Matt Leivers

I joined Wessex in 2004 as a lithics and prehistoric ceramics specialist working in the post-excavation department. In that capacity, I analysed and published major assemblages of both flint and pottery from sites across southern Britain and further afield. For many years I have been involved with projects investigating the submerged archaeology of the English Channel and southern North Sea, and with the publication of major infrastructure projects such as T5 Heathrow and the East Kent Access Road.

A move into project management led to the production of the PaMeLa database, which preserved the late Roger Jacobi's archive of Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic finds in an online database, and of the guidelines for the analysis and publication of prehistoric pottery for the Prehistoric Ceramics Research Group.

I led the finds and environmental specialist team, managing the provision of advice and expertise to a wide variety of clients, before leaving that role to focus on my main research interest: the archaeology of the Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites World Heritage Site and its environs.

In that capacity, I brought a number of legacy excavations to publication, including the works for the 2003 scheme to improve the A303 and the Stonehenge Visitor Centre, co-authored and edited the Research Framework for the Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites World Heritage Site, lead the post-excavation and analysis team for the Army Basing Programme excavations on the World Heritage Site boundary, and have authored numerous journal and popular articles. I am presently A303 Stonehenge Consultant Archaeologist for the A303 Amesbury to Berwick Down Scheme.

I have a PhD from the University of Southampton. My primary academic interests are in prehistoric mortuary practice, the archaeology and history of the Stonehenge landscape, and the human impacts of the emergence of a fully agricultural lifestyle at the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age.