Vicki Cummings (archaeologist)

• Cardiff University
• University of Central Lancashire

Vicki Cummings FSA
Academic background
Alma mater	Cardiff University (BA, MA, PhD)
Thesis	(2001)
Doctoral advisor	Alasdair Whittle

Vicki Cummings is an archaeologist at Cardiff University, specialising in the Neolithic of Britain and Ireland. She has worked at the University of Central Lancashire from 2004 to 2023, after which Cummings re-joined Cardiff University. Cummings has led research projects and excavations, exploring the architecture of chambered tombs in Wales, Scotland and Ireland. She was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 2013.

Education

Cummings was educated at Cardiff University for her BA, MA, and PhD. She completed her PhD between 1997–2001. ^[1] Her thesis was supervised by Alasdair Whittle. ^[2]

Career and research

Cummings' research focuses on the Neolithic of Britain and Ireland in a North-West European context, its development on monumentality, chambered tombs and burial practices, and the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in North-West Europe. ^[2] After completing her PhD, Cummings worked as a research assistant at both the Board of Celtic Studies and Cardiff University. Cummings was employed by University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) in 2004. During her time at the university she established its archaeology degree. ^[2]

In 2013, Cummings was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. ^[3] The same year, her book The Anthropology of Hunter-Gatherers: Key Themes for Archaeologists was published by Bloomsbury Academic; in it Cummings applied a post-processual theoretical approach to provide an overview of studies on hunter-gathers, and in a review in The Archaeological Journal Thomas Kador described it as "a simple access point to the vast body of anthropological literature on modern and recent hunter-gatherer communities". ^[4]

Cummings was appointed a personal chair in 2018, and was UCLAN's first Professor for Archaeology. ^[2] Cummings collaborated with Colin Richards on a study of dolmens, a type of megalithic structure, and challenging existing ideas of typology; the results were published by Oxbow Books in 2021 as a monograph titled Monuments in the Making: raising the great dolmens in early Neolithic northern Europe. ^[5] The research was nominated for Research Project in the 2023 Current Archaeology Awards. ^[6] Cummings has directed multi-year excavations at a Neolithic chambered tomb in Sanday, Orkney. ^[7]

In 2023, Cummings took up employment at Cardiff University as a professor and Head of the School of History, Archaeology and Religion. ^[2] That year she led an excavation at a Neolithic tomb in Holm with Hugo Anderson-Whymark. ^[8] Her 2024 book, Stone Circles: A Field Guide co-written with Colin Richards, was nominated for Book of the Year in the 2025 Current Archaeology Awards. ^{[9] [10]}

Cummings is the Co-Chair of University Archaeology UK, an organisation which represents institutions offering Archaeology degrees within the UK. ^{[11] [12]} She has appeared on public venues such as the BBC's In Our Time and the "Country Life Podcast" talking about prehistoric archaeology. ^{[13] [14]}

Selected publications

Sole author

• Cummings, V. 2017. The Neolithic of Britain and Ireland. Routledge Archaeology of Northern Europe. London: Routledge.
• Cummings, V. 2013. The Anthropology of Hunter-Gatherers: Key Themes for Archaeologists. Debates in Archaeology. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Co-author

• Richards, C. and Cummings, V. 2024. Stone Circles: A Field Guide. Yale University Press.
• Cummings, V. and Richards, C. 2021. Monuments in the Making: raising the great dolmens in early Neolithic northern Europe. Oxbow Books.

Articles

• Cummings, V. and Fowler, C. 2023. Materialising descent: lineage formation in early Neolithic southern Britain.. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, pp. 1-21 (doi:10.1017/ppr.2023.2)
• Cummings, V., Hofmann, D., Bjornevad-Ahlqvist, M. and Iversen, R. 2022. Muddying the waters: reconsidering migration in the Neolithic of Britain, Ireland and Denmark. Danish Journal of Archaeology 11, pp. 1-25. (doi:10.7146/dja.v11i.129698)
• Fowler, C. et al. 2022. A high-resolution picture of kinship practices in an Early Neolithic tomb. Nature 601(7894), pp. 584-587. (doi:10.1038/s41586-021-04241-4)

References

1. "ORCID".
2. "Professor Vicki Cummings". Cardiff University. Retrieved 2025-08-16.
3. "Prof Vicki Cummings FSA IFA HEA FSAScot". Society of Antiquaries of London. Retrieved 2025-08-16.
4. Kador, Thomas (2014). "The Anthropology of Hunter Gatherers: Key Themes for Archaeologists. By Vicki Cummings". Archaeological Journal. 171: 400. doi:10.1080/00665983.2014.11078272.
5. Catling, Chris (2022-08-02). "Designed to enchant: the great dolmens of Neolithic northern Europe". The Past. Retrieved 2025-08-16.
6. "Research Project of the Year 2023 – Nominees". Current Archaeology. 2022-12-01. Retrieved 2025-08-16.
7. "Neolithic stone balls found in Orkney tomb". The Past. 2021-10-07. Retrieved 2025-08-16.
8. "Skeletons discovered in rare 5,000-year-old tomb in Orkney". BBC News. 2023-10-23. Retrieved 2025-08-16.
9. Ixer, Rob (2024-09-01). "Stone Circles: A Field Guide". The Past. Retrieved 2025-08-16.
10. "Book of the Year 2025 – Nominees". Current Archaeology. 2024-12-02. Retrieved 2025-08-16.
11. https://universityarchaeology.co.uk/
12. CBA. "Letter to A Young Archaeologist July 2023". www.archaeologyuk.org. Retrieved 2025-08-16.
13. "BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time - 10 things we know (or think we know) about megaliths". BBC. Retrieved 2025-08-16.
14. Keel, Toby (2024-02-12). "Stonehenge, Avebury and the stone circles of Britain, with Professor Vicki Cummings". Country Life. Retrieved 2025-08-16.

External links

• Academia.edu profile