Officers and Council

Justine worked for Historic England’s predecessors as an archaeological scientist, specialising in metal- and glass-working. She also analysed thousands of Roman brooches, demonstrating the range of copper alloys used and their correlation with type and date. She is a long-standing member of HMS and its Council, having served as Treasurer and for over 30 years as joint Editor. Her current research on non-ferrous metalworking includes Roman and later parting vessels, Viking metalworking in Dublin, and the Tudor mint at the Tower of London.

Vanessa fits the description of Jill of all trades, mistress of some, expert by experience. She is an archaeometallurgist with a preference for non-ferrous metals. Several career strands were/are run concurrently; merging skills and understanding from Materials Characterisation, research, STEM teaching & outreach at all levels from primary to post-graduate, and 8 years of parish council amongst other occupations. She cannot do shorthand.

Jonathan’s main research interest at the moment: The relationship between air input and the thermal properties of early modern blast furnaces. Aiming for experimental tests. Also, an issue that provides context for pre-modern iron production: Given that oak bark is a valuable commodity, how did vast demand for bark affect charcoal production?

Vanessa (Ness) returns to Council as Membership Secretary. With a master’s in ironworking and a doctorate in copper research, her interests focus on late medieval ecclesiastical metal acquisition. She runs an archaeomaterials consultancy, specialising in research and chemical analysis. Outside work, she can be found lurking in finds tents on community archaeology digs or reassessing the metal and glass collections at English Heritage’s Archaeology stores.

Thomas Rose is Professor of Archaeometallurgy in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT, Boston. He holds a PhD in Archaeology from Ben Gurion University of the Negev and Sapienza University of Rome, and a master’s degree in Geosciences from Goethe University. His research focuses on ancient metallurgy, stable metal isotopes, and developing methods to reconstruct metallurgical practices and their impact on past societies. He also promotes reproducible research and open science through ASTR and TerraLID.  He is the production editor of Historical Metallurgy Journal.

María Florencia Becerra:  PhD in Archaeology (University of Buenos Aires), permanent Researcher at CONICET (National Council for Scientific and Technical Research), Argentina, and Assistant Professor in the Anthropology program at the University of Buenos Aires and the Archaeometry Specialisation Program at the National University of La Plata.  She is also Editor-in-Chief of Historical Metallurgy.  Her research focuses on pre-Columbian and colonial mining and metallurgy in the Southern Andes, currently exploring the use, circulation, and provenance of copper in Northwestern Argentina.

Peter King has researched and written for many years about the history of the iron industry and other historical subjects.  This was the subject of his 2003 doctorate from University of Wolverhampton and of his 2020 Gazetteer of the British Iron Industry.  He is an Honorary research fellow in the University of Birmingham.  He is a past treasurer of the society.  Some of his publications are available at https://bham.academia.edu/PeterKing 

Bart is an archaeometallurgist at the University of Tübingen specialising in the development of metallurgy during the Early Nordic Bronze Age via elemental and isotopic investigations. Most notably, swords and daggers of the Sögel-Wohlde Sphere and their relationship to Central European counterparts, including swords of type Hajdúsámson-Apa.
Having presented his research at HMS online talks, newsletters, and conferences, granting him a prize for best presentation, Bart joined the council to support upcoming metallurgical researchers.