Professor Nancy Edwards
Emeritus Professor
Affiliations
Contact info
Biography
I was appointed a Lecturer in Early Medieval Archaeology at Bangor in 1979 and became Professor of Medieval Archaeology in 2008. I retired in December 2020 and am now Emeritus Professor of Medieval Archaeology. I continue to supervise some research students.
I am a Fellow of the British Academy, a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. I am also an Honorary Professor at Cardiff University and the University of Durham.
I completed my BA in Archaeology, Ancient and Medieval History at Liverpool University in 1976. I then moved to the University of Durham where I gained a PhD in Archaeology. My thesis examined early medieval sculpture in the Irish Midlands.
Research
My research is multidisciplinary embracing Archaeology, History and Art History. I am particularly interested in early medieval Wales c. AD 400–1100. I also have a continuing interest in early medieval Ireland and Scotland as well as aspects of the history of archaeology.
My book, Life in Early Medieval Wales (funded by a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship) was published by Oxford University Press in 2023.
Much of my research continues to focus on early medieval inscribed stones and stone sculpture in Wales. I am interested not only in the monuments themselves but also in their landscape contexts and what they can tell us about the early medieval society, identity, the Church, patronage and wealth. I have published two volumes of A Corpus of Early Medieval Inscribed Stones and Stone Sculpture in Wales, Volume II, South-West Wales (2007); Volume III, North Wales (2013).
I am currently working, with Gary Robinson (Bangor University) and Howard Williams (University of Chester), on a biography of the ninth-century Pillar of Eliseg. I have also become interested in early medieval graffiti as part of my research on the sculptural assemblage from St Patrick’s Chapel, near St Davids.
Areas of Teaching & Supervision
- Article › Research › Peer-reviewed
- Published
A rediscovered piece of early medieval sculpture from Silian, Ceredigion
Edwards, N. M. & Vousden, N., 19 Jun 2015, In: Archaeology in Wales. 53Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Afterlives: reinventing early medieval sculpture in Wales
Edwards, N., 1 Sept 2020, In: Archaeologia Cambrensis. 2020, 169, p. 1-29Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Categorizing Roundhouse Settlements in Wales: A Critical Perspective.
Edwards, N. M., Ghey, E., Edwards, N. & Johnston, R., 1 Dec 2008, In: Studia Celtica. 42, 1, p. 1-25Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Characterizing the Welsh Roundhouse: chronology, inhabitation and landscape
Edwards, N. M., Ghey, E., Edwards, N., Johnston, R. & Pope, R., 1 Nov 2007, In: Internet Archaeology. 23Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Early Medieval Settlement and Field Systems at Rhuddgaer, Anglesey
Hopewell, D. & Edwards, N., Dec 2017, In: Archaeologia Cambrensis. 166Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Early Medieval Wales: material evidence and identity
Edwards, N., 31 Dec 2017, In: Studia Celtica. 51, p. 65-87Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Early medieval Wales: a framework for archaeological research.
Edwards, N. M., Edwards, N., Lane, A., Bapty, I. & Redknap, M., 1 Jan 2005, In: Archaeology in Wales. 45, p. 33-46Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Early medieval inscribed stones and stone sculpture in Wales: context and function.
Edwards, N. M. & Edwards, N., 1 Jan 2001, In: Medieval archaeology. 45, p. 15-39Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Edward Lhuyd and the origins of early medieval Celtic archaeology
Edwards, N., Sept 2007, In: Antiquaries Journal. 87, p. 165-196Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Edward Lhuyd – an archaeologist’s view
Edwards, N., 1 Jan 2010, In: Welsh History Review. 25, 1, p. 20-50Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
New discoveries of early medieval carved stones in Wales
Edwards, N., Jun 2016, In: Archaeologia Cambrensis. 165, p. 187-199Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Protecting carved stones in Scotland and Wales
Edwards, N. M. & Hall, M. A., 1 Jan 2006, In: Church Archaeology. 7-9, p. 127-129Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Rethinking the pillar of Eliseg
Edwards, N., 22 May 2009, In: Antiquaries Journal. 89, p. 143-177Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
St Cyngar’s Church, Hope.
Edwards, N. M., Jones, N., Silvester, B. & Edwards, N., 1 Jan 2001, In: Archaeology in Wales. 41, p. 42-50Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
The Pillar of Eliseg, Llantysilio. Incomplete inscribed cross and cairn.
Edwards, N. M., Edwards, N., Robinson, G., Williams, H. & Evans, D. M., 1 Jan 2011, In: Archaeology in Wales. 50, p. 57-59Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Vlog to Death: Project Eliseg's Video-Blogging
Tong, J., Evans, S., Williams, H., Edwards, N. & Robinson, G., 1 May 2015, In: Internet Archaeology. 39Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Wales and the Britons 350-1064
Edwards, N., 1 Dec 2014, In: Welsh History Review. 27, 2, p. 368-370Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Book/Film/Article review › Research › Peer-reviewed
- Published
Early Medieval Art and Archaeology in the Northern World. Studies in Honour of James Graham-Campbell
Edwards, N., 1 Nov 2014, In: Medieval archaeology. 58, 1Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review › peer-review
- Published
Raising the Dead. Early Aledieval,Yaine Stones in Northumbria
Edwards, N., 1 Nov 2015, In: Medieval archaeology. 59, 1, p. 340-340Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review › peer-review
- Chapter › Research › Not peer-reviewed
- Published
Celtic Crosses.
Edwards, N. M., Edwards, N. & Koch, J. T. (ed.), 1 Jan 2006, Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. 2006 ed. ABC-CLIO LtdResearch output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
- Published
Celtic Saints and early medieval archaeology.
Edwards, N. M., Edwards, N., Thacker, A. (ed.) & Sharpe, R. (ed.), 1 Jan 2002, Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West. 2002 ed. Oxford University Press, p. 225-265Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
- Published
Chi-Rhos, Crosses and Pictish Symbols: Inscribed Stones and Stone Sculpture in Early Medieval Wales and Scotland
Edwards, N., 2017, Transforming Landscapes of Belief in the Early Medieval Insular World and Beyond: Converting the Isles II. Edwards, N., NÍ MHAONAIGH, MÁIRE. & Fletcher, R. (eds.). Brepols PublishersResearch output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
- Published
From antiquarians to archaeologists in nineteenth-century Wales: The question of prehistory
Edwards, N. M., Gould, J., Evans, N. (ed.) & Pryce, H. (ed.), 1 Dec 2013, Writing a Small Nation's Past: Wales in Comparative Perspective: 1850–1950. 2013 ed. Ashgate, p. 143-164Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
- Published
Monuments in a landscape, the early medieval sculpture of St David’s.
Edwards, N. M., Edwards, N., Hamerow, H. (ed.) & MacGregor, A. (ed.), 1 Jan 2001, Image and Power in the Archaeology of Early Medieval Britain: Essays in Honour of Rosemary Camp.. 2001 ed. Oxbow Books, p. 53-77Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
- Published
The archaeology of early medieval Ireland, c.400-1169: settlement and economy.
Edwards, N. M., Edwards, N. & O Cróinín, D. (ed.), 1 Jan 2005, A New History of Ireland: Volume 1 Prehistoric and Early Ireland.. 2005 ed. Clarendon Press, p. 235-300Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter