Professor Ben Jervis

I am a specialist in the archaeology of later medieval England. My research combines cutting edge archaeological theory, particularly inspired by posthuman philosophy, scientific techniques and interdisciplinary analysis to better understand elements of everyday life in the past. My background is in the study of material culture (particularly pottery). My doctoral research at the University of Southampton (supervised by Professor Andy M Jones) examined how pottery was traded, used and disposed of in the medieval town of Southampton through the application of Actor-Network Theory. My research has since expanded to explore wider themes in the development of the medieval economy and, particularly urbanisation.

Currently I am exploring the impact of the crises of the 14th century on small-town life in England, drawing on a combination of data from archaeological excavations, scientific analyses and historical documents. The project, selected by the ERC and funded by UKRI under the Horizon Guarantee Scheme, is intended to provide a fresh approach to the question of urban fortunes in the Middle Ages and is working to fundamentally alter how we perceive of medieval towns. Prior to this, I was Co-Investigator, with Dr Chris Briggs (Cambridge) on the project Living Standards and Material Culture in English Rural Households, which examined the consumption practices of rural households in later medieval England.

With Ollie Harris and Rachel Crellin I am part of the leadership team of the Centre for Material Worlds Past and Present.

I am currently a committee member of the Medieval Europe Research Community and the Medieval and Later Pottery Research Group. I have previously been a member of the council of the Society for Medieval Archaeology and the steering group of University Archaeology UK (responsible for the professional accreditation of archaeology degrees). Prior to joining Leicester in 2023, I was a lecturer at Cardiff University (since 2014) and have also worked for English Heritage and as a local authority archaeological advisor.

I am particularly interested in developing or supervising work which seeks to develop new theoretical and methodological approaches to the medieval past. 

My research is centred on the archaeology of later medieval England. I combine archaeological theory and scientific data to develop new insights into material culture, daily life and economic development.

I am currently the PI of the UKRI-funded project ENDURE: Urban Life in a Time of Crisis, which takes an interdisciplinary and multi-scalar approach to understanding urban lifeways in the small towns of later medieval England. Further details can be found at ENDURE: Urban Life in a Time of Crisis – Enduring Urban Lifeways in Later Medieval England

Books

Jervis, B., Briggs, C., Forward, A., Gromelski, T. and Tompkins, M. 2023. The Material Culture of English Rural Households c. 1250–1600. Cardiff University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18573/book10

Jervis, B. 2018. Assemblage Thought and Archaeology. Routledge.

Jervis, B., Williams, E., Nugent, R. and Hausmair, B. (eds). 2018. Archaeologies of Rules and Regulation: Between Text and Practice. Berghahn.

Jervis, B. ed. 2018. The Middle Ages Revisited. Studies in the Archaeology and History of Medieval Southern England Presented to Professor David A. Hinton. Archaeopress.

Jervis, B., Broderick, L. G. and Grau Sologestoa, I. eds. 2016. Objects, Environment, and Everyday Life in Medieval Europe. Studies in the History of Daily Life (800-1600) Vol. HDL 3. Turnhout: Brepols. (10.1484/M.HDL-EB.5.110681)

Sibbesson, E., Jervis, B. and Coxon, S. eds. 2016. Insight from Innovation: New Light on Archaeological Ceramics. Highfield Press.

Jervis, B., Howard, W. and Bedigan, K. eds. 2015. Food and drink in archaeology 4. Prospect Books.

Jervis, B. 2014. Pottery and Social Life in Medieval England: Towards a Relational Approach. Oxbow Books.

Kyle, A. and Jervis, B. 2012. Make-do and Mend: Archaeologies of Compromise, Repair and Reuse. British Archaeological Reports.

Papers

Jervis, B. 2026. Temporality and political ecology in a medieval small town: The case of Romsey (UK). Journal of Urban Archaeology 13, 163-180.

