Staff Profiles

Research Bio 

After graduating with my PhD from the University of Nottingham, and following a period of casual employment, I was employed as a research associate investigating desert technologies on the ERC-funded Trans-SAHARA Project. In 2015, I was awarded a British Academy postdoctoral fellowship for a project on Roman and early medieval glass recycling. 

I came to Newcastle University in 2016, and enjoy teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students about archaeological materials, archaeological science, experimental archaeology, craft and sustainability.

I have directed archaeological fieldwork at two UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Spain: The Alhambra (Granada) and Madinat al-Zahra (Cordoba). I am also a public speaker and television presenter, currently co-presenting Channel 4's 'The Great British Dig' with Hugh Dennis (my book of the same title was published in 2022), and a regular columnist for British Archaeology magazine. 

I'm excited by too many things to list here, but they include: archaeological science, the history of glass and alchemy in Islamic Spain, experimental archaeology, the philosophy of science and technology, science communication and public engagement, and the archaeology of pyrotechnology and industrial production (I like fire). 

Current Postdoctoral Fellow 

• Dr Camilla Bertini, MSCA Fellow, "Opening a new window onto medieval glass trade and technology" 

Recent PhD Graduates 

• Victoria Lucas, NBDTP funded PhD, "Looking through the glass: glass chemistry as a window on Anglo-Saxon innovation, recycling, trade and contact, AD 700-1000" 
• Jose Alberto Retamosa, Universidad de Cadiz, "El vidrio en la industria conservera romana: analisis arquologico y arqueometrico de las ceariae de Baelo Claudia e Iulia Traducta" (main supervisor: Dario Bernal de Casasola) 

In addition to supervising postgraduate research and teaching on other modules including 'Artefacts' and 'Introduction to Archaeological Science', I am the convener of the following:

Introduction to Archaeology (Stage 1) 

An essential starting guide to archaeology in the UK and the world. This module takes you through everything you need to know via lots of fascinating case studies, and offers a critical look at the history and current practice of archaeology. 

The module is also designed to help you adapt to writing coursework at university-level. You will submit an initial draft essay, upon which you will receive extensive constructive feedback, and which only counts for a small proportion of the module's marks. You will then re-submit the essay following corrections based on the feedback. 

How to Survive the Apocalypse (Stage 3 / Master's) 

Look around you. We live in a world in which almost everything has been made, modified, and adapted by humans. From the chair you are sitting on, to the window you look out of, to the field that you see in the distance: all were constructed thanks to a web of knowledge and skill that is known as technology. Almost all were constructed from materials that have made multiple long-distance journeys in shipping containers, thanks to globalisation. 

But what would happen if all that were to end tomorrow? Would you know how to find and cook food? How to modify materials to make tools, or to construct a shelter? And if you did know any of these things in theory, would you be able to carry them out in practice? 

This is not your typical lecture and seminar format. In this module, we work together as a team to reconstruct a complex object completely from scratch, using a wide range of raw materials that were available to our ancient ancestors. You may find yourself processing raw wool and dying it with wild plants one week, smelting metals from their ores in the next, and making glass beads in another. Every year the particular activities will differ depending on what object we choose to reconstruct, but there will always be a focus on multiple different materials and processes. 

You will never see the world in the same way again ... and if there IS an apocalypse, you might just be the one to re-build it.

I have many and diverse research interests, but they mostly centre around traditional craft and sustainability, the archaeology and history of glass, the human relationship to technology, and generally just doing things a bit differently (new research methods and tools; interdisciplinary collaboration). 

