Staff Profiles

SUAT currently has a full time professional staff of seven, supplemented by two part-time administrative staff, and is able to draw on skills in project management, computing, illustration and design, archaeozoology, documentary research and ceramics studies, as well as skills in excavation, survey and stratigraphic interpretation. Staff collaborate closely, and are able to bring a wide range of experience and insights to bear on all projects. We regularly supplement this team with contract staff as required.

David Bowler, BA, MPhil, FSA Scot, MIFA

Director

David has been working in Scottish archaeology since 1983. He holds a BA Honours in Classics and Classical Archaeology from McGill University in Montreal, and an M Phil in Roman Archaeology from the University of Oxford. He worked for three years in the Department of Urban Archaeology of the Museum of London, excavating and directing complex multi-period sites from Roman to early modern. He joined SUAT in 1983, and has designed, directed and reported on excavations in Perth, Dundee, Dunbar, and other towns. Research interests include the influence of natural topography on urban settlement and development, and waterfront archaeology. Excavation of the post-medieval harbour at Tay Street, Perth has been published in Waterfront Archaeology, CBA Research Report No 74, and in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 124, 1994. A synthesis of Perth excavations was published in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 125, 1995, and another on North Berwick in 1998. Other work has been published in Tayside and Fife Archaeological Journal. David currently serves on the Council of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. In 2004 he published a monograph on the development of Perth.

Derek Hall

Depute Director

Derek studied at the Dorset Institute of Higher Education where he gained a Certificate in Practical Archaeology. From 1976 to 1980 he worked on archaeological sites throughout Scotland and England, including one of the first urban rescue excavations in Scotland in advance of the Elgin Relief Road. In 1980 he joined the Urban Archaeology Unit, the predecessor of SUAT. From 1982-1985 he was a Senior Supervisor for SUAT on several major excavations before being appointed Field Officer. In 1996 he was seconded to Historic Scotland as an Inspector of Ancient Monuments, before returning to SUAT as Depute Director. He has extensive research interests in Scottish Medieval Pottery, medieval hospitals and monastic granges and is currently Assistant Secretary of the Medieval Pottery Research Group. He is currently assistant editor of the TAFAC journal and secretary of Scottish Church Heritage Research Ltd, an independent company which has largely taken over the role of the now defunct Council for Scottish Archaeology’s churches committee. Along with other colleagues he has given Extra Mural classes on archaeology for Dundee University since 1984.

Ray Cachart

Field Officer

Ray has worked with SUAT since 1983. He supervised the excavations of the late medieval harbour in Tay Street, Perth in 1984, and has worked on numerous other field projects. From 1986 he was the second member of the Urban Monitoring Project with responsibility for Grampian, Tayside, Borders and Dumfries and Galloway regions. He has set up, supervised and reported on numerous evaluations in these regions, and has an intimate knowledge of many of the historic burghs. In 1997 he supervised trial excavations in Greyfriars Burial Ground, Perth, and was Assistant Supervisor on the two seasons of excavation at Caerlaverock Castle.

Catherine Smith

Archaeozoologist

Catherine studied biology at Dundee Institute of Technology. She has worked as an archaeozoologist since 1980, initially for the Perth High Street Archaeological Excavation Committee as assistant to G W I Hodgson. After a period of freelance work for the Urban Archaeology Unit and SDD (Ancient Monuments), she became SUAT’s full-time archaeozoologist in 1985. She has reported on the animal bones from Iron Age Howe of Howe, Orkney, from multi-period Dunbar and numerous medieval urban and castle sites throughout Scotland, in Perth, Aberdeen, St Andrews and Elgin. Particularly interested in medieval attitudes to animals and has published articles on dogs and pigs in PSAS. Currently writing a paper on the history and archaeology of goats in Scotland. Is a member of the Association for Environmental Archaeology, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and publication sales secretary for the Abertay Historical Society.

Dave Munro

Illustrator

Dave has been SUAT's Illustrator since 1986. He holds the Diploma in Art and Design from Dundee College of Commerce, and also studied graphic design at Glasgow School of Art. He and has wide experience of technical and popular illustration and design, using manual and electronic media. He has illustrated thematic exhibitions, topographical studies, and a series of urban surveys, as well as specialist artefact and environmental reports. He has also illustrated two popular booklets produced by SUAT on the historic burial grounds of Greyfriars and Kinnoull in Perth, and carried out the design work for entrance gates and interpretive panels in Greyfriars.

David Perry

Researcher

David studied at Aberdeen University where he obtained an MA in Scottish and European History since 1000. He worked for the Perth High Street Excavation Committee. He later worked at Dundee Museum and Art Gallery, cataloguing the museum's archaeological collection and preparing a site and monuments index for Tayside Region. Since joining SUAT in 1983 he has worked on excavation and post-excavation on various sites in Scotland. During 1991-7 he was employed in the excavation and post-excavation of the Dunbar Castle Park group of sites, and wrote the excavation report now published as a Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Monograph. He has also written a series of archaeological overviews of historic burghs published in PSAS and TAFAJ, and two articles on the deserted village of Pitmiddle in the Carse of Gowrie for the Perthshire Society of Natural Sciences, of which he is a committee member. As a trained medieval historian with more than twenty years' experience in this kind of work, he is extremely familiar with the major sources and archives, and is able to deal with unpublished manuscript material in Latin and Old Scots, as well as the more familiar published sources.

Tamlin Barton,

Site Assistant / Assistant Illustrator.

Tamlin obtained his degree in archaeology from Edinburgh University. He joined SUAT in July 2007, having previously worked for Archaeological Solutions Ltd in Bury St Edmunds. He has a particular interest in Historic Building Recording.

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