Dr Nichole Sheldrick

I am Senior Researcher in Digital Archaeology on the Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa (EAMENA) project which aims to document heritage and the threats facing it across the MENA region. The EAMENA project is a collaboration between the Universities of Leicester, Oxford and Durham (eamena.org) and funded by the Arcadia Fund. My research on the project focuses primarily on the archaeology of North Africa as well as on investigating and developing methods for the application of Automatic Change Detection of satellite imagery to heritage management and protection. 

I previously held the position of Training Manager for Tunisia and Libya for the British Council Cultural Protection Fund project “Training in Endangered Archaeology Methodology with Middle East and North African Heritage Stakeholders”. Prior to coming to Leicester I was a Research Associate on the EAMENA project at the University of Oxford from 2015 to 2020. Before arriving in the UK in 2010 to undertake my DPhil at Oxford (2016) I completed an MA at the University of Alberta (2008) and a BA Hons at McMaster University (2004) in Canada and worked for several years in the commercial archaeology sector in Ontario.

From 2024 I have been appointed Assistant Director of the British Institute for Libyan and Northern African Studies (BILNAS), which aims to promote and support research into the history, archaeology, culture, and environment of Libya and Northern Africa.

My research interests include the archaeology of North Africa with particular emphasis on the Roman and Late Antique periods in Libya and Tunisia, rural architecture, settlement and landscapes, remote sensing, satellite imagery analysis, and heritage documentation and protection. In addition, my current research for the EAMENA project focuses on investigating and developing methods for the application of Automatic Change Detection of satellite imagery to heritage management and protection using applications such as Google Earth Engine. The EAMENA project is funded by the Arcadia Fund. Over the past 10 years I have taken part in fieldwork across North Africa. I supervised excavations at Roman urban sites in Tunisia from 2012-16 on the 'Tunisian-British Utica Project' (Oxford/INP) and from 2017-18 on the 'Meninx Archaeological Project' (LMU Munich/INP). In 2018 I took part in the 'Aswan-Kom Ombo Archaeological Project' in Egypt (Bologna/Ministry of Antiquities). From 2016-18 I worked with the 'Middle Draa Project' (Leicester/INSAP) and from 2021 am Assistant Fieldwork Director in its second phase the AHRC-funded 'OasCiv: Making Oasis Civilisation in the Moroccan Sahara'.

Books:

Sheldrick, N. 2021. Building the Countryside: Rural Architecture and Settlement in Tripolitania during the Roman and Late Antique Periods. Society for Libyan Studies.

Articles:

Mahmoud, A.M.A, Sheldrick, N., & Ahmed, M. 2024. A Novel Machine Learning Automated Change Detection Tool for Monitoring Disturbances and Threats to Archaeological Sites. Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment 37. doi: 10.1016/j.rsase.2024.101396.

Bokbot, Y., Fenwick, C., Mattingly, D.J., Sheldrick, N., & Sterry, M. 2021. Horses and Habitations: Protohistoric Rock Art from Fortified Hilltop Settlements in the Wadi Draa, Morocco. Journal of African Archaeology.

Rayne, L., Gatto, M.C., Abdulaati, L, Al-Haddad, M., Sterry, M., Sheldrick, N., & Mattingly, D. 2020. Detecting change at archaeological sites in North Africa using open-source satellite imagery. Remote Sensing 12, 3694. doi:10.3390/rs12223694.

Nikolaus, J., Rayne, L., & Sheldrick, N. 2020. The EAMENA and MarEA Projects: Notes on current Training and Research in Libya and beyond. Quaderni di Archeologia della Libia 22.

Bewley, R., Bishop, M., Cunliffe, E., Kennedy, D., Sheldrick, N., & Wilson, A. 2018. Roman Military Archaeology in Danger. In Limes XXIII: Proceedings of the 23rd International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies Ingolstadt 2015: 1060-1063.

Sheldrick, N. & Zerbini, A. 2017. A heritage inventory for documenting endangered archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa. ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences. IV-2-W2, 237-241, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-annals-IV-2-W2-237-2017.

Rayne, L., Sheldrick, N. & Nikolaus, J. 2017. Endangered Archaeology in Libya: recording damage and destruction. Libyan Studies 48: 23-49.

Fradley, M. & Sheldrick, N. 2017. Satellite imagery and heritage damage in Egypt: a response to Parcak et al. (2016). Antiquity 91(357): 784-792.

Conferences as Co-organiser:

Protecting the Past: People Communities Heritage. Agadir Morocco. 10-12 Dec 2019.

Protecting the Past: Documentation as a Tool for Heritage Protection in Tunisia and Libya. Tunis Tunisia. 2-4 Dec 2017.

Recent Conference and Seminar Papers:

w/ Louise Rayne. “Detecting Change at Archaeological Sites in North Africa using Open-Source Satellite Imagery”. CAA 2021. Online. 15 Jun 2021.

“The House of the Large Oecus: excavations in an elite roman residence at Utica (Tunisia).” Classical Archaeology Lecture Series LMU. Munich Germany. 8 Jul 2019.

“Big Data Heritage Management and the EAMENA Project”. SAA 84th Annual Meeting. Albuquerque NM United States. 11 Apr 2019.

“Rural Architecture and Settlement in Late Antique Tripolitania”. Roman Archaeology Conference 2018. Edinburgh UK. 14 Apr 2018.

w/ Andrea Zerbini. “A heritage inventory for documenting endangered archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa.” CIPA Ottawa 2017 26th International Symposium. 31 Aug 2017.

“Endangered Archaeology in Arid Lands: Remote Sensing and Heritage Management”. SAA 82nd Annual Meeting. Vancouver Canada. 30 Mar 2017. 

Endangered Archaeology, Automatic Change Detection, Remote Sensing, Roman North Africa, Roman Archaeology, Rural Settlement and Landscapes

DPhil Archaeology. 2016. Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford, UK. Thesis: Building the Countryside: A Regional Perspective on the Architecture and Settlement of Rural Tripolitania from the 1st c. BC until the 7th c. AD

MA Classical Archaeology. 2008. University of Alberta, Canada.

BA Hons. Classics and Anthropology. 2004. McMaster University, Canada.