• Articles

  • Garcia-Aboal MV, Govantes-Edwards DJ, Duckworth CN, Celdran JMN. The Glass Workshop of the 4th-5th Centuries in the Insula II of the Molinete (Cartagena, Spain): Archaeological Analysis and Interpretation / El taller vidriero de los siglos IV-V de la Insula II del Molinete (Cartagena, España): análisis arqueológico e interpretación. SPAL 2023, 32(2), 250-290.
  • Velo-Gala A, Govantes-Edwards D, Duckworth CN. Islamic gold sandwich glass vessels: evidences from al-AndalusRecipientes islámicos de vidrio dorado encapsulado: evidencias en al-Andalus. Archivo Espanol de Arqueologia 2022, 95, e13.
  • Pearson J, Duckworth CN, Lopez-Rider J, Govantes-Edwards D. Text, practice, and experience: an experimental approach to the archaeology of glassmaking in medieval Iberia. Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 2021, 13(1), 119-144.
  • Govantes-Edwards DJ, López Rider J, Duckworth CN. Glassmaking in medieval technical literature in the Iberian Peninsula. Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 2020, 12(2), 267-291.
  • Duckworth CN. Latest advancements in the application of analytical science to ancient and historical glass production. UISPP Journal 2019, 2(2), 99-110.
  • Govantes-Edwards DJ, Duckworth C, Cordoba R. Recipes and experimentation?: the transmission of glassmaking techniques in medieval Iberia. Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 2016, 8(2), 176-195.
  • Duckworth CN, Mattingly DJ, Smith VC. From the Mediterranean to the Libyan Sahara. Chemical analyses of Garamantian glass. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 2016, 7, 633-639.
  • Duckworth CN, Mattingly DJ, Chenery S, Smith VC. End of line? Glass bangles, technology, recycling and trade in Islamic North Africa. Journal of Glass Studies 2016, 58.
  • Govantes Edwards DJ, Duckworth CN, Córdoba de la Llave R, Aparicio Sánchez L, Camacho Cruz C. El estudio del vidrio andalusí y las posibilidades de estudio en su composición química: primeros resultados y posibilidades. Boletín de Arqueología Medieval 2016, 18, 31-50.
  • Duckworth CN, Cuenod A, Mattingly DJ. Non-destructive µXRF analysis of glass and metal objects from sites in the Libyan Pre-Desert and Fazzan. Libyan Studies 2015, 46, 15-34.
  • Duckworth CN, Govantes-Edwards DJ. Medieval glass furnaces in southern Spain: AHG Grant Report. Glass News 2015, (38), 9-12.
  • Duckworth CN, Cordoba de la Llave R, Faber EW, Govantes-Edwards DJ, Henderson J. Electron Microprobe Analysis of 9^th-12^th Century Islamic Glass from Cordoba, Spain. Archaeometry 2015, 57(1), 27-50.
  • Govantes-Edwards DJ, Duckworth CN, Cordoba de la Llave R, Camacho C, Aparicio L. El vidrio andalusí y su composición química: primeros resultados y posibilidades de estudio. Boletín de Arqueología Medieval 2014, (18), 31-50.
  • Duckworth CN, Rutten FJM, Henderson J. Time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry examination of ancient and historical opaque glasses. Proceedings of SPIE 2012, 8422.
  • Duckworth CN, Henderson J, Rutten FJM, Nikita K. Opacifiers in Late Bronze Age glasses: the use of ToF-SIMS to identify raw ingredients and production techniques. Journal of Archaeological Science 2012, 39, 2143-52.
  • Duckworth CN. Imitation, artificiality and creation: the colour and perception of the earliest glass in New Kingdom Egypt. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 2012, 22, 309-27.

