Dr. Courtney Nimura

Research Profile

I am currently the Curator for Later European Prehistory at the Ashmolean Museum and a Research Fellow at Wolfson College. I completed my PhD in Archaeology at the University of Reading, for which I created a Scandinavian-wide GIS survey of prehistoric rock art and used this to discuss maritime rock art and human responses to environmental change. The monograph of this research was published in 2015. I have an MA Distinction in Maritime Archaeology from the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. Prior to my settlement in the UK, I worked at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (USA) in Conservation and Collections Management. I completed my BFA (University of California, Santa Cruz) and MFA (Tufts University, SMFA) in fine art, art history and museum studies.

 

Current activities and projects

I am currently leading and collaborating on four grant-funded projects:

1. NoMAD: Non-destructive Mobile and imaging Device at the University of Exeter (funded by UKRI)

2. LINXS: Heritage Science theme at the University of Lund

3. Sir John Evans and the Hallstatt Collection at the Ashmolean Museum

4. Iron Age Coins in Britain and Celtic Coin Index projects at the Ashmolean and School of Archaeology

Previous activities and projects

Recent projects include: Ebb & Flow: Exploring Rivers in Later Prehistoric Britain and BALMS: Bronze Age Landscapes and Metalwork in Sweden. Previously, I was a Research Fellow at the Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit at Griffith University (Australia) on the Australian Research Council Laureate project: Australian Rock Art History, Conservation and Indigenous Wellbeing. Prior to that, I was a researcher on the Leverhulme-funded project European Celtic Art in Context at the Institute of Archaeology, Oxford and a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College.

Publications
Doctoral Supervision

p>I am happy to supervise on material culture from the Bronze and Iron Ages in Europe; rock art (Europe, South Africa, Australia); portable art and prehistoric art (Europe); other topics situated in the Bronze and Iron Ages in Europe; Ashmolean collection-related topics; curatorial and museum studies topics.

 

Past students

Landscape and Connections: Petroglyphs of the Altai in the 2nd and 1st Millennium BCE
Rebecca O'Sullivan (2017) ORA | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisors: Jessica Rawson and Courtney Nimura