Research

I am a research archaeologist specialising in Anglo-Saxon England, farming, archaeobotany and digital data. I currently serve as Treasurer of the Association for Environmental Archaeology, and as Editor of Medieval Settlement Research.

My expertise and experience include:

  • analysis of charred plant remains
  • report writing and editing
  • database development
  • teaching
  • lecture and seminar presentation
  • conference organization

Please feel free to get in touch about consultancy work

Papers and chapters

Many of these publications are available from my Academia.edu and ResearchGate pages.

McKerracher, M. (forthcoming). ‘Cereals’, in A. Wilkin (ed.) Routledge Medieval Encyclopedia Online: Environment, production and exchange.

McKerracher, M., Croft, B., Stamper, P. and Wrathmell, S. (2021). ‘Late Saxon Crop Processing at Wharram Percy: new radiocarbon dates from the South Manor site’, Medieval Settlement Research 36, pp.68-73.

Hamerow, H., McKerracher, M., Stroud, E. and Bogaard, A. (2021). ‘Weeds and seeds: how functional weed ecology can help reconstruct medieval farming’, British Archaeology 181, pp.48-51.

McKerracher, M. (2021). ‘Archaeology and agriculture: insights from an Essex farmer’, Rural History Today 40, pp.7-8.

McKerracher, M. (2020). ‘Standing on the shoulders of peasants: agency and risk in Anglo-Saxon farming’, in J.A. Quirós Castillo (ed.) Archaeology and History of Peasantries 1. From the Late Prehistory to the Middle Ages. (Documentos de Arqueología Medieval 14), Universidad del País Vasco: pp.113-123.

Hamerow, H., Bogaard, A., Charles, M., Forster, E., Holmes, M., McKerracher, M., Neil, S., Bronk Ramsey, C., Stroud, E. and Thomas, R. (2020). ‘An Integrated Bioarchaeological Approach to the Medieval “Agricultural Revolution”: A Case Study from Stafford, England, c.AD 800-1200’, European Journal of Archaeology 23(4), pp.585-609. doi:10.1017/eaa.2020.6

Hamerow, H., Bogaard, A., Charles, M., Ramsey, C., Thomas, R., Forster, E., Holmes, M., McKerracher, M., Neil, S. and Stroud, E. (2019). ‘Feeding Anglo-Saxon England: The bioarchaeology of an agricultural revolution’, Antiquity 93(368), E12. doi:10.15184/aqy.2019.27

McKerracher, M. (2018). “Introducing FeedSax: Bioarchaeological Explorations of an Early Medieval Agricultural Revolution”, Rural History Today 34: pp.4-5.

McKerracher, M. (2017). “Seeds and status: the archaeobotany of monastic Lyminge”, in Thomas, G. & Knox, A. (eds) Early medieval monasticism in the North Sea Zone (Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 20), University of Oxford School of Archaeology: pp.127-134.

McKerracher, M. (2016). “Bread and surpluses: the Anglo-Saxon ’bread wheat thesis’ reconsidered”, Environmental Archaeology21: pp.88-102.

McKerracher, M. (2016). “Playing with fire? Charred grain as a proxy for cereal surpluses in early medieval England”, Medieval Settlement Research 31: pp.63-66.

McKerracher, M. (2016). “Saving the Bacon? Reflections on the Anglo-Saxon Pig”, Association for Environmental Archaeology Newsletter 134: pp.4-9.

McKerracher, M. (2014). “Landscapes of production in mid Saxon England: the monumental grain ovens”, Medieval Settlement Research29: pp.82-85.

Specialist reports

— (2019). Analysis of archaeobotanical remains from excavations in Southampton (SOU 1715). Archive report for Southampton City Council Archaeology Unit.

— (2019). Analysis of charred plant remains from excavations at Alexandra Road, Lymington, Hampshire. Archive report for Southampton City Council Archaeology Unit.

— (2018). Archaeobotanical remains from an inhumation burial at the Rollright Stones. Archive report for the Rollright Trust.

— (2017). Analysis of macroscopic charred plant remains from the 2013-2014 excavations at Church Meadow, Ewell, Surrey. Archive report for the Epsom & Ewell History & Archaeology Society.

— (2015). Assessment of macroscopic plant remains from the 2014 excavations at Lyminge, Kent. Archive report for the University of Reading.

— (2013). Charred Plants Remains from Lyminge: Analysis and interpretation of ten selected samples from the 2008 excavations. Archive report for the University of Reading.

Conferences and seminars

January 2021: Farming in early medieval England: revolution, evolution, or reformations? Buckinghamshire Archaeological Society Winter Lectures.

December 2020: Prospect and Protect: syntironomy and agricultural change in early medieval England. New perspectives on the medieval ‘agricultural revolution’, University of Oxford, virtual conference.

December 2019: Environmental archaeology meets early medieval farming: the Feeding Anglo-Saxon England project. Wessex Centre for History and Archaeology seminar series, University of Winchester (INVITED).

November 2019: Data harvesting: towards the digital automation of charred grain analysis. Association for Environmental Archaeology conference, University of Sheffield (POSTER).

November 2019: Farming by numbers: multi-proxy analyses of Anglo-Saxon agriculture. Pitt-rivers laboratory seminar series, University of Cambridge (INVITED).

July 2019: What the Anglo-Saxons did with and in the English landscape, Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project summer lecture series (INVITED joint lecture).

October 2018: Standing on the shoulders of peasants. Archaeology of Peasantry conference, University of the Basque Country (INVITED).

March 2018: Feeding Anglo-Saxon England: Collaborating to unravel the mysteries of early medieval farming. CIfA Archives Group conference, Birmingham & Midlands Institute.

July 2017: Planning and keeping a risk-averse harvest in early medieval England. Agrarian production and peasant strategies of risk-avoidance workshop, St Cross College (INVITED).

December 2016: Mid Saxon Farming: towards a holistic view. Peasant Production and Consumption Patterns in Early Medieval Europe workshop, Université Libre de Bruxelles. (INVITED).

November 2016: Storing and processing the Mid Saxon harvest. Medieval Diet Group meeting, University of Oxford.

April 2015: The archaeobotany of a monastery. Early Medieval Monasticism in the North Sea Zone conference, University of Kent.

November 2014: Anglo-Saxon Farming: Broadening the field. Association for Environmental Archaeology conference, University of Plymouth.

February 2013: Mid Saxon Agriculture Reconsidered. Medieval Archaeology Seminar, University of Oxford.

November 2012: Post hoc, ergo propter hoc? Reassessing agriculture in Early-Mid Saxon England. Colloquium Praehistoricum, Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main (INVITED).

November 2012: Through the keyhole: a glimpse of grain ovens in Anglo-Saxon England. Society for Medieval Archaeology Student Colloquium, Cardiff University.

May 2012: Middle Saxon Sheep Farming: Disentangling a woolly hypothesis in southern Britain. Early Medieval Archaeology Student Symposium, University College London (POSTER).

Dissertations

— (2014). Agricultural Development in Mid Saxon England. Unpublished DPhil thesis, University of Oxford.

— (2010). Monastic Landholding and Dependency in Anglo-Saxon England. Unpublished MSt dissertation, University of Oxford.

— (2008). Could Brading village provide evidence of foreign investment in Britain in Late Antiquity? Unpublished BA dissertation, University of Oxford.