Dr Chris Smart

Chris Smart is a landscape archaeologist who specialises in the heritage of Roman and medieval Britain, and public engagement in academic research. Having studied for a BA in Archaeology in the late 1990s, Chris subsequently obtained both his MA and PhD in Landscape Archaeology (funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council) from Exeter. His Doctoral thesis 'Continuity over Crisis' explored the transition between Roman Britain and Early Medieval England in SW Britain. Since 2005 Chris has been employed as a researcher and project manager in the Department of Archaeology and History, and has led or undertaken work on no fewer than 12 major grant-funded projects, supported by Leverhulme Trust, National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic England, Natural England, Devon County Council, Blackdown Hills and Tamar Valley National Landscapes.

He is currently Researcher for the Hidden Kingdoms project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust. This project, being undertaken with Prof Stephen Rippon (Exeter), Dr Andy Seaman (Cardiff), and Dr John Naylor (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) is exploring the landscape, communities, and material culture of the hidden kingdoms of South-Western Britain that existed from the 5th-7th centuries AD.