About our staff

Director of Research (Archaeology)

I am an archaeologist interested in buildings, and an architect interested in the people of the past.

My first degrees from Cologne (Germany) are in architecture and architectural conservation. I gained my doctorate from the Technical University of Berlin (Germany) in collaboration with University of Edinburgh, undertaking an architectural analysis of prehistoric roundhouses in Scotland with focus on the stone-built brochs, the "towers" of the Scottish Iron Age. My post-doctoral research has investigates prehistoric houses more widely, from Britain and Ireland, Scandinavia and the European continent.

I am currently researching the use of earth and turf building materials in prehistoric and Roman times, in northwest Europe, and investigating the sustainability of turf buildings - then and now.

I have always been interested in interdisciplinary research between architecture and archaeology. During my architectural studies I worked on the presentation of a Roman municipium and garum manufactory in Andalusia, Spain, and studied Roman concrete in comparison with contemporary building techniques in northwest Europe. 

Having joined the University of Edinburgh as a Career Development Fellow in 2013, and continued as a Research Assistant until April 2015, I then embarked on a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship on the Building (Ancient) Lives project, in collaboration with architects, artists, local authorities and community projects. Having worked as a Research Fellow on the Leverhulme Trust funded research project "Earthen Empire", I am now embarking on my Chancellor's Fellowship.

I have also worked as a commercial buildings archaeologist with Addyman Archaeology, a division of the conservation architects Simpson & Brown, with whom I am still affiliated as a Honorary Consultant.

Member Archaeology Committee, The Roman Society, Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

Honorary Consultant, Simpson & Brown with Addyman Archaeology

Edinburgh Research Explorer:

http://www.research.ed.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/tanja-romankiewicz%2814b7a72f-42a5-41c2-84ae-7806dc2470de%29.html

Twitter: 

@BldAncientLives

Summary of research interests

• Britain & Ireland
• Europe
• Mediterranean
• Near East
• Scotland

• Ancient Civilisations
• Culture
• Ideas
• Landscapes & Monuments
• Material Culture
• Society

• Prehistory
• Early Historic
• Antiquity
• Medieval

As an archaeologist I am interested in the people of the past, their ideas, their relations, their interactions. As an architect I am interested in how people create, construct, use, and abandon their buildings. The relation between people and built space is displayed in their architecture, and most intimately played out in their houses - their homes. I am studying prehistoric and Roman architecture as material culture – not simply as pragmatic or stylistic buildings, but emotionally charged spaces, as mediums to reflect identities.

My interest during my studies and Masters research has been concerned with Roman architecture and Roman concrete in particular. My doctoral and initial post-doctoral work has been concentrating on Scottish later prehistory because of its wealth of architectural remains and modern high-quality excavation record. Stone-built houses in the Atlantic zone have been standing for more than 2000 years and survive up to 13m in height; 3000-years old building stances are still visible in open settlements or hilltop enclosures, or as cropmarks in the fields.

Most recently, I have worked on prehistoric and Roman architecture and art more widely with a focus on British, Irish, Danish, Dutch, French, and German archaeology to understand wider European patterns in order to compare and contrast:

• design, ideas, creativity
• traditional building methods and developments: prehistoric, Roman, early medieval, analogies with later vernacular
• building materials
• building in the landscape and landscape as a resource
• contacts, identities, influences, potential and ambition expressed through architecture

In my post-doctoral research, I completed an architectural analysis of prehistoric buildings in Scotland, Britain, and Ireland, as well as in Denmark, the Netherlands, and northern Germany as part of the Building (Ancient) Lives project, funded as a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship: http://www.ed.ac.uk/history-classics-archaeology/research/research-projects/building-ancient-lives-new-perspectives-on-the-pas. Results showed the dynamics in the concepts, constructions, uses, and reuses of these buildings. My research had a strong focus on building materials, and especially those less well-preserved in the archaeological record: turf, rammed earth, and cob and organic material mixes.

I then expanded this research into a Roman context as a Research Fellow on the Leverhulme-funded project Earthen Empire, together with Dr Ben Russell (PI), Dr Chris Beckett (CI), and Dr James Riley Snyder (RA). The team, based in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology and in the School of Engineering examines the archaeological remains of earth and turf buildings in the northwest provinces of the Roman Empire - at macro and micro level. We are interested in what these materials can tell us about a dimension of Roman architecture that remains understudied and underestimated, especially in the northern part of the Empire. We are not only interested in the material properties and constructions, but also the people behind these -- the persistence of pre-Roman building traditions as well as the movement and development  of techniques following the Roman conquest:

https://www.ed.ac.uk/history-classics-archaeology/research/research-projects/earthen-empire

The aim is to write a more complex, less selective, history of Roman architecture, one that listens to vernacular voices while contributing to debates about how sustainable building today can responsibly use soil-based materials. Since becoming a Chancellor's Fellow in Archaeology, I remain associated with the project as a Collaborating Researcher.

My new research focuses on turf as a prehistoric, Roman and later building material and I am seeking new applications of this ancient tradition in a modern context. This involves investigating the sustainability of turf building, its carbon footpring and potential to become a zero-carbon building material for the future. This work has been supported by an Edinburgh Futures Institute project grant.

Earthen Empire: Leverhulme Trust funded research project:

https://www.ed.ac.uk/history-classics-archaeology/research/research-projects/earthen-empire

Building materials on the Roman Frontiers: XXIII. International Limes Congress

Building (Ancient) Lives - Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship http://www.ed.ac.uk/history-classics-archaeology/research/research-projects/building-ancient-lives-new-perspectives-on-the-pas

- excavations:

Old Kinord, Aberdeenshire: joint project director with Prof Richard Bradley and Associate Professor Amanda Clarke, University of Reading

Inverewe, Highland: roundhouse project ALIVE with the National Trust for Scotland http://www.nts.org.uk/Event/Inverewe/ALIVE-Archaeology-and-Landscape-at-Inverewe

Northeast Roundhouse Research Project (NERRP) with Aberdeenshire Council: North-East Scotland Regional Research Framework

South-East Scotland Roundhouse Characterisation (SESRC) with Scottish Borders Council: http://www.socantscot.org/research-project/building-ancient-lives-south-east-scotland-roundhouse-characterisation-project/

By gaining new insights into ancient constructions and materials, I have worked with various individuals, practitioners, and volunteer initiatives to inspire modern sustainable building and building materials.

I have recently been working with local communities and an eco-farm in Perthshire to promote modern turf building based on ancient practice. My work has attracted Knowledge Exchange and Impact grant funding from the University’s College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.

Research results are feeding into various outreach projects. For more details see:

http://www.ed.ac.uk/history-classics-archaeology/research/research-projects/building-ancient-lives-new-perspectives-on-the-pas

http://www.ed.ac.uk/history-classics-archaeology/research/knowledge-exchange/public-history/building-ancient-lives

• Archaeology 2A: Scotland before History (course organiser)
• Archaeology of Architecture (course organiser)

• Space, Place and Time (course organiser)

I am very happy to supervise MScR and PhD students interested in topics on Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, in particular within a built environment, art and design context and a geographical scope ranging from Scotland across Europe and the North Atlantic.

My particular expertise is in the Later Prehistoric and Roman period, but I also welcome archaeological approaches related to the wider built environment, art theory, and material technologies -- past and present -- as well as on contemporary aspects where studying archaeology relates to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.