Research Associate
Co-Director: Aldborough Roman Town Project
Cambridge
CB3 9DA
Areas of expertise
Research Interests
As a Research Associate in the Faculty of Classics, I am primarily working on the Aldborough Roman Town Project, co-directed with Professor Martin Millett. We have been running the project since 2009, mapping the town using geophysical survey and drawing together past work on the site. I have carried out geophysical survey on a wide range of sites, including many Roman sites in Italy when working as an archaeologist for the British School at Rome (2005-2007).
I undertook my BA in Archaeology at the University of Cambridge (2002-2005) and went on to complete an MFA in Illustration at Edinburgh College of Art (2007-2009). Here I began developing narrative visual work around archaeological ideas and landscapes, working particularly with screenprinting. I continue to work as an illustrator, including Stonework with Mark Edmonds (2013), the Exeter Tree Map with Common Ground (2016). I won the Michael Marks Poetry Illustration Prize in 2017 for The Tender Map by Melanie Challenger (2016).
I completed my PhD in Cultural Geography in 2015. My thesis ‘Stone Exposures: A Cultural Geology of the Jurassic Coast’, explored how quarrymen and geologist work with and understand stone on the East Devon/West Dorset coastline. I’m continuing to work on cultural geology projects and publications.
Landscape archaeology; cultural geology; stone and quarrying; art and archaeology; geophysical survey; Roman towns.
Key Publications
Media
Writer and Presenter of 'Gypsum and Alabaster' for Cornerstones on BBC Radio 3 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09kqh7m
Books
Ferraby, R. and Millett, M. (forthcoming). Isurium Brigantum: An Archaeological Survey of Roman Aldborough. London: Society of Antiquaries
Ferraby, R., Johnson, P., Millett, M. and Wallace, L.M. (eds.) (in press). Thwing, Rudston and the Roman Period Exploitation of the Yorkshire Wolds. Yorkshire Archaeological Report.
Thomas, N., Rylands, F., Ferraby, R. and Cook, I. (eds.) (in press). Attentive Geographies. Axminster: Uniformbooks
Ferraby, R. and Millett, M. 2016. Aldborough (Isurium Brigantum), English Heritage Guidebook. London: English Heritage
Edmonds, M. and Ferraby, R. 2013. Stonework. Stromness: Group VI Press
Chapters
Ferraby, R. 2018. Gypsum and Alabaster. In Smalley, M. (ed.) Cornerstones. Little Toller Press
Ferraby, R. 2015. Narrating Change on the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. In Harvey, D.C. and Perry, J. (eds.) The Future of Heritage as Climates Change: Loss, Adaptation and Creativity. London: Routledge.
Downes, S., Ferraby, R., Graham, S., Keay, S. and Millett, M. 2013. Chapter 5: The Finds. In Hay, S., Keay, S. and Millett, M. ‘Ocriculum (Otricoli, Umbria): An Archaeological Survey of the Roman Town’. Archaeological Monographs of the British School at Rome, 22: 122-125. London: The British Academy
Lloyd-Smith, L., Barker, G., Barton, H., Boutikas, E., Britton, D., Datan, I., Davenport, B., Farr, L., Ferraby, R., Nyiri, B. and Upex, B. 2013. ‘The Cultured Rainforest Project.: Preliminary Archaeological Results from the First Two Field Seasons in the Kelabit Highlands, Sarawak, Borneo (2007, 2008)’. In Klokke, M.J. and Degroot, V. (eds.) Unearthing Southeast Asia’s Past: Selected papers from the International Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists, Volume 1. Singapore: NUS Press
Recent Journal Articles
Ferraby, R. 2017. Geophysics: Creativity and the Archaeological Imagination. Internet Archaeology, Special Edition: Digital Creativity
Ferraby, R. and Millett, M. (forthcoming). Aldborough (Isurium Brigantum): the origins and development of the Roman town. Journal of the Society of Antiquaries.
Barker, G., Barton, H., Boutsikas, E., Britton, D., Datan, I., Davenport, B., Ewart, I., Farr, L., Ferraby, R., Gosden, C., Hunt, C., Janowski, M. Jones, S., Langub, J., Lloyd-Smith, L., Nyíri, B., Pearce, K., and Upex B. 2009. The Cultured Rainforest Project: the second (2008) field season. Sarawak Museum Journal 66 (New Series 87):119-184
Barker, G., Barton, H., Boutsikas, E., Britton, D., Datan, I., Davenport, B., Ewart, I., Farr, L., Ferraby, R., Gosden, C., Hunt, C., Janowski, M. Jones, S., Langub, J., Lloyd-Smith, L., Nyíri, B., Pearce, K., and Upex B. 2009. The Cultured Rainforest Project: Preliminary archaeological results from the first two field seasons (2007, 2008). Proceedings of the 12th Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists: Leiden September 1st-5th 2008. Leiden: IIAS
Books (as illustrator)
Challenger, M. 2016. Tender Maps. Guillemot Press
Smith, J. and Thompson, L. (eds.) 2016. Exeter Tree Tales. Common Ground/Little Toller
