Staff profile

I joined Durham University's Department of Archaeology in January 2026 as a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow. My research focusses on questions of epistemology in archaeology — exploring how we use a partial and fragmentary archaeological record to reason about the past. This extends to how archaeological knowledge of all periods is constructed, but I am particularly interested in the frontiers of the Roman Empire and maritime archaeology.

My current project, ‘Maritime powerscapes: reconnecting late-Roman littoral infrastructure in northwest Europe’, will run for three years and involve a historiographic and archaeological analysis of late-Roman coastal infrastructure, examining how the physical reworking of the coast reinforces imperial power far beyond the shore. By harnessing legacy data, reconnecting sites previously viewed in isolation and studying them in their maritime context, the research aims to re-evaluate the Roman approach to maritime frontiers and the broader Atlantic world.

Prior to this, my PhD thesis (2020–24) explored how evidential reasoning in archaeology using the Roman frontier of Hadrian’s Wall as a case study. The project sought to investigate and address an epistemological tension between the growing quantity of increasingly specialist research and its use for addressing broader research questions. Through the development of a new methodological approach, the thesis offered a means to integrate and recontextualise legacy data to effectively overcome this problem. Specifically, the project collated and analysed the archaeological evidence gathered over the last two hundred years and examined how knowledge has been constructed around this evidence, and how these ideas feed into alternative interpretations of the Wall’s functions. Rather than looking to support or contest one of these interpretations, the approach sought to assess the degree to which each is compatible with the full range of evidence and to develop new interpretations in turn. The aim was to see how critically examining the construction of archaeological evidence and how that corresponds with multiple interpretations can challenge assumptions, prompt new avenues of research and ensure legacy data is of continuing relevance and utility to researchers in the future.

• Evidential reasoning and epistemology in archaeology
• Integrating textual and material evidence in historical archaeology
• Theoretical archaeology
• Roman frontiers, especially in Britain
• Roman military archaeology
• The sea in the ancient world
• Maritime archaeology
• Maritime cultural landscapes
• Classical reception

Authored book

• Questioning Hadrian’s Wall: A case study of evidential reasoning in archaeology
  
  Kitching, P. (2026). Questioning Hadrian’s Wall: A case study of evidential reasoning in archaeology. BAR Publishing. https://doi.org/10.30861/9781407363806

Book review

• Review of: Hodgson, Nick and Bill Griffiths (eds). 2022. Roman Frontier Archaeology – in Britain and Beyond. Papers in Honour of Paul Bidwell Presented on the Occasion of the 30th Annual Conference of the Arbeia Society (Archaeopress Roman Archaeology 92). Oxford: Archaeopress; 978-1-8032-7344-0 paperback £60.
  
  Kitching, P. (2024). Review of: Hodgson, Nick and Bill Griffiths (eds). 2022. Roman Frontier Archaeology – in Britain and Beyond. Papers in Honour of Paul Bidwell Presented on the Occasion of the 30th Annual Conference of the Arbeia Society (Archaeopress Roman Archaeology 92). Oxford: Archaeopress; 978-1-8032-7344-0 paperback £60. Theoretical Roman Archaeology Journal. https://doi.org/10.16995/traj.11714

Chapter in book

• Imagining Hadrian's Wall: Developing and Assessing Explanations Behind its Construction
  
  Kitching, P. (2024). Imagining Hadrian’s Wall: Developing and Assessing Explanations Behind its Construction. In H. van Enckevort, M. Driessen, E. Graafstal, T. Hazenberg, T. Ivleva, & C. van Driel-Murray (Eds.), Current Approaches to Roman Frontiers: Proceedings of the 25th International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies Volume 1 (pp. 187-194). Sidestone Press. https://doi.org/10.59641/3d278gp

Journal Article

• Etched in stone? Exploring temporality through the itineraries of ten stone inscriptions from a Roman frontier fort in Wales
  
  Kitching, P. (2026). Etched in stone? Exploring temporality through the itineraries of ten stone inscriptions from a Roman frontier fort in Wales. World Archaeology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2026.2628058
• Command and Control on Hadrian’s Wall: Exploring the Use of Analogy in Roman Frontier Archaeology
  
  Kitching, P. (2025). Command and Control on Hadrian’s Wall: Exploring the Use of Analogy in Roman Frontier Archaeology. Theoretical Roman Archaeology Journal, 8(1), 1-28. https://doi.org/10.16995/traj.18451
• Failure on the frontier: a response to Price & Jaffe
  
  Kitching, P., & Witcher, R. (2023). Failure on the frontier: a response to Price & Jaffe. Antiquity, 97(396), 1613-1616. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2023.161