Project Staff
Professor Oliver Creighton
Oliver is the Principal Investigator for the project. Based at the University of Exeter since 1999, Oliver is an archaeologist whose research interests and publications focus primarily on the archaeology of later medieval Britain and Europe. Oliver’s work has a strong interdisciplinary dimension and he has a particular interest in medieval elite culture, buildings and landscapes. He has published widely on medieval castles and their wider social and landscape contexts, as well as other fortifications, including town and city walls. Oliver is also interested in the archaeology and history of designed landscapes, towns and townscapes, and in conflict archaeology and medieval warfare. [View full profile]
Professor Alan Outram
Alan, also based at the University of Exeter, is the co-investigator with responsibility for zooarchaeological aspects of the project. He is particularly well known for his work on tracing the origins of domestic horses and has conducted fieldwork in Kazakhstan relating to that topic since 2000. Alan has also studied horse hunting and the economic anatomy of horses. ‘Warhorse’ extends his interests to a more recent equine revolution. Alan is also the principal archaeologist attached to the ‘Pegasus’ project whose PI, Ludovic Orlando, also sits on our project advisory board. Pegasus is an ancient genomic project that hopes to understand genetic changes in horses at key moments in their history. [View full profile]
Professor Robert Liddiard
Robert is based at the University of East Anglia, Norwich and is the co-investigator with responsibility for the landscape element of the project. His research is highly interdisciplinary in character and is chiefly concerned with the nature of high-status landscapes of the Middle Ages, especially the impact of the Norman Conquest. His involvement in the project stems from a long-standing interest in medieval deer parks and the environments in which elite animals were reared and managed. [View full profile]
Dr Carly Ameen
Carly is based at the University of Exeter, and is the Project Officer on the project. She is an archaeological scientist specialising in zooarchaeology. Her research focuses on the use of Geometric Morphometrics (GMM) to distinguish between the faunal remains of closely related animal species and to identify domesticates in archaeological contexts. She is primarily interested in how changes in animal morphology are related to changing husbandry practices and the unique cultural roles of animals in the past extending beyond the wild/domestic dichotomy. [View full profile]
Dr Gary Baker
Gary is a Postgraduate Research Fellow working at the University of East Anglia. His focus is the documentary sources related primarily to royal warhorses from the Conquest to the sixteenth century, with a particular focus on the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. He has compiled a database of the stud populations and ‘great horses’ within the royal fold during this period, along with cataloguing information related to fodder and equine equipment. [View full profile]
Dr Rob Webley
Rob is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow based at the University of Exeter. He is a small finds archaeologist with a specialism in early-medieval and medieval artefacts. His focus has been on the analysis and characterisation of the wealth of equestrian equipment held in museum collections and recorded through the Portable Antiquities Scheme, including harness pendants and horse armour. [View full profile]
Dr Kate Kanne
Kate is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow based at the University of Exeter, and acting Project Officer until March 2022. She is an anthropological archaeologist, specialising in the evolution of human-horse relationships and the archaeology of equestrianism. Her research is focused on understanding how changes in human societies are reflected in shifting uses of horses through time.
Research Students
Helene Benkert
Helene is a PhD student in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Exeter who is on a dedicated School of Humanities studentship that runs alongside and complements the project. Helene’s PhD is investigating the zooarchaeology of medieval horses and warhorses in different parts of Europe.
Camille Vo Van Qui
Camille is a PhD student at the University of Exeter under the supervision of Professor Oliver Creighton (Archaeology) and Dr Helen Birkett (History). Her research is examining the breaking-in and training of horses in medieval France.
Laura Jones
Laura is a combined honours undergraduate student in the Department of Archaeology and Department of History at the University of Exeter. On placement year as part of her course, Laura is assisting Rob Webley with research on the material culture package of the Warhorse project.
Tess Townend
Tess is a postgraduate student in the Department of Archaeology and Department of History at the University of Exeter. For her undergraduate dissertation she explored what medieval horse shoes can tell us about hoof size and horse stature.
Advisory Board
Steven Ashley, Norfolk Historic Environment Service
Dr Polydora Baker, Historic England
Dr Tobias Capwell, Arms and Armour Curator, Wallace Collection, London
Dr Richard Jones, Centre of English Local History, University of Leicester
Prof Michael Lewis, Head of Portable Antiquities Scheme and Treasure, British Museum
Dr Stephen Mileson, Centre for Medieval History, Oxford
Prof Ludovic Orlando, University of Copenhagen and CNRS, Toulouse
Dr Alexander Pryor, Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter
Karina Rapp, The North American Budenny Horse Registry, Honorary Associate Research Fellow
Prof Naomi Sykes, Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter
Eleanor Wilkinson-Keys, Assistant Curator, Royal Armouries, Leeds
Robert Woosnam-Savage, Arms and Armour Curator, Royal Armouries, Leeds
Dr Fay Worley, Historic England