Dr Michael Bishop

Visiting Lecturer in Classics

Research Interests

Roman arms and armour; Roman military archaeology; Roman roads; Corbridge; Vegetius; Archaeological publishing; Electronic publishing technology.

Select publications

'Cavalry equipment of the Roman army in the first century A.D.', in J.C. Coulston (ed.) Military Equipment and the Identity of Roman Soldiers. Proceedings of the Fourth Roman Military Equipment Conference, BAR International Series 394, Oxford, 1988, 67-195.

(With L. Allason-Jones) Excavations at Roman Corbridge: the Hoard, HBMCE Archaeological Report No.7, London, 1988.

(With J.N. Dore) Corbridge: Excavations of the Roman Fort and Town, 1947-80, HBMCE Archaeological Report No.8, London, 1989.

(With J.C.N. Coulston) Roman Military Equipment, Shire Archaeology Series 59, Aylesbury, 1989.

'The early imperial "apron"', Journal of Roman Military Equipment Studies 3, 1992, 81-104.

'Excavations in the Roman fort at Chester-le-Street (Concangis), Church Chare 1990-91', Archaeologia Aeliana Series 5, 21, 1993, 29-85.

(With J.C.N. Coulston) Roman Military Equipment from the Punic Wars to the Fall of Rome, Batsford, London, 1993 (paperback edition 1994; enlarged 2nd edition in preparation).

Corstopitum. An Edwardian Excavation, English Heritage, London, 1994.

Finds from Roman Aldborough. A Catalogue of Small Finds from the Romano-British Town ofIsurium Brigantum, Oxbow Monograph 65, Oxford 1996

Teaching

I currently teach on the subject of 'Archaeology, legislation, and the public' for 'Principles and Techniques of Archaeology' (AN3020).

Academic career

I graduated in 1981 from the University of Sheffield with a Joint Honours BA in Ancient History and Classical Archaeology with Classical Civilization, then went on to study for a PhD (1986) on Roman military equipment, also at Sheffield. From 1984-89, I worked as a Research Associate in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, with the task of publishing the 1947-80 excavations at Corbridge. Since 1989, I have worked as a freelance writer, publisher, and archaeologist. I was appointed Honorary Lecturer in Classics at the University of St Andrews in 1997.

Activities

I excavate Roman military sites, most recently at Inveresk (East Lothian), and am working on a long-term research project with the Borders Archaeologicla Society to trace the Roman roads of south-east Scotland. I am preparing monographs on 'lorica segmentata', Roman Corbridge, and Roman roads in Britain, as well as revising Roman Military Equipment >with Jon Coulston. I head the project to produce a new web resource - ARMAMENTARIVM: The Book of Roman Arms and Armour - and am producing a version of the text and translation of the Roman military writer Vegetius for the web. I edit the Journal of Roman Military Equipment Studies and Arma, Newsletter of the Roman Military Equipment Conference.

Invited papers read at universities and conferences at Aalen, Bad Deutsch-Altenburg, Canterbury, Leicester, Leiden, Magdalensberg, Mainz, Montpellier, Newcastle, Nijmegen, Nottingham, St Andrews, Sheffield.

Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, member of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne and of the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies.

Armour from the Corbridge Hoard

Officer's quarters, Chester-le-Street.

Excavating at Inveresk

Roman road in Berwickshire