Staff profile

After studying at the Institute of Archaeology in London (UCL) I spent several years working in commercial archaeology in the UK before completing my PhD studies at The Queen’s College, Oxford and an early career post-doctoral research fellowship at St Cross College Oxford. I took up my first permanent lectureship at the University of Chester in 2004 before moving to the Department of Archaeology at Durham in 2006.

 

Research Interests

As an early medieval archaeologist focused on the landscapes and material culture of Britain and northern Europe, my research is particularly connected to ways of understanding past human interactions with natural and human altered environments, with particular reference to the role of landscape and material culture in definitions of identity and religion and processes of social and political transformation.

My recently reprinted single-authored monograph Perceptions of the Prehistoric in Anglo-Saxon England (2019[2013]) explores the centrality of the physical remains of the past in the shaping of early medieval identity and power. Landscape and place provided an important discursive terrain for the situation and performance of emergent power and consensual or assembly practices and this is something I explore with colleagues in Negotiating the North: Meeting Places in the Middles Ages in the North Sea Zone (2020), published with Routledge, which provides the outcomes of a major collaborative international project in 2010-13 that explored the development and performance of administrative and assembly practices in northern Europe from AD 300-1500. Results from The Assembly Project also feature in two Special Volumes of the Journal of the North Atlantic and global perspectives are explored in a special issue of World Archaeology 50.1 on Temporary Places, Gatherings and Assemblies.

I am currently working to complete a major Leverhulme-funded project People and Place. The Making of the Kingdom of Northumbria. The project is using the burial records of northern Britain to explore the health, wealth, ethnicity, and lifestyle of the first Northumbrians, charting the emergence of one of the largest kingdoms in early medieval Britain in terms of migration, mobility, social stratification, and political aggregation 300-800 CE. The team have produced a number of publications including a major thematic edited volume Life on the Edge: Social, Religious and Political Frontiers in Early Medieval Europe (2017), a paper in Cambridge Archaeological Journal (2020) and a Special Issue of World Archaeology 52.2, exploring the topic of Necrogeographies (2020).

This has led to the launch of a major new field project at the internationally important early medieval royal residence at Yeavering in Northumberland. The Yeavering Project is in collaboration with The Gefrin Trust and has produced a Resource Assessment, Research Agenda and Project Design and concluded two successful seasons of field excavation at the site.

My interests in understanding the expression of power, authority and identity through monuments, buildings and objects as well as landscapes has also involved me in bringing the long-running Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Sculpture to completion and making its catalogues and resources freely available. With AHRC funding, Worked in Stone is completing national coverage and working with the Archaeology Data Service to relaunch the full catalogue of materials and images on a new website. A major edited volume from the project conference will be published in 2025 with Boydell and Brewer, and a first overview volume on English pre-Conquest sculpture with Oxbow Books Ltd. Growing interest in objects as transformative elements in early medieval society has also resulted in a recent collaboration with Julie Lund on A Cultural History of Objects in the Medieval Age 500-1400 CE (2020) and underpins a successful bid with the National Museum of Scotland for a Collaborative Doctoral Award on Scottish Medieval dress accessories held by Lydia Prosser.

Having served as Honorary Editor for the international journal Medieval Archaeology – a truly enjoyable career highlight, I now serve as Executive Editor the journal World Archaeology. This editorial experience has led to involvement in two successive projects Rewriting World Archaeology #1 and #2, funded by the British Academy, focused on mentoring early career researchers in the Global South on publication and research grant application development.

I am committed to furthering research of all kinds on early medieval societies and currently contribute to teaching on Archaeology in Britain, Medieval and Post-medieval Britain. Themes in Historical Archaeology and Death and Burial in Early Medieval Britain. I am supervising PhD students working on a wide range of projects including gender and landscape in early medieval Britain, digital approaches to sculpture and education, the use of jet and jet-like materials by medieval communities and Scottish medieval dress accessories.　

• Religion, belief and popular practices in pre-Christian and Conversion Period Europe
• The archaeology of governance and power in North West Europe
• Death and burial in early medieval Britain
• Church archaeology and monasticism
• Material culture, memory and commemoration
• Landscape archaeology

• 2018: Honorary Editor Medieval Archaeology (2016-18):
• 2017: Executive Editor for World Archaeology:
• 2012: Member of the British Academy Steering Group for the Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture (2012-):
• 2012: Trustee for the Gefrin Trust (2012-): Independent trust with responsibility for protecting, managing and furthering research at the early medieval site of Yeavering, Northumberland.
• 2012: Organiser of the Internationales Sachsensympsion at Durham: Life on the Edge: Social, Political and Religious Frontiers in Medieval Europe. International Conference at Durham University.
• 2011: Member of the UK Steering Group for the Internationales Sachsensymposium (2011-19): Member (by invitation) of the UK Steering Group for the Internationales Sachsensymposium, a European Seminar Series (2011-2019)
• 2010: Associate Director of the Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies at Durham (2010-12):

Authored book

• Semple, S., Sanmark, A., Iversen, F., & Mehler, N. (2020). Negotiating the North. Meeting-Places in the Middle Ages in the North Sea Zone. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003045663
• Turner, S., Semple, S., & Turner, A. (2013). Wearmouth and Jarrow: Northumbrian Monasteries in an Historic Landscape. University of Hertfordshire Press
• Semple, S. (2013). Perceptions of the Prehistoric in Anglo-Saxon England: Religion, Ritual and Rulership in the Landscape. Oxford University Press

Chapter in book

• Semple, S., Orsini, C., & Mui, S. (2017). At the Limits: Frontiers and Boundaries in Early Medieval Northern Europe. In S. Semple, C. Orsini, & S. Mui (Eds.), Life on the Edge: Social, Political and Religious Frontiers in Early Medieval Europe (7-25). Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum
• Semple, S., Buchanan, B., Harrington, S., Oliver, D., & Petts, D. (2017). Power at the Edge: Yeavering, Northumberland, England. In S. Semple, C. Orsini, & S. Mui (Eds.), Life on the Edge: Social, Political and Religious Frontiers in Early Medieval Europe (91-112). Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum
• Semple, S., & Williams, H. (2015). Landmarks of the Dead: Exploring Anglo-Saxon Mortuary Geographies. In M. Clegg Hyer, & G. Owen-Crocker (Eds.), The material culture of the built environment in the Anglo-Saxon world (137-161). Liverpool University Press
• Semple, S. (2015). The Pre-Christian Landscape in Anglo-Saxon England. In C. Ruhmann, & V. Brieske (Eds.), Dying Gods - Religious beliefs in northern and eastern Europe in the time of Christianisation (101-110). Niedersächsischen Landesmuseum Hannover In Kommission bei Konrad Theiss Verlag
• Jones, R., & Semple, S. (2012). Making Sense of Place in Anglo-Saxon England. In R. Jones, & S. Semple (Eds.), Sense of Place in Anglo-Saxon England (1-17). Shaun Tyas
• Reynolds, A., & Semple, S. (2012). Digging for names: archeology and place-names in the Avebury Region. In R. Jones, & S. Semple (Eds.), Sense of Place in Anglo-Saxon England (76-100). Shaun Tyas
• Reynolds, A., & Semple, S. (2011). Anglo-Saxon non-funerary weapon depositions. In S. Brookes, S. Harrington, & A. Reynolds (Eds.), Studies in Early Anglo-Saxon Art and Archaeology: Papers in Honour of Martin G. Welch (40-48). (BAR, British Series 527). Archaeopress
• Semple, S. (2011). Sacred Spaces and Places in Pre-Christian and Conversion Period Anglo-Saxon England. In H. Hamerow, D. Hinton, & S. Crawford (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology (742-763). University Press
• Sanmark, A., & Semple, S. (2010). The topography of outdoor assembly sites in Europe with reference to recent field results from Sweden. In H. Lewis, & S. Semple (Eds.), Perspectives in Landscape Archaeology (107-119). British Archaeological Reports
• Semple, S. (2010). In the Open Air. In M. Carver, A. Sanmark, & S. Semple (Eds.), Signals of Belief in Early England: Anglo-Saxon Paganism Revisited. Oxbow
• Semple, S. (2009). Recycling the Past: Ancient Monuments and Changing Meanings in Early Medieval Britain. In M. Aldrich, & R. Wallis (Eds.), Antiquaries and Archaists, the Past in the Past, the Past in the Present (29-45). Spire Books Ltd
• Semple, S. (2004). Locations of Assembly in Early Anglo-Saxon England. In A. Pantos, & S. Semple (Eds.), Assembly places and practices in medieval Europe (135-154). Four Courts Press
• Pantos, A., & Semple, S. (2004). Introduction. In A. Pantos, & S. Semple (Eds.), Assembly Places and Practices in Medieval Europe (11-23). Four Courts Press