• Book Chapters

  • Govantes-Edwards DJ, Duckworth CN, Gomez A, Olmo L. Smoke Signals: The Social Dimension of Glass Production in Visigothic Iberia. In: Anna K. Hodgkinson and Cecile Lelek Tvetmarken, ed. Approaches to the Analysis of Production Activity at Archaeological Sites. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2020, pp.50-64. In Preparation.
  • Govantes-Edwards D, Duckworth C, Gómez de la Torre Verdejo A, Olmo L. Smoke signals: the social dimension of glass production in Visigothic Iberia. In: Hodgkinson AK; Lelek Tvetmarken C, ed. Approaches to the Analysis of Production Activity at Archaeological Sites. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2020, pp.50-64.
  • Duckworth CN. Sensory perception and experience of glass. In: Jo Day and Robin Skeates, ed. Routledge Handbook of Sensory Archaeology. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2020, pp.233-247.
  • Velo-Gala A, Duckworth CN, Govantes-Edwards DJ. La presencia del vidrio en la necropolis de Llanos del Pretorio. In: D. Vaquerizo, A. Ruiz and M. Rubio, ed. El Sepulcretum de Llanos del Pretorio (Córdoba – España). Bari: Edipuglia, 2020.
  • Duckworth C, Govantes-Edwards D. Producción y tecnología del vidrio en al-Andalus. In: Economía y trabajo. Las bases materiales de la vida en al-Andalus. Seville: Alfar, 2019, pp.235-262.
  • Duckworth CN. Shattering illusions: using analytical evidence to establish clearer pictures of glass production and trade within Africa. In: A Cuenod, CN Duckworth, and DJ Mattingly, ed. Mobile Technologies in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond. Cambridge University Press, 2018. In Preparation.
  • Duckworth CN, Mattingly DJ. Into Africa: The biography of Roman vessel glass in the Sahara Desert. In: Daniela Rosenow, Matt Phelps, Andrew Meek, Ian Freestone, ed. Things that Travelled: Mediterranean Glass in the First Millennium AD. London: UCL Press, 2018, pp.134-158.
  • Duckworth CN, Sassin AE. On colour and light. In: Duckworth, CN; Sassin AE, ed. Colour and Light in Ancient and Medieval Art. London, UK: Taylor and Francis, 2017, pp.1-8.
  • Duckworth CN. Glass in medieval Spain: a long-term perspective on knowledge transfer. In: Wolf S; Pury-Gysel A de, ed. Annales du 20e Congres de l'Association Internationale pour l'Histoire du Verre. Rahden/Westfalen: VML Verlag Marie Leidorf, 2017, pp.385-390.
  • Leitch V, Duckworth CN, Cuenod A, Mattingly DJ, Sterry M, Cole F. Early Saharan trade : the inorganic evidence. In: Mattingly DJ; Leitch V; Duckworth CN; Cuenod A; Sterry M, ed. Trade in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017, pp.287-340.
  • Duckworth CN. Glass in Egypt. In: Helaine Selin, ed. Encyclopedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Dordrecht: Springer, 2016, pp.2086-2092.
  • Molloy BPC, Day J, Klontza-Jaklova V, Duckworth CN. Of what is past, passing, or to come. Five thousand years of social, technological, and environmental transformations at Priniatikos Pyrgos. In: BPC Molloy and CN Duckworth, ed. A Cretan Landscape through Time: Priniatikos Pyrgos and Environs. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2014.
  • Duckworth CN. Late antique glass in domestic and ecclesiastical contexts at Priniatikos Pyrgos. In: BPC Molloy and CN Duckworth, ed. A Cretan Landscape through Time: Priniatikos Pyrgos and Environs. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2014.
  • Wilkinson TJ, Rayne L. Hydraulic systems in the Near East. In: Selin, H, ed. Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Dordrecht: Springer, 2014.

• Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)

  • García A, Duckworth CN, Welham K, Govantes-Edwards DJ, Pitman D, Alonso M, Ríos JM, Jiménez MC, Montanari E, Moore B. La producción cerámica en Granada entre la época medieval y moderna. Los talleres del secano de la Alhambra. In: Glaze Technology in the Western Mediterranean: Islamic and Christian traditions. 2018, Valencia, Spain: Museo Nacional de Cerámica y Artes Suntuarias de Valencia.
  • Schibille N, Gomez A, Duckworth C, Govantes D, Ares J, Olmo L. The glass from Recopolis: an analytical approach. In: Glass Science in Art and Conservation 2017: Proceedings of the 5th GLASSAC International Conference. 2017, Lisbon: NOVA, FCT Editorial.

• Edited Books

  • Duckworth CN, Wilson A, ed. Recycling and Reuse in the Roman Economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.
  • Duckworth CN, Cuénod A, Mattingly DJ, ed. Mobile Technologies in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020.
  • Govantes-Edwards DJ, Duckworth CN, ed. Archaeology, Politics, and Islamicate Cultural Heritage in Europe. Equinox, 2019. In Preparation.
  • Duckworth CN, Sassin AE, ed. Colour and Light in Ancient and Medieval Art. London: Routledge, 2018.
  • Mattingly DJ, Leitch V, Duckworth CN, Cuénod A, Sterry M, Cole F, ed. Trade in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.
  • Molloy BPC, Duckworth CN, ed. A Cretan Landscape through Time: Priniatikos Pyrgos and environs. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2014.

• Note

  • Govantes-Edwards DJ, Duckworth CN. El analisis quimico de vidrios y vedrios de la Malaga islamica. Estudios en technologia medieval. Mainake 2015, XXXIV.