Skip to main content
Mike Luke

Mike Luke

Honorary Research Fellow

School of History, Archaeology and Religion

Overview

A graduate of Cardiff University, Mike Luke is a Project Manager with Albion Archaeology based in Bedford. This role involves the management of a portfolio of fieldwork and post-fieldwork projects, including financial and academic responsibility. As an Albion Project Manager, Mike manages all types of fieldwork from watching briefs, through single- and multi-staged small/extensive evaluations to small/extensive open-area excavations. Project budgets vary from £1k to £750k.

Research

Over the last two decades Mike has worked with Dr Peter Guest, Senior Lecturer in Roman Archaeology at Cardiff University, on two main fieldwork projects – Lyonshall in Herefordshire and Caerleon in South Wales.

Mike also worked as a supervisor (2000) and then vice-director (2001) on the major excavations at Dichin in Bulgaria (University of Nottingham). In addition, he has undertaken fieldwork at the Roman roadside settlement at Alfoldean, West Sussex and has published the results in Sussex Archaeological Collections. In part collaboration with Albion, Mike is the archaeological director of a community-archaeology project in Bedford, undertaking fieldwork

in 2013-2017 on the site of a Roman settlement adjacent to Manton Lane. Preliminary results were published in 2017 as an article in Bedfordshire Archaeology.

Community Engagement

Mike regularly gives talks to the public in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire on Albion projects. Interim and summary statements for his projects are regularly included in the CBA's South Midlands Archaeology and, as appropriate, in the relevant period-based journals. In the past he has worked with Channel 4's Time Team at Alfoldean (West Sussex) and Caerleon (with Cardiff University). In June 2016, he contributed an article to the magazine Current Archaeology in association with the publication of the Close to the Loop monograph.

Publications

Through his work at Albion Mike has published monographs and numerous articles in archaeological journals. As an Albion Project Manager he coordinates and is the ultimate editor for all his project reports and publications, although different sections/chapters are produced by different members of the project team (both in-house and externally).

He has published monographs through East Anglian Archaeology on the large-scale archaeological investigations at Biddenham Loop (EAA125), Marsh Leys (EAA138) and West of Bedford (EAA156). He has also published in the Albion Archaeology monograph series, including a Romano-British farmstead at Great Glen in Leicestershire.

Mike has published numerous articles in Bedfordshire Archaeology, mainly presenting the results of the excavations of Iron Age and Roman settlements in the county, e.g. Butterfield Green, Luton; Haynes Park, Haynes; Hinksley Road, Flitwick; Kempston Box End; Luton Road, Wilstead; Ampthill Road, Shefford; Toplers Hill, Biggleswade; Yarl's Wood, Clapham. He has also published an article in the Transactions of Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society.

He wrote the Early Prehistoric chapter (Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Early Neolithic and Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age) for the English Heritage-sponsored resource assessment for Bedfordshire. This was published as a Bedfordshire Archaeology Monograph in 2007.

Selected publications

  • Luke, M. and Preece, T. 2017 'An early-middle Iron Age settlement on the eastern Chilterns at Butterfield Green, Luton', Bedfordshire Archaeology 27, 69–90
  • Luke, M. and Preece, T. 2017 'Salvage investigations within a Romano-British settlement and cemetery at Kempston Box End, Bedfordshire', Bedfordshire Archaeology 27, 153–202
  • Luke, M., Cockings, S. and Sayer, E., 2017 'A Roman settlement at Manton Lane, Bedford: report on the archaeological investigations', Bedfordshire Archaeology 27, 203–12
  • Luke, M., 2016 Close to the Loop: landscape and settlement evolution beside the Biddenham Loop, west of Bedford. East Anglian Archaeology 156
  • Luke, M., Barker, B. and Barker, J., 2015 A Romano-British farmstead at Stretton Road, Great Glen, Leicestershire. Albion Archaeology Monograph 2
  • Luke, M. and Barker, B. 2014 'A small early-middle Iron Age enclosure on land off Seagrave Road, Sileby, Leicestershire', Transactions Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society 88, 15–36
  • Luke, M. and Preece, T., 2012 'Evidence for multi-period activity at the former Bridgman Joinery Works', in Ingham, D. and Shotliff, D. (eds), Harrold: 5,000 years of life and death in a North Bedfordshire village, Albion Archaeology Monograph 1, 1–39
  • Guest, P., Luke, M. and Pudney C. 2012 Archaeological evaluation of the extramural monumental complex ('the southern canabae') at Caerleon, 2011: an interim report. Cardiff Studies in Archaeology specialist report 33
  • Luke, M. and Preece, T., 2011 Farm and Forge: Late Iron Age/Romano-British farmsteads at Marsh Leys, Kempston, Bedfordshire, East Anglian Archaeology 138
  • Luke, M., Preece, T. and Wells, J., 2010 'A Roman aisled building and associated settlement at Ampthill Road, Shefford', Bedfordshire Archaeology 26, 269–346
  • Luke, M. and Preece, T. 2010 'Iron Age, Roman and Saxo-Norman settlement on the Oxford Clay at Luton Road, Wilstead, Bedfordshire', Bedfordshire Archaeology 26, 99–166
  • Luke, M., 2008 Life in the Loop: investigation of a prehistoric and Romano-British landscape at Biddenham Loop, Bedfordshire. East Anglian Archaeology 125
  • Luke, M., 2007 'Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, early Neolithic and late Neolithic/early Bronze Age', in Oake, M., Luke, M., Dawson, M., Edgeworth, M. and Murphy, P., Bedfordshire Archaeology: Research and Archaeology. Resource assessment, research agenda and strategy, Bedfordshire Archaeology Monograph 6 (Bedford, Bedfordshire County Council; Bedford Archaeological Council), 21–55
  • Guest, P. and Luke, M., 2005 'Geophysical survey at the Chesters near Moorcourt Farm, Lyonshall: some observations on field-names with possible Roman connections', Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club 53, 77–80
  • Luke, M., 2004 'The investigations of an early-middle Iron Age settlement and field system at Topler's Hill' Bedfordshire Archaeology 25, 23–54
  • Luke, M., 2004 'Evidence for prehistoric settlement and medieval activity at Yarl's Wood, Clapham' Bedfordshire Archaeology 25, 3–22
  • Luke M., and Shotliff, D., 2004 'Evidence for Iron Age, Roman and Early Medieval Occupation on the Greensand Ridge at Haynes Park, Bedfordshire' Bedfordshire Archaeology 25, 55–135
  • Luke, M., 2002 'West Stagsden', in Dawson M., Iron Age and Roman Settlement on the Stagsden Bypass, Bedfordshire Archaeology Monograph 3 (Bedford, Bedfordshire County Council; Bedford Archaeological Council), 11–21
  • Luke, M. and Wells, J., 2000 'New evidence for the origins, development and internal morphology of the Roman roadside settlement at Alfoldean' Sussex Archaeological Collections 138, 75–101
  • Luke, M., 1999 'An enclosed pre-"Belgic" Iron Age farmstead with later occupation at Hinksley Road, Flitwick' Bedfordshire Archaeology 23, 43–87
  • Luke, M., Steadman S. and Dawson M. 1999 "Death by computer" in Interpreting Stratigraphy 8.

Grey-literature reports

As a Project Manager with Albion Archaeology Mike has produced or contributed to over 150 'grey-literature' reports including Project Designs, Written Schemes of Investigation and summary reports on all kinds of fieldwork. He has produced over twenty MAP2-style Assessments/UPDs. Post-fieldwork analysis and publication text are produced within a project-team environment.