Briggs, C., Jervis, B., Forward, A., Gromelski, T. and Tompkins, M. 2026. Felons’ chattels and English living standards in the later fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Economic History Review 70 (3) 1024-1051. http://doi.org/10.1111/ehr.70052

Maurer, G., Evetts, K.A., Matthews, A., Chick, J., Haxley, L., Davies, L., Nederbragt, Al.J., Sayle, K., Bugge Andersen, M., Millet, M-A., Madgwick, R. and Jervis, B. 2026. Multi-isotope evidence shows extensive free-roaming pig husbandry in medieval England. Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology 5 10.3389/fearc.2026.1832112

Jervis, B. 2026. Thinking through change: Combining the adaptive cycle and assemblage theory to assess urban change in later medieval northern England. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-026-09803-2

Jervis, B. 2025. Vegetal thinking and urban becoming: Investigating disturbance, habitability and ecology in English medieval small towns. Environmental Archaeology https://doi.org/10.1080/14614103.2025.2592325

Jervis, B. 2026. Relationality and economic emergence: Ceramic networks and urban assemblages in medieval (c1250-1400) England. European Journal of Archaeology. http://doi.org/10.1017/eaa.2025.10025

Jervis, B, and Morton, B. 2025. Mapping the urbanisation of Medieval England. Archaeological Journal https://doi.org/10.1080/00665983.2025.2562635

Jervis, B., Evetts, K.A. and Morton, B. 2025. Decline and regeneration in Medieval English townscapes. Archaeologica Data 5.2 https://doi.org/10.13131/UNIPI/D7HQ-YN22

Jervis, B. 2025. Small and medium-sized towns in medieval England: From urban hierarchies to urban difference. Medieval Archaeology https://doi.org/10.1080/00766097.2025.2504286

Jervis, B. 2025. Minoritarian entrepreneurs: Pottery, commerce and urbanisation in medieval (c.1200–1350) England. Antiquity. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2025.70

Jervis, B. 2024. Beyond urban hinterlands. Political ecology, urban metabolism and extended urbanisation in medieval England. Cambridge Archaeological Journal https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774324000210

Jervis, B. 2024. Repetition, persistence and generality: Problematising the endurance of medieval urbanity. World Archaeology https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2024.2387660

Jervis, B. 2024. Urbanity, decline, and regeneration in later Medieval England: Towards a Posthuman household microhistory. Open Archaeology https://doi.org/10.1515/opar-2022-0355

Jervis, B. 2023. Confronting commerce: whetstones, economy and ecologies of interdependence in Medieval England. Norwegian Archaeological Review (https://doi.org/10.1080/00293652.2023.2203717)

Jervis, B. 2023. Brewing difference: malting, gender and urbanity in medieval England. An examination of drying and malting kilns c1150-1500. Journal of Medieval History (https://doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2023.2253807)

Briggs, C. and Jervis, B. 2023. Some fifteenth-century Canterbury chattels lists. Archaeologia Cantiana 144

Jervis, B. 2022. Examining temporality and difference: an intensive approach to understanding Mediaeval rural settlement. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 29 (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-022-09555-9 )

Jervis, B. 2022. Mortars, medicine and knowledge in Medieval England. Revue d'Histoire Nordique 29.

Jervis, B. 2022. Becoming through milling: challenging linear narratives in medieval England. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 32(2) (10.1017/S0959774321000548)

Jervis, B., Cembrzyński, P., Fleisher, J., Tys, D. and Wynne-Jones, S. 2021. The archaeology of emptiness? Understanding open urban spaces in the medieval world. Journal of Urban Archaeology 4 (10.1484/J.JUA.5.126601)

Briggs, C., Forward, A. and Jervis, B. 2021. Living standards and material culture in English rural households 1300-1600. Data Paper. Internet Archaeology 56 (10.11141/ia.56.14)

Dunne, J. et al. 2021. Finding Oxford's medieval Jewry using organic residue analysis, faunal records and historical documents. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 13, article number: 48. (10.1007/s12520-021-01282-8)

Craig-Atkins, E. et al. 2020. The dietary impact of the Norman Conquest: a multiproxy archaeological investigation of Oxford, UK. PLoS ONE 15(7), article number: e0235005. (10.1371/journal.pone.0235005)

Briggs, C., Jervis, B., Forward, A. and Tompkins, M. 2019. People, possessions and domestic space in the late medieval escheators' records. Journal of Medieval History 45(2) (10.1080/03044181.2019.1593624)

Jervis, B. 2018. Assemblage urbanism: becoming urban in late Medieval Southampton. Archaeological Dialogues 25(2), pp. 135-160. (10.1017/S138020381800017X)

Jervis, B. et al. 2018. Early Anglo-Saxon pottery in South East England: recent work and a research framework for the future. Medieval Ceramics 36, pp. 17-30.

