Mathew Morris

Mathew is a Project Officer at ULAS with two decades of archaeological experience, having excavated a wide range of rural and urban archaeology across the Midlands, from the prehistoric period through to the Second World War. His specialisms include urban archaeology (he has spent a lot of his career digging up Leicester!), community archaeology, Roman and medieval archaeology and sfm photogrammetry.

Mathew graduated from the University of Leicester in 2003 with a BA in Archaeology and an MA in Landscape Studies, joining ULAS in 2004. Notable projects include a massive multi-period urban excavation (Highcross Leicester) that included excavation of Roman town houses, commercial buildings, two lost medieval churches and medieval cemeteries; a Roman cemetery (Western Road, Leicester); and most recently, excavation of a Roman shrine and medieval burial ground at Leicester Cathedral (Leicester Cathedral Revealed). In 2012, he directed the successful archaeological search for the lost grave of King Richard III.

He has co-authored the most comprehensive book ever written on the archaeology of Leicester - 'Life in Roman and Medieval Leicester' (2021) and three popular archaeology books: 'Visions of Ancient Leicester' (2011), 'Richard III: The King under the Car Park' (2013) and 'Roman Leicester: Life in the Roman World' (2018). He is actively involved in promoting archaeology to the general public, regularly providing talks to local societies, and is a Committee Member of the Leicestershire Fieldworkers, and a Branch Leader for the Leicestershire Young Archaeologists’ Club. He is also currently the lead archaeologist for the Bosworth Links Community Dig, made possible by the Heritage Fund.

• Attard, J & Morris, M (2018) Digging up the Past: Community Test-Pit Excavations with Charnwood Roots in TLAHS 92, 147-82
• Buckley, R, Morris, M, Appleby, J, King, T, O'Sullivan, D & Foxhall, L (2013) 'The king in the car park’: new light on the death and burial of Richard III in the Grey Friars church, Leicester, in 1485 in Antiquity 87, Issue 336, 519-38
• Buckley, R, Copper, NJ & Morris, M (2021) Life in Roman and Medieval Leicester: Excavations in the town’s north-east quarter, 1958–2006. Leicester Archaeology Monograph 26. Leicester: University of Leicester
• Morris, M, Buckley, R & Codd, M (2011) Visions of Ancient Leicester. Leicester: University of Leicester Archaeological Services
• Morris, M (2013) The Greyfriars Project: the Search for the Last Known Resting Place of King Richard III in TLAHS 87, 9-14
• Morris, M & Buckley, R (2013) Richard III: The King Under the Car Park. Leicester: University of Leicester
• Savani, G, Scott, S & Morris, M (2018) Life in the Roman World: Roman Leicester. Leicester: School of Archaeology & Ancient History, University of Leicester

Mathew provides a wide range of training for community archaeology groups, including how to field walk, dig test-pits, write reports and create photogrammetry models.

• Associate of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (CIfA)
• MA Landscape Studies (University of Leicester, 2003)
• BA Archaeology (University of Leicester, 2002)