Dr Graeme Cavers (MA PhD MCIfA FSA Scot)

Honorary Research Associate

Biography

Background

I am a Director at AOC Archaeology Group, based at the company's head office in Edinburgh, where I have responsibility for the company's survey and geomatics operations. My research interests are in the prehistory of northern Britain, particularly Iron Age settlement and wetland archaeology. After completing my PhD research on the crannogs and Iron Age settlement of Western Scotland, I have continued to survey and excavate crannogs and related wetland settlements with colleagues through the Scottish Wetland Archaeology Programme (SWAP), sponsored by Historic Environment Scotland. 

Having completed a post-doctoral Knowledge Transfer Partnership with AOC and the University of Nottingham I have a particular interest in digital survey techniques and archaeological data management systems, and have led documentation and conservation-led research into laser scanning and photogrammetry for artefact, site and landscape documentation.

I have a strong interest in public archaeology and the delivery of collaborative research programmes that bring professional and community archaeologies together. I have led landscape surveys with community groups in Caithness, Assynt, Galloway and the Borders, and directed numerous training and public archaeology excavations.

Qualifications

PhD, University of Nottingham 2005

MA (Hons), University of Edinburgh 2001

Responsibilities & affiliations

Director, AOC Archaeology Group

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Areas of interest for supervision

I am open to acting as supervisor or research advisor to undergraduate and postgraduate research, or opportunities for research-industry knowledge transfer research.

Research summary

  • Prehistory of Northern Britain
  • Iron Age settlement
  • Wetland Archaeology
  • Archaeological digital data management
  • Digital survey and landscape archaeology

Project activity

Books

Crone, A., Cavers, G., 2026. Black Loch of Myrton: the life and times of an Iron Age wetland settlement in southwest Scotland. Sidestone Press. 

Cavers, G. (ed) 2022. Clachtoll : An Iron Age Broch Settlement in Assynt, North-west Scotland, 1st ed. by Barber, J., Cavers, G., Heald, A., Johnstone, N., McLaren, D., Robertson, J., Roy, L., Oxbow Books.

Cavers, G., Crone, A., 2017. A Lake Dwelling in its Landscape: Iron Age settlement at Cults Loch, Castle Kennedy, Dumfries and Galloway. Oxbow Monographs,

Cavers, G., 2010. Crannogs and later prehistoric settlement in western Scotland. Archaeopress.

 

Articles

Barber, J., Cavers, G., Heald, A., Theodossopoulos, D., 2021. Memory in practice and the practice of memory in Caithness, NE Scotland, and in Sardinia, in: Stoddart, S., Aines, E., Malone, C. (Eds.), Gardening Time: Monuments and Landscape from Sardinia, Scotland and Central Europe in the Very Long Iron Age. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Brown, A.G., Van Hardenbroek, M., Fonville, T., Davies, K., Mackay, H., Murray, E., Head, K., Barratt, P., McCormick, F., Ficetola, G.F., Gielly, L., Henderson, A.C.G., Crone, A., Cavers, G., Langdon, P.G., Whitehouse, N.J., Pirrie, D., Alsos, I.G., 2021. Ancient DNA, lipid biomarkers and palaeoecological evidence reveals construction and life on early medieval lake settlements. Scientific Reports 11, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-91057-x

Cavers, G., 2012. Crannogs as buildings: the evolution of interpretation 1882 - 2011, in: Midgeley, M., Sanders, J. (Eds.), Lake-Dwellings after Robert Munro. Sidestone Press, Leiden, pp. 169–188.

Cavers, G., 2008. The later prehistory of “black holes”: regionality and the south-west Scottish Iron Age. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 138, 13–26.

Cavers, G., 2007. The complexity of crannog taphonomy: old and new evidence, in: Barber, J., Clarke, C., Cressey, M., Crone, A., Hale, A., Henderson, J., Houseley, R., Sands, R., Sheridan, A. (Eds.), Archaeology from the Wetlands: Recent Perspectives. Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Edinburgh, pp. 243–252.

Cavers, G., Barber, J., Ritchie, M., 2015. The survey and analysis of brochs, in: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. pp. 153–176.

