Dave Underhill

After many attempts I finally joined Wessex at the start of 2023, my primary responsibility is the end-to-end management of fieldwork projects, drawing on over 15 years’ experience supervising and directing excavations in both commercial and research contexts I design and develop strategies which ensure the utmost value for our clients whilst maximising the information we can recover.

Originally graduating from the University of Leicester I moved to the University of Southampton to complete an MA and PhD, becoming an expert on the South African Stone Age and the origin of Modern Humans. This led to a varied academic career writing and delivering both Undergraduate and Postgraduates courses on myriad topics such as Professional Skills, Survey and Geophysics, Artefact Analysis, and prehistory amongst others, in addition to a variety of peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations. Indeed, facilitating learning is my primary motivator, having variously educated for the best part of 30 years, been a STEM ambassador since 2017, and a winner of I Am A Scientist… Get Me Out Of Here in 2019.

When time allows, my primary love is spending time with my wife, two children and our dog, performing with my bands (albums available on request), or staring at the stars through my telescopes. I collect books, with Tolkien, Shakespeare, and Poe being my primary weaknesses, I also enjoy F1, sci-fi, and documentaries of all kinds, being utterly addicted to learning.