Willy Adam
Willy Adam
Postgraduate
Email: w.adam@qub.ac.uk
Address
School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology (GAP)
Queen’s University Belfast
Belfast, BT7 1NN
Northern Ireland, UK
Telephone
+44 (0)28 9097 5287
Current Research: Past Cultural Change
Orientation Traditions and Symbolism in the Neolithic of North and Northwest Europe
The appearance of substantial domestic and ritual constructions characterises the earlier Neolithic across much of northwest Europe. Elaborate ritual and funerary monuments have enabled archaeologists to question and debate social aspects of prehistoric communities, including socio-political organisation, territoriality, regionalism, origins and evolutionary models. More recently, research directions have turned towards attempts to comprehend cognitive aspects of early societies: what does the construction of a monument, in its particular design, material and place in the landscape, tell us about the ideology of the community building and using it?
This project proposes to examine a large subset of north European Neolithic monuments, with a special focus on the linear or elongated monument tradition, to identify and test their spatial relationships to one another, to the landscape and to astronomical phenomena. The analysis is carried out on new measurements and data collected in the field.
Research Interest:
My research interests are primarily set within the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods and include the origins of monumentalism, megalithic architecture, archaeo-astronomy and ritual landscapes.
External Grant Funding:
As part of the current PhD, the following extra grants were obtained to facilitate extensive fieldwork:
- Emily Sarah Montgomery Fund (£650)
- School of G.A.P. 75th Anniversary Award (£350)
Additional Information:
Conference poster presentation:
1. XVth UISPP Congress, Lisbon, Portugal, 4th-9th September 2006
2. EAA 12th Annual Meeting, Krakow, Poland, 19th-24th September 2006
Education:
1. 1998: DUT (Primary degree) in Computer Science, Orleans, France
2. 1999: Licence in GEII (Genie Electrique and Informatique Industrielle), Blois, France
3. 2003: MA in Archaeology with Distinction, Queen’s University Belfast (Thesis: "A Tomb with a View: Court Tombs, Landscape and the Sky in Neolithic Ireland")
Field Experience:
Prior to the start of the PhD, I worked as a field archaeologist (and later, supervisor) for Northern Archaeological Consultancy and excavated on a wide range of sites including:
- Post-Medieval brickworks at Annadale Embankments, Belfast.
- Mesolithic occupation site at Toome (Antrim).
- Multi-period prehistoric sites at Oakgrove (Derry); Larne and Steeple Road (Antrim); Loughbrickland (Down).
