Graeme Cavers MA PHD MCIFA FSA SCOT

Director

Graeme is a member of AOC's board of directors, and the company's Head of Survey and Geomatics. Since completing doctoral research on the crannogs and the later prehistoric settlement of Scotland at the University of Nottingham in 2005, Graeme has directed research excavations on Iron Age sites in Caithness, Orkney, the Western Isles, Sutherland, Galloway and the Scottish Borders. He has coordinated excavations of brochs at Nybster, Thrumster, Dun Vulan and Clachtoll and excavated crannogs above and underwater at Ederline, Loch Arthur, Whitefield Loch, Cults Loch, White Loch and Black Loch of Myrton. He has surveyed and recorded Iron Age sites all over Scotland and has published and spoken at national and international conferences, including convening sessions at the European Association of Archaeologists, Computer Applications in Archaeology and the World Archaeological Congress. Graeme specialises in wetland archaeology of the later prehistoric period and in the digitization of prehistoric structural timber but has broad experience of Iron Age settlements of all types, as well as extensive technical expertise in database management and digital survey methods. In the last decade, he has led on the design and development of AOC’s digital data management systems, including bespoke mobile applications for field data recording and quality assurance.  

In addition to management of major survey projects for infrastructure projects including for WSP, Jacobs, HS2 and Transport Infrastructure Ireland, throughout his career Graeme has been committed to the dissemination of archaeological research, training and archaeological skills development. Over the past 20 years, this has taken the form of partnerships with third-sector groups in Assynt, Wigtownshire and Caithness and he has designed and managed numerous major community-led survey and excavation projects.

Selected Bibliography

Cavers, G. & Crone, A. 2019 ‘The chronology of wetland settlement and its impact on Iron Age settlement dynamics in southwest Scotland’ in Cowley, D.C., Fernandez-Gotz, M., Romankiewicz, T. and Wendling, H. (eds.) Rural Settlement: relating buildings, landscape and people in the European Iron Age, Leiden: Sidestone Press, pp.115-124

Crone, A., Cavers, G., Allison, E., Davies, K., Hamilton, D., Henderson, A., Mackay, H., McLaren, D., Robertson, J., Roy, L. Whitehouse, N.. 2019. Nasty, Brutish and Short?; The Life Cycle of an Iron Age Roundhouse at Black Loch of Myrton, SW Scotland. Journal of Wetland Archaeology  p.1–25. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14732971.2019.1576413

Cavers, M.G. and Crone, A. 2017 A Lake Dwelling in Its Landscape: Iron Age Settlement at Cults Loch, Castle Kennedy, Dumfries and Galloway, Oxbow Monographs

Cavers, M.G., Barber, J. and Ritchie, M. 2015 'The survey and analysis of brochs', Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol.145, pp. 153-176; available online

Crone, A. and Cavers, M.G. 2015 'The Black Loch of Myrton: an Iron Age Village in South West Scotland', Antiquity, Online

Crone, A. and Cavers, M.G. 2014 'Crannog Investigations in Scotland', in Carver, M., Gaydarska, B. and Monton-Subias, S. (eds.) Field Archaeology From Around the World: Ideas and Approaches, Springer

Donald, C. with contributions by Graeme Cavers and David Clarke 2014 ‘Adding a new dimension to Dundee’s carved stones' Tayside and Fife Archaeological Journal, vol.19/20

Cavers, G & Ritchie, M 2013 ‘Pioneering Surveys of Iron Age landscapes’, History Scotland 13.6. 

Cavers, G 2012 ‘Crannogs as buildings: the evolution of interpretation 1882 - 2011’, in Midgley, M & Sanders, J (eds) Lake-dwellings after Robert Munro, 169 - 188. Sidestone Press.

Cavers, M.G., Crone, B.A., Engl, R., Fouracre, L., Hunter, F., Robertson, J. And Thoms, J. 2011 'Refining chronological resolution in Iron Age Scotland: excavations at Dorman's Island crannog, Dumfries and Galloway'  Journal of Wetland Archaeology, Vol.10, pp.72-108

Saville, A., Grant, E., Cavers, G. and Braby, A. 2011 'A Scottish Neolithic carved stone ball with enigmatic surface details', Proc Soc Antiq Scot 141,19-30.

Cavers, M.G. 2010 Crannogs and Later Prehistoric Settlement in Western Scotland, British Archaeological Reports, Brit. Ser. 510, Archaeopress

Cavers, M.G., Henderson, J.C., Barber, J. and Heald, A. 2010 ‘Towards a total archaeological record: integrated 3D survey and archaeological recording at Keiss, Caithness, Scotland’ in On the Road to Reconstructing the Past, CAA 2008 

Cavers, G & Geddes, G 2010 ‘Homesteads in west Galloway: excavation at Airyolland, Mochrum, Wigtownshire’, TDGNHAS 84, 19 – 42

Cavers, M.G. 2008 ‘The later prehistory of ‘black holes’: regionality and the Iron Age in South West Scotland’, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, vol.138, pp.1-16 (*Paper awarded the RBK Stevenson Prize) 

Cavers, G 2007 ‘The complexity of crannog taphonomy: old and new evidence’, Proceedings of the 11th WARP Conference (Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Monograph Series) compiled by C Green, 243-252.

Cavers, M G 2006 ‘Late Bronze and Iron Age Lake Settlement in Scotland and Ireland: the origins and development of the ‘crannog’ in the north and west’, Oxford Journal of Archaeology, vol. 25.4, pp.389-412.

Cavers, M G & Henderson, J C 2005 ‘Underwater excavation at Ederline Crannog, Loch Awe, Argyll, Scotland’ International Journal of  Nautical Archaeology vol. 34.2, 282-98.