Forward, A. and Jervis, B. 2017. Living standards and material culture in English rural households 1300-1600. Medieval Settlement Research 32, pp. 84-84.

Jervis, B. 2017. Assembling the archaeology of the global Middle Ages. World Archaeology 49(5), pp. 666-680. (10.1080/00438243.2017.1406397)

Jervis, B. 2017. Reply to comments: re-thinking Medieval things. Norwegian Archaeological Review 50(1), pp. 40-43. (10.1080/00293652.2017.1331460)

Jervis, B. 2017. Assessing urban fortunes in six late medieval ports: an archaeological application of assemblage theory. Urban History 44(1), pp. 2-26. (10.1017/S0963926815000930)

Jervis, B. 2017. Ceramics and coastal communities in medieval (12th-14th Century) Europe: negotiating identity in England's Channel ports. European Journal of Archaeology 20(1), pp. 148-167. (10.1017/eaa.2016.3)

Jervis, B. 2017. Consumption and the 'social self' in Medieval Southern England. Norwegian Archaeological Review 50(1), pp. 1-29. (10.1080/00293652.2017.1326978)

Jervis, B. 2016. Decline or transformation? Archaeology and the late Medieval 'urban decline' in southern England. Archaeological Journal 174(1), pp. 211-243. (10.1080/00665983.2017.1229895)

Jervis, B. 2016. Assemblage theory and town foundation in Medieval England. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 26(3), pp. 381-395. (10.1017/S0959774316000159)

Jervis, B., Briggs, C. and Tompkins, M. 2015. Exploring text and objects: Escheator's inventories and material culture in Medieval English rural households. Medieval Archaeology 59(1), pp. 168-92. (10.1080/00766097.2015.1119400)

Jervis, B. 2014. Middens, memory and the effect of waste. Beyond symbolic meaning in archaeological deposits. An early medieval case study. Archaeological Dialogues 21(2), pp. 175-196. (10.1017/S1380203814000208)

Baeten, J., Jervis, B., De Vos, D. and Waelkens, M. 2013. Molecular evidence for the mixing of meat, fish and vegetables in Anglo-Saxon coarseware from Hamwic, UK. Archaeometry 55(6), pp. 1150-1174. (10.1111/j.1475-4754.2012.00731.x)

Jervis, B. 2013. Conquest, ceramics, continuity and change. Beyond representational approaches to continuity and change in early medieval England: a case study from Anglo-Norman Southampton. Early Medieval Europe 21(4), pp. 455-487. (10.1111/emed.12026)

Jervis, B. 2012. Cuisine and urban identities in medieval England: objects, foodstuffs and urban Life in thirteenth- and Fourteenth-century Hampshire. Archaeological Journal 169(1), pp. 453-479. (10.1080/00665983.2012.11020921)

Jervis, B. 2012. Medieval pottery from Romsey: an overview. Hampshire Studies 67(Pt II), pp. 32-46.

Jervis, B. 2011. A patchwork of people, pots and places: Material engagements and the construction of 'the social' in Hamwic (Anglo-Saxon Southampton), UK. Journal of Social Archaeology 11(3), pp. 239-265. (10.1177/1469605311420223)

Morris, J. and Jervis, B. 2011. What's so special? A reinterpretation of Anglo-Saxon 'special deposits'. Medieval Archaeology 55(1), pp. 66-81. (10.1179/174581711X13103897378401)

Book Chapters

Jervis, B. 2026. From urban devastation to creative destruction: Disturbance and urban life in later medieval England. In S. Lekakis, G. Fairclough, T. Meier and S. Turner eds. Towards and Archaeology of Devastation. Breaking/Replacing the People-Place Connection in Landscape. University of Heidelberg (https://doi.org/10.11588/heibooks.1613)

Jervis, B. 2025. Personal objects and personal stories: Some medieval finds from Southampton. In M. Maltby and D. Hodges eds. Producers, Traders and Consumers in Urban Societies in Southern Britain and Europe. Post-Excavation and Museum Studies Presented to Professor Mark Brisbane. Archaeopress.

