Connect With Our Committee Members
Christine McDonnell
Chair
Christine is Head of
Collections and Archives at York Archaeology. Her team looks
after a large and important collection of finds and associated archive reflecting the York Archaeological Trust's (now York Archaeology) excavations
in the City of York over the last 50 years. This includes the important sites of the Vicar’s Choral at Bedern and 16-18 Coppergate, both extensively
researched and published in the Archaeology of York series. She believes in knowledge sharing through access for study, publication, display and participatory activities. She thinks it is enormously important to facilitate and
benefit from next generation research and from developing scientific techniques. Christine is committed to the Finds Research Group as a conduit for
in-person interaction between those interested in small finds and as a way to support and encourage up and coming researchers.
Julie Cassidy
Datasheet Distributor
Julie received a degree in Archaeology at the University of Reading in 2001, and a Masters degree in Artefact Studies at UCL in 2004. She has since worked as
Finds Manager for excavations at Silchester, Catalhoyuk, the M74 Extension Project in Glasgow and Carriacou, West Indies, and was the Finds Liaison Officer
for the Portable Antiquities Scheme in Northamptonshire from 2008 to 2016. After an 18-month stint as Assistant Archaeology Collections Officer for
Orkney Museums, she currently lives in Orkney researching the post-medieval period. She has a special interest in Roman and Post-Medieval material culture.
Katie Marsden
Editorial Team Member
Katie is a small finds and pottery specialist who has worked for the Portable Antiquities Scheme before moving into Commercial Archaeology.
She works on artefacts of all periods from across Britain but particularly enjoys Anglo-Saxon and medieval metal artefacts.
Katie is a member of the Finds Research Group's editorial team, where she compiles the regular newsletters and assists with the editing of datasheets.
Hanna Jansson
Committee Member
Hanna...
Steve Ashby
Awards Officer
Steve is a medieval archaeologist with specialism in Viking-Age artefacts, craft and technology. He is particularly interested in the relationship
between the various regions of Britain and Scandinavia before, during, and just after the Viking Age, which he frequently studies through the
application of biomolecular techniques. Most well known for his research on worked bone, and particularly on hair combs, he has also worked on
ceramics and metalwork, and was previously employed by the
Portable Antiquities Scheme, as Finds Liaison Officer for Northamptonshire.
Based at the University of York, he is actively involved in the promotion of artefacts training in undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as his own research.
Steve is Awards Officer for the Finds Research Group, overseeing the
Geoff Egan Prize and
Finds Research Fund.
Judy Stevenson
Treasurer
Judy is the Senior Curator (Collections & Engagement) for
Herefordshire Museum Service managing the museum collections, care and access through interpretation, display,
education and research with specific responsibility for the archaeology collections from the county of Herefordshire comprising all excavated material,
individual finds and treasure items. Judy previously worked in the Medieval section at the Museum of London’s Department of Early London History,
and as a small finds specialist and researcher in metal, glass, lithic and ceramics. She has been the Finds Research Group Treasurer since 2002
having joined the committee in the early 1990’s starting as the Group's Publicity Officer. Judy is passionate about objects and the wealth of
information they contain, and loves to share this with the public.
Quita Mould
Membership Secretary
Quita is a finds specialist working on material culture from the Iron Age onward, particularly Roman and medieval metalwork, but she is perhaps best
known for reporting on leatherwork of all periods which now takes up most of her time. She contributes to excavation reports, studies museum collections
and contributes to national guidelines on best practice when dealing with archaeological metalwork and organic materials. Having helped organise Finds
Research Group meetings for many years she has been Membership Secretary since 2015.
Gary Bankhead
Committee Member – Website/Social Media
Gary is an amateur underwater archaeologist, author, small finds researcher and illustrator, television presenter and Honorary Fellow at the Department of
Archaeology, Durham University. Gary's main focus is researching the small finds and coordinating the wider research of the
Durham River Wear Assemblage; an important group of objects described as a major research facility, probably the largest collection of late- and post-medieval
finds in the North of England: a unique regional and national resource.
While Gary is the Museum of London Archaeology's (MOLA) external expert for late- and post-medieval lead cloth seals, he was also the 2013 joint winner of the
Finds Research Group Geoff Egan Prize for a research report on an un-paralleled late-medieval pectoral cross associated with the shrine of St. Cuthbert in Durham Cathedral.
Gary is also a current member of the
Arch and Arch Committee.
Rob Webley
Editorial Team member
Rob is a medieval archaeologist with a specialism in metalwork of the ‘long’ medieval period. He is currently a researcher on the Medieval Ritual Landscape project
(MeRit) at the University of Reading, investigating the material culture of medieval personal devotion. Rob previously worked for the
Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) for nearly 15 years; during this period he gained a PhD as a mature student, examining metal small finds of the 11th and 12th centuries.
Based in Somerset, he edits the county archaeological journal and previously co-edited the PAS round-up in Post-Medieval Archaeology.
Rob is a member of the Finds Research Group’s editorial team and has enjoyed editing a number of recent
Datasheets