Professor Gordon Noble

Biography

Professor Gordon Noble has undertaken award-winning landscape research and field projects working on projects from the Mesolithic to Medieval periods. He has two major current projects, Northern Picts, funded by the University of Aberdeen Development Trust and Historic Environment Scotland, is focused on the post-Roman societies of northern Britain. The second, Comparative Kingship, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, is examining the early royal landscapes of Ireland and Scotland. Research for the Northern Picts and Comparitive Kingship projects won Research Project of the Year 2021 in the Current Archaeology Awards, the leading UK archaeology awards programme. 

Public engagement is a big part of his research with Northern Picts having featured in numerous exhibitions and on BBC 2 'Digging for Britain', National Geographic, Radio 4 'In Our Time' and many other media venues. 

Gordon was appointed as lecturer to the department at Aberdeen in July 2008. In 2012 he became Senior Lecturer, Head of Department in 2015, Reader in 2017 and Professor in 2019. He is also a Honorary Curatorial Fellow to the University Museums.

Latest book:

"the best overview of this fascinating people to date: clear, essential, and revelatory reading" -- Professor Neil Price

"the Northern Picts project, led by Gordon Noble...has been truly revolutionary" -- Archaeological Journal

“This book is a triumph. It marks a milestone in Pictish studies, and will be the starting place for all those interested in the Picts...It marks a step-change in, perhaps even a coming of age for, Pictish studies.” -- Pictish Arts Society

"Picts is an extraordinary work that covers seven centuries of Pictish history and archaeology"-- Current Archaology

"Noble and Evans have written a book to read and cherish"-- The Scotsman

https://birlinn.co.uk/product/picts/

A short interview with Prof G!

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/lifestyle/4009718/a-passion-for-the-past-an-interview-with-professor-gordon-noble/

Prizes and Awards

Research Project of the Year 2021 Current Archaeology Awards

Leverhulme Leadership Award (2016–22)

Outstanding Research Award Individuals Further Stage of Career – Non Stem, University of Aberdeen 2021

Principal’s Prize for Public Engagement Senior Award 2016

Arts and Humanities Research Council Early Career Fellow. Ritual and remembrance at the third millennium BC prehistoric monument complex at Forteviot, central Scotland. AHRC Award AH/I02657X/1 2012

British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow 2005–8

Research Overview

Prehistoric and early medieval Europe with particular interests in: Scotland, Ireland, Sweden & Denmark

Current Research

Comparative Kingship 2017-

The nature of the societies and social, ideological and political frameworks that filled the chasm left by the demise of the Roman Empire in the 5^th  century AD – both within and beyond the Empire’s boundaries – is one of the most contentious debates about  late- and post- Roman Europe. This project adopts an innovative interdisciplinary focus that tackles  the formation of the socio-political landscapes  of Northern Britain and Ireland,  utilizing archaeological, historical, toponymic and  palaeoenvironmental methodologies along with Bayesian-modelled chronologies,  to create a new  synthesis of the  dramatic changes that  ultimately led to the formation of the state societies that existed beyond the edges of the Roman Empire.

Funding: Leverhulme Trust Leadership Award

Northern Picts 2012-

Northern Picts is a project that aims to uncover the archaeological traces of Pictish society in northern Scotland. The project to date has had some spectacular successes. We have begun to uncover a major and undocumented Pictish royal centre at Rhynie and discovered a significant portion of a major Pictish silver hoard at Gaulcross. We have scaled sea cliffs to discover forgotten Pictish forts and centres of power. Find out more here.

Funding: University of Aberdeen Development Trust (private donation) and Historic Envrionment Scotland (PI)

Project partners: Tarbat Discovery Centre, National Museums of Scotland, University of Chester, University of Glasgow, Inverness Museum & Art Gallery, Rhynie Woman, CMS Archaeology, Forestry Commission Scotland, Aberdeenshire Council, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Mainz

Bennachie Landscapes Project 2012-

North-east Scotland contains landscapes of world-leading importance for history, archaeology and community heritage. This project focuses on building heritage-based partnerships and involves an interdisciplinary community-centred research project concentrating on the past, present and future significance of one of north-east Scotland's most celebrated cultural and physical landmarks: the hill of Bennachie and its environs.

Funding: AHRC Development Grant (PI)

Project partners: Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), Bailies of Bennachie, Aberdeenshire Council, Forestry Commission

Woodland in the Neolithic of Northern Europe: The Forest as Ancestor.

A book length study of the social role of trees and woodlands in prehistory with case studies from Britain and Ireland and South Scandinavia. Incorporating environmental, anthropological and archaeological approaches, this study aims to formulate new approaches to the study of past landscapes. The final book is published by Cambridge University Press.

Funding: British Academy (PI)

Funding and Grants

In the course of my career Professor Noble has led on successful research grants totalling over £2.5 million, £2.25 of which has been raised while at Aberdeen (2008-21).

Recent major grants:

• 2021-2024    Principal-Investigator, 'The Citadel Project: Rescue- and Research-led Excavations at an Early Medieval Power Centre'; Historic Environment Scotland (£257,431)
• 2017-2022    Principal-Investigator, 'Comparative Kingship: the early medieval kingdoms of Northern Britain and Ireland'; Leverhulme Trust (£971,149)
• 2012-2022    Principal-Investigator, ‘Northern Picts: ’, University of Aberdeen Development Trust; Historic Environment Scotland (£351,249)

Teaching Responsibilities

Course co-ordinator of undergraduate modules:

• AY3009 Scottish Archaeology
• AY3010 Professional Archaeology I
• AY3011 Archaeological Fieldwork Portfolio

Additional teaching on a range of other modules including Archaeology of the North, Advanced Archaeological Practice, Archaeologies of Social Life and Landscape Archaeology