Jervis, B. 2023. Where globalisation, commerce and devotion meet: Silver and pewter spoons in later medieval England in a European context. In: J. Sawicki, M. Lewis and M. Vargha eds. A United Europe of Things: Portable Material Culture Across Europe. Springer.

Jervis, B. 2022. Luxury and everyday. In: Davis, J. ed. A Cultural History of Shopping in the Middle Ages., Vol. 2. Bloomsbury.

Jervis, B. 2021. Old things and aspirational households in 15th century England: The case of William Mavndvile of Colnbrook, Middlesex. In: Hawkins, K. and Boughton, D. eds. Back in the Bag: Papers in the Memory of David W. Williams. Spoilheap.

Jervis, B. and Semple, S. 2020. Object worlds. textual materialities in a time of transition. In: Semple, S. and Lund, J. eds. A Cultural History of Objects in the Medieval Age. Volume 2. Bloomsbury.

Jervis, B. 2020. Resilience and society in medieval Southampton: An archaeological approach to anticipatory action, politics and economy. In: Jones, C., Kostick, C. and Oschema, K. eds. Making the Medieval Relevant: How Medieval Studies Contribute to Improving our Understanding of the Present. De Gruyter.

Datasets

Forward, A., Jervis, B., Briggs, C., Tompkins, M. and Gromelski, T. 2021. Living standards and material culture in English rural households 1300-1600: digital archive.(10.5284/1085022)

Supervision

I am available to supervise research students interested in aspects of medieval archaeology, urban archaeology and archaeological theory.

Current PhD Students:

Kate Evetts: Understanding the Plant Economy of Small Towns in Medieval England (c1200–1600). 

Inês Castro: Setting Sail for Tomorrow: Assemblage Thinking and the Reimagining of Maritimity in Portuguese Transatlantic Exchange.

Laura Burnett: ‘ For Change and Charitie’: How Were Seventeenth Century Trade Tokens Used and Understood by Contemporaries?

Siddhant Sarkar: Conquest and Cuisine: The Dietary Impact of the Norman Conquest in the Adur Valley

Previous PhD Students:

Shu Yang: Provisioning Medieval Southampton: A Bioarchaeological Approach.

Thanasis Garonis: Networks of Interaction in the Early Iron Age Cyclades.

Heather Holt: Rites of Passage: Funerary Commemoration and Cultural Change in Wester Britain c.AD400-c.AD 700.

Anton Axelsson. Standing Tall: Enhancing Methodology Through the Study of Health and Stature in Early Medieval Southern Britain.

Stuart Whatley: The Harbours of Bristol and Copenhagen and the Re-envisaging of Urban Port Communities in North-western Europe from 1400s to 1680s.

Leonardo Bison: Food and Foodways in Phoenician and Punic Sardinia: New Data from Organic Residue Analysis on Cookware.

Dori Szabo: Household Archaeology of 5th-6th Century AD Settlements in Central Europe.

Arthur Redmonds: Castles and Communities. Using the Taskscape to Explore the Attitudes, Activities and Lived Experiences of Wider Communities in Castle Landscapes Between 1050-1550.

Lisa Backhouse. Changing Social Relations and the Making of an Early Medieval Kingdom: People and Pottery in Anglo-Saxon Kent, c5th-9th Century AD.

I currently contribute to undergraduate teaching on medieval and historical archaeology and archaeological theory. I also contribute to teaching on the MA Archaeology and Heritage.

I am available to comment on stories relating to the archaeology of medieval Britain.