Staff Profiles

Duncan is Senior Lecturer in Medieval Archaeology and Degree Programme Director for Archaeology, within the School of History, Classics, and Archaeology at Newcastle University. He studied undergraduate archaeology at the University of Exeter, and completed an MA in Medieval Archaeology at the University of York. Duncan then returned to Exeter to complete his PhD in 2013, and remained at the institution as Research Fellow working on the Anarchy: War and Status in Twelfth-century Landscapes of Conflict project. He moved to Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln, where he led the Archaeology and Heritage Programmes, before joining Newcastle in 2020.

Duncan is External Examiner for The University of Nottingham, and previously acted in the same capacity for The University of Sheffield, and for The University of Oxford's Department of Continuing Education. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Member of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists, and Deputy Editor of Medieval Archaeology. 

Research Interests

Medieval settlement and landscape archaeology

The archaeology of elite power

Early medieval craftspeople

Sacred landscapes and the archaeology of the early Church

Current Research

Duncan specialises in medieval settlement and landscape archaeology, and has a particular interest in the articulation of elite power. He has published widely on both sides of the 'early-late' medieval divide, and is an active field archaeologist with an extensive background in landscape survey and excavation. Duncan is the Principal Investigator of the AHRC Research Grant-funded project Where Power Lies: the archaeology of transforming elite centres in the landscape of medieval England c.AD800-1200. Beginning in November 2022, this scheme is conducting the first ever systematic and integrated study of the physical evidence for early lordly centres in medieval England, reshaping our understanding of 'the rise of the gentry' and its impact upon the landscape. Duncan led a multi-stage proof of concept for the project, funded by The Castle Studies Trust, at Laughton en le Morthen, South Yorkshire, where he demonstrated how Earl Edwin of Mercia's complex was reshaped into a motte and bailey castle following the Norman Conquest. A paper based on this research was published in the journal Landscapes.

Previous Research

Duncan has published widely on early medieval settlement archaeology including a monograph based upon his PhD thesis, and two articles along similar themes in Medieval Archaeology and Landscapes. His paper exploring the roles and identities of early medieval metalworkers was published in 2019. Duncan co-authored a monograph on the twelfth-century civil war commonly known as the Anarchy with Professor Oliver Creighton (University of Exeter). He co-edited, also with Professor Creighton, an additional fieldwork volume from the same project and published various other outputs on similar themes. Duncan Co-Directed the Little Carlton Project with Dr Adam Daubney (Portable Antiquities Scheme) and Dr Hugh Willmott (University of Sheffield), which was shortlisted for Current Archaeology's Research Project of the Year in 2017. He was Director, again with Dr Willmott, of the Crowland Archaeology Project which between 2021-22 led excavations at Anchor Church Field. These investigations found a previously undiscovered prehistoric henge, reused in the Anglo-Saxon and medieval periods, and revealed a site that was seen as sacred into the nineteenth century.

Postgraduate Supervision

I currently supervise the following PhD students:

Cooper Clark 'Fully conceptualizing England's First Monastery: How might space have been used and understood at St Augustine's Abbey throughout the Anglo-Saxon period (c. 597-1073)?'

Rebecca Nashan 'Burials between the Ages. A new Model of Mortuary Assemblages and Chronology of the Upper Rhine, circa mid-4th – mid-5th century AD'

If you are considering studying for a postgraduate research degree in a topic related to any of my research interests, please do contact me via email.

Semester 1 (2024-25) 

Undergraduate teaching 

ARA1027 Introduction to Archaeology 

ARA2020 Fieldwork and Post-excavation: Archaeology in the UK: (Module Leader)

ARA2092 The Medieval World (AD400-1500)

ARA3200/1/2/3 Dissertation in Archaeology

Postgraduate teaching

ARA8190 Research Theories, Themes, and Skills in Archaeology 

Semester 2 (2024-25)

Undergraduate Teaching

ARA1030 The Archaeology of Britain from the Romans to the 20th Century (Module Leader)

ARA3013 Early Medieval Britain (Module Leader)

Postgraduate Teaching

ARA8113 Early Medieval Britain (Module Leader)

• Articles

  • Wright, DW,Willmott, H. Sacred Landscapes and Deep Time: Mobility, Memory, and Monasticism on Crowland. Journal of Field Archaeology 2024.
  • Wright DW, Bromage S, Shapland S, Everson P, Stocker D. Laughton en le Morthen, South Yorkshire: Evolution of a Medieval Magnate Core. Landscapes 2022, 23(2), 140-165.
  • Willmott H, Wright DW, Daubney A, Blinkhorn P, Newman S, Townend P, Vickers G. Rethinking early medieval ‘productive sites’: wealth, trade, and tradition at Little Carlton, East Lindsey. Antiquaries Journal 2021, 101, 181-212.
  • Wright DW, Bromage S. Landscapes of Lordship: Searching for Laughton’s Anglo-Saxon elite. Current Archaeology 2020, 360.
  • Wright DW. Crafters of Kingship: Smiths, Elite Power, and Gender in Early Medieval Europe. Medieval Archaeology 2019, 63(2), 271-297.
  • Wright DW, Creighton OH, Trick S, Fradley M. Power, conflict and ritual on the fen-edge: the Anarchy-period castle at Burwell, Cambridgeshire, and its pre-Conquest landscape. Landscape History 2016, 37(1), 25-50.
  • Wright DW. Investigating an Elite Landscape: Archaeological survey at Bromfield Priory, Shropshire. Shropshire History and Archaeology 2016, 91, 41-50.
  • Wright DW, Fradley M, Creighton OH. The Ringwork at Cam’s Hill, near Malmesbury: Archaeological Investigation and Landscape Assessment. Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 2015, 108, 33-46.
  • Wright DW. Shaping Rural Settlements: The Early Medieval Inheritance to the English Village. Landscapes 2015, 16(2), 105-125.
  • Wright DW, Creighton OH, Trick S, Fradley M. Fieldwork in Conflict Landscapes: Surveying the Archaeology of the Anarchy. Medieval Archaeology 2015, 59(1), 313-319.
  • Wright DW. Early Medieval Settlement and Social Power: The Middle Saxon ‘Home Farm’. Medieval Archaeology 2015, 59(1), 24-46.
  • Wright DW, Fradley M, Creighton O. Decoding an Elite Landscape: Power and Patronage at Hailes, Gloucestershire. Church Archaeology 2015, 17 (for 2013), 29-36.
  • Wright DW, Fradley M, Trick S, Creighton OH. Castle Carlton, Lincolnshire: The Origins and Development of a Castle and Medieval New Town. Medieval Settlement Research 2015, 30, 25-33.
  • Wright DW. 'Restructuring the 8th-century Landscape: Planned Settlements, Estates and Minsters in Pre-Viking England'. Church Archaeology 2010, 14, 15-26.
  • Wright DW. ‘Tasting Misery Among Snakes: The Situation of Smiths in Anglo-Saxon Settlements’. Papers from the Institute of Archaeology 2010, 20, 131-136.

• Authored Books

  • Creighton O H, Wright D W. The Anarchy: War and Status in 12th-Century Landscapes of Conflict. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2016.
  • Wright DW. ‘Middle Saxon’ Settlement and Society: The Changing Rural Communities of Central and Eastern England. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2015.

• Book Chapter

  • Wright DW. The Church and the Land: Settlement and Economy in Early Medieval England. In: Sanchez Pardo J; Shapland M, ed. Churches and Social Power in Early Medieval Europe. Turnhout: Brepols, 2015, pp.216-228.

• Edited Book

  • Wright DW, Creighton OH, ed. Castles, Siegeworks and Settlements: Surveying the Archaeology of the Twelfth-century. Oxford: Archaeopress Archaeology, 2016.