Connection to Setefilla (Lora del Río, Seville, Spain). Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 11(11), 6111-6140. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00909-1
• Papadopoulos, K., Hamilakis, Y., Kyparissi-Apostolika, N., & Diaz-Guardamino, M. (2019). Digital Sensoriality: The Neolithic Figurines from Koutroulou Magoula, Greece. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 29(4), 625-652. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0959774319000271
• Diaz-Guardamino, M., & Morgan, C. (2019). Human, Transhuman, Posthuman Digital Archaeologies: An Introduction. European Journal of Archaeology, 22(3), 320-323. https://doi.org/10.1017/eaa.2019.26
• García Sanjuán, L., Vargas Jiménez, J. M., Cáceres Puro, L. M., Costa Caramé, M. E., Díaz-Guardamino Uribe, M., Díaz-Zorita Bonilla, M., Fernández Flores, Á., Hurtado Pérez, V., López Aldana, P. M., Méndez Izquierdo, E., Pajuelo Pando, A., Rodríguez Vidal, J., Wheatley, D., Bronk Ramsey, C., Delgado-Huertas, A., Dunbar, E., Mora González, A., Bayliss, A., Beavan, N., Hamilton, D., & Whittle, A. (2018). Assembling the Dead, Gathering the Living: Radiocarbon Dating and Bayesian Modelling for Copper Age Valencina de la Concepción (Seville, Spain). Journal of World Prehistory, 31(2), 179-313. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-018-9114-2
• Jones, A. M., Díaz-Guardamino, M., Gibson, A., & Cox, S. (2017). The Garboldisham Macehead: its Manufacture, Date, Archaeological Context and Significance. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 83, https://doi.org/10.1017/ppr.2017.10
• García Sanjuán, L., Díaz-Guardamino, M., Wheatley, D. W., Vita Barra, J.-P., Lozano Rodríguez, J. A., Rogerio-Candelera, M. Á., Justo Erbez, Á., Barker, D., Strutt, K., & Casado Ariza, M. (2017). The epigraphic stela of Montoro (Córdoba): the earliest monumental script in Iberia?. Antiquity, 91(358), https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2017.86
• Meirion Jones, A., Díaz-Guardamino, M., & Crellin, R. J. (2016). From Artefact Biographies to ‘Multiple Objects’: A New Analysis of the Decorated Plaques of the Irish Sea Region. Norwegian Archaeological Review, 49(2), https://doi.org/10.1080/00293652.2016.1227359
• Díaz-Guardamino, M., García Sanjuán, L., Wheatley, D., & Rodríguez Zamora, V. (2015). RTI and the study of engraved rock art: A re-examination of the Iberian south-western stelae of Setefilla and Almadén de la Plata 2 (Seville, Spain). Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, 2(2-3), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.daach.2015.07.002
• Jones, A. M., Cochrane, A., Carter, C., Dawson, I., Díaz-Guardamino, M., Kotoula, E., & Minkin, L. (2015). Digital imaging and prehistoric imagery: a new analysis of the Folkton Drums. Antiquity, 89(347), https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2015.127
• Murillo-Barroso, M., Eleazar Costa Caramé, M., Díaz-Guardamino Uribe, M., García Sanjuán, L., & Mora Molina, C. (2015). A Reappraisal of Iberian Copper Age Goldwork: Craftmanship, Symbolism and Art in a Non-funerary Gold Sheet from Valencina de la Concepción. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 25(03), https://doi.org/10.1017/s0959774314001127
• García Sanjuán, L., Wheatley, D., Díaz-Guardamino, M., Mora Molina, C., Sánchez Liranzo, O., & Strutt, K. (2015). Evidence of Neolithic Activity at la Peña de los Enamorados (Antequera, Málaga, Spain): Intensive Surface Survey, Geophysics and Geoarchaeology at the Site of Piedras Blancas I. Menga, 6, 211-250
• Díaz-Guardamino, M. (2014). Shaping Social Identities in Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Western Iberia: The Role of Funerary Practices, Stelae, and Statue-Menhirs. European Journal of Archaeology, 17(2), https://doi.org/10.1179/1461957114y.0000000053
• Díaz-Guardamino, M., & Wheatley, D. (2013). Rock Art and Digital Technologies: The Application of Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) and 3D Laser Scanning to the Study of Late Bronze Age Iberian Stelae. Menga, 4, 187-203