Cavers, G., Clements, V., Lynchehaun, S., 2012. Excavation of a prehistoric enclosure at Mar Hall, Bishopton, Renfrewshire. Scottish Archaeological Journal 34–35, 117–135. https://doi.org/10.3366/saj.2012.0040

Cavers, G., Crone, A., 2019. The chronology of wetland settlement and its impact on Iron Age settlement dynamics in southwest Scotland, in: Romankiewicz, T., Cowley, D., Fernandez-Gotz, M. (Eds.), Rural Settlement: Relating Buildings, Landscape and People in the European Iron Age. Sidestone Press, Leiden, pp. 115–124.

Cavers, G., Crone, A., Engl, R., Fouracre, L., Hunter, F., Robertson, J., Thoms, J., 2011. Refining Chronological Resolution in Iron Age Scotland: Excavations at Dorman’s Island Crannog, Dumfries and Galloway. Journal of Wetland Archaeology 10, 71–108. https://doi.org/10.1179/jwa.2011.10.1.71

Cavers, G., Geddes, G., 2010. Homesteads in West Galloway: Excavation at Airyolland, Mochrum, Wigtownshire. Transactions of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society 84, 19–42.

Cavers, G., Heald, A., Barber, J., 2021. Monuments and Memory in the Iron Age of Caithness, in: Stoddart, S., Aines, E., Malone, C. (Eds.), Gardening Time: Monuments and Landscape from Sardinia, Scotland and Central Europe in the Very Long Iron Age. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Cavers, G., Humble, J., 2020. Excavations at an Iron Age Dun at High Milton, Craigoch, Rhins of Galloway. Transactions of the Dumfries and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society 94, 51–65.

Cavers, G., Humble, J., Ritchie, M., Humphreys, P., Robertson, J., 2024. Cracknie, Borgie and the souterrains of the northern mainland of Scotland. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 153. https://doi.org/10.9750/PSAS.153.1395

Cavers, M.G., Henderson, J.C., 2005. Underwater excavation at Ederline crannog, Loch Awe, Argyll, Scotland. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 34. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-9270.2005.00060.x

Cook, M., Cavers, G., Cruickshanks, G., Hudson, G., Hunter, F., McGibbon, F., Bailey, G., Jones, C., Richardson, P., Cook, G., 2019. Torwood Broch : the reassessment of a Complex Atlantic Roundhouse near Falkirk 149, 25–50.

Crone, A., Cavers, G., 2015. Crannóg Investigations in Scotland, in: Field Archaeology from Around the World: Ideas and Approaches. pp. 141–144. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09819-7_23

Crone, A., Cavers, G., Allison, E., Davies, K., Hamilton, D., Henderson, A., Mackay, H., McLaren, D., Robertson, J., Roy, L., Whitehouse, N., 2019. Nasty, Brutish and Short?; The Life Cycle of an Iron Age Roundhouse at Black Loch of Myrton, SW Scotland. Journal of Wetland Archaeology 0, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/14732971.2019.1576413

Henderson, J., Cavers, G., 2011. An Iron Age crannog in south-west Scotland: Underwater survey and excavation at Loch Arthur, in: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. pp. 103–124.

Mackay, H., Davies, K.L., Robertson, J., Roy, L., Bull, I.D., Whitehouse, N.J., Crone, A., Cavers, G., McCormick, F., Brown, A.G., Henderson, A.C.G., 2020. Characterising life in settlements and structures: Incorporating faecal lipid biomarkers within a multiproxy case study of a wetland village. Journal of Archaeological Science 121, 105202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2020.105202

Mowat, R.J.C., Cowie, T., Crone, A., Cavers, G., 2015. A medieval logboat from the River Conon: Towards an understanding of riverine transport in Highland Scotland, in: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. pp. 307–340.

Saville, A., Grant, E., Cavers, G., Braby, A., 2011. A Scottish Neolithic carved stone ball with enigmatic surface details, in: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. pp. 19–29.

Theodossopoulos, D., Barber, J., Heald, A., Cavers, G., 2012. The Achievement of Structural Stability in the Drystone Iron- Age Broch Towers in North Scotland, in: Nuts and Bolts of Construction History: Culture, Technology and Society. pp. 1–11.

 

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