Dr Murray Cook - Hon. Research Fellow
I graduated from the archaeology department in Edinburgh in 1995 and have since worked across Northern Britain in a variety of roles in commercial and curatorial archaeology. I am currently employed as Stirling Council’s Archaeologist giving archaeological advice to Stirling, Clackmannanshire and North Lanarkshire Councils.
In 2015 I gained a PhD from Edinburgh for a study of the later prehistoric settlement record of the Don Valley in Aberdeenshire, combining key-hole excavation with commercial mitigation excavations.
I conduct research excavations into later prehistoric settlement sites in Stirling, East Lothian and Aberdeenshire and am the co-founder and co-director of Rampart Scotland an archaeological field school http://www.rampartscotland.co.uk/. I regularly hosts student placements and am keen to hear from interested individuals.
I am passionate about public engagement with archaeology and regularly run free excavations, walks, lectures and other active engagement with the public, the details of which are presented in a regular and informal email list (see contact details below).
Selected publications are listed below.
Email: cookm@stirling.gov.uk
Cook, M. & Gilmour, S. 1998. Excavations at Dun Vulan: a reinterpretation of the reappraised Iron Age, Antiquity, 72, 327-37.
Cook, M. 1999. Excavations of two cairns, a cist and associated features at Sanaigmhor Warren, Islay, Argyll and Bute, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 129, 251-79.
Cook, M. 2000. An Early Bronze Age Multiple Burial Cist from Mill Road Industrial Estate, Linlithgow, West Lothian, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 130:77-91.
Cook, M. 2000. Excavation of Neolithic and Bronze Age settlement at Lamb's Nursery, Dalkeith, Midlothian, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 130, 93-113.
Cook, M. 2003. Excavations of an Early Historic Settlement within a multi-period landscape at Dolphinton, South Lanarkshire, in Scottish Archaeological Journal Vol 24.1 (2002), 61-83.
Cook, M. 2004. Howe Mire: excavations across the cropmark complex at Inveresk, Musselburgh, East Lothian’ Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland134, 131-60.
Cook, M. and Dunbar, L. 2008. Rituals, Roundhouses and Romans: Excavations at Kintore, Aberdeenshire, 2000-2006, Volume 1 Forest Road, Edinburgh.
Cook, M. 2010a. The Hillforts of Strathdon. Anon (ed) A Lad o’Pairts: a day conference in honour of Ian Shepherd, to celebrate the wide contribution he made to Scottish Archaeology, 62-5
Cook, M. 2010b. New Light on oblong forts: excavations at Dunnideer, Aberdeenshire, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 140: 79-83.
Cook, M. 2011a. Maiden Castle, Aberdeenshire: choice and architecture in Pictland, Tayside and Fife Archaeological Journal 17: 25-35.
Cook, M. 2011b. New evidence for the activities of Pictish potentates in Aberdeenshire: the hillforts of Strathdon, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 141: 207-231.
Cook, M. 2012a. Altered earth: excavations at Hill of Barra, Oldmeldrum, Aberdeenshire, Tayside and Fife Archaeological Journal 18: 27-40.
Cook, M. 2012b. Romans, Picts and development: continuity and change in Aberdeenshire’s archaeology and informed planning decisions, Stirling International Journal of Postgraduate Research 1.1 (2012).
Cook, M. 2013a. Paradigms, assumptions, enclosure and violence: the hillforts of Strathdon, Journal of Conflict Archaeology, Vol. 8 No. 2, May 2013, 77–105.
Cook, M. 2013b. Open or enclosed: settlement patterns and hillfort construction in Strathdon, Aberdeenshire, 1800 BC to AD 1000, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 79:327-52.
Cook, M. 2016. Burning Questions: New Insights Into Vitrified Forts, in Erskine, G, Jacobsson, P and Miller, P. Proceedings of the Iron 17th Age Research Student Seminar 2014, Oxford, 149-56.
Cook, M. In press. The marching camp at Deers Den, Aberdeenshire: a précis of the excavations. Bidwell, P. & Hodgson, N. Limes XXI. The Proceedings of the 21stInternational Congress of Roman Frontier Studies. Newcastle.
Cook, M, Dunbar, L and Heawood, R. forthcoming Rituals, Roundhouses and Romans: Excavations at Kintore, Aberdeenshire, 2000-2006, Volume 2: Other Sites, Edinburgh
Noble, G., Gondek, M., Campbell, E. and Cook, M. J. 2013. Between prehistory and history: the archaeological detection of social change among the Picts, Antiquity, 87: 1136-1150.