Edited book

• Semple, S., Orsini, O., & Mui, S. (Eds.). (2017). Life on the Edge: Social, Political and Religious Frontiers in Medieval Europe. Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum
• Jones, R., & Semple, S. (Eds.). (2012). Sense of Place in Anglo-Saxon England. Shaun Tyas
• Lewis, H., & Semple, S. (Eds.). (2010). Perspectives in Landscape Archaeology. British Archaeological Reports
• Carver, M., Sanmark, A., & Semple, S. (Eds.). (2010). Signals of Belief. Anglo-Saxon Paganism Revisited. Oxbow
• Semple, S., & Williams, H. (Eds.). (2007). Early Medieval Mortuary Practices. Oxbow Books
• Pantos, A., & Semple, S. (Eds.). (2004). Assembly Places and Practices in Medieval Europe. Four Courts Press
• Griffiths, D., Reynolds, A., & Semple, S. (Eds.). (2003). Boundaries in Early Medieval Britain. Oxbow Books

Journal Article

• Semple, S., & Gomes Coelho, R. (2022). Materialising inequalities in past, present and future. World Archaeology, 54(4), 493-501. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2022.2233804
• Harrington, S., Brookes, S., Semple, S., & Millard, A. (2020). Theatres of Closure: Process and Performance in Inhumation Burial Rites in Early Medieval Britain. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 30(3), 389-412. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0959774320000050
• Semple, S., & Brookes, S. (2020). Necrogeography and necroscapes: living with the dead. World Archaeology, 52(1), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2020.1779434
• Semple, S. (2018). Temporary Places, Gatherings and Assemblies: Editorial. World Archaeology, 50(1), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2018.1516722
• Semple, S., & Pettitt, P. (2017). Editorial. World Archaeology, 49(5), 569-573. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2017.1427843
• Skinner, A., & Semple, S. (2015). Assembly Mounds in the Danelaw: Place-name and Archaeological Evidence in the Historic Landscape. Journal of the North Atlantic, 8(sp8), 115-133. https://doi.org/10.3721/037.002.sp809
• Semple, S., & Sanmark, A. (2013). Assembly in North West Europe: collective concerns for early societies?. European Journal of Archaeology, 16(3), 518-542. https://doi.org/10.1179/1461957113y.0000000035
• Mitchell, S., Price, N., Hutton, R., Raudvere, C., Severi, C., Aldhouse-Green, M., Semple, S., Pluskowski, A., Carver, M., & Ginzburg, C. (2010). Witchcraft and Deep Time - a debate at Harvard. Antiquity, 84(325), 864-79
• Semple, S. (2008). Polities and Princes AD 400-800: New Perspectives on the Funerary Landscape of the South Saxon Kingdom. Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 27(4), 407-429. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0092.2008.00315.x
• Sanmark, A., & Semple, S. (2008). Places of Assembly: New Discoveries in Sweden and England. Fornvännen, 103(4), 245-259
• Semple, S. (2007). Defining the OE Hearg: a preliminary archaeological and topographic examination of hearg place names and their hinterlands. Early Medieval Europe, 15(4), 364-385. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0254.2007.00212.x
• Semple, S. (2003). Illustrations of Damnation in Late Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts. Anglo-Saxon England, 32, 231-245. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0263675103000115
• Semple, S. (2003). Burials and Political Boundaries in the Avebury region, North Wiltshire. Anglo-Saxon studies in archaeology and history, 12, 72-91
• Pitts, M., Bayliss, A., McKinley, J., Bylston, A., Budd, P., Evans, J., Chenery, C., Reynolds, A., & Semple, S. (2002). An Anglo-Saxon Decapitation and Burial at Stonehenge. Wiltshire archaeological and natural history magazine (1982), 95, 131-146
• Semple, S. (1998). A fear of the past: the place of the prehistoric burial mound in the ideology of middle and later Anglo-Saxon England. World Archaeology, 30(1), 109-126. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.1998.9980400

Other (Print)

• Sanmark, A., & Semple, S. (2009). tingsplatsen vid anundshog