Penelope Allison

Penelope Allison is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Leicester. She has held the Chair since 2015. She is also a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

Allison is originally from North Canterbury, New Zealand. She received an undergraduate degree in Pure Mathematics from the University of Canterbury, and her MA Honours and her doctorate in Archaeology from the University of Sydney. She has held several research fellowships, including a fellowship in the Classics faculty at the University of Cambridge and fellowships at the University of Sydney. She joined the School of Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Leicester as a lecturer in 2006.

She specialises in Roman and Historical Archaeology and has particular interests in household archaeology, and gender and space. Many of her publications relate to houses and households in Pompeii, and gender and space in Roman military forts in Germany. She is also interested in digital archaeology and how archaeological data can be spread digitally.

Publications

Books

• People and Space in Roman Military Bases (Cambridge University Press, 2013)
• The Insula of the Menander in Pompeii III: The finds, a contextual study (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2006)
• Pompeian households: analysis of the material culture, Monograph 42 (Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA, 2004)

Edited books

• Dealing with legacy data, themed volume of Internet Archaeology 24-25 (2008)
• The Archaeology of Household Activities (Routledge: London and New York, 1999)

Other Publications

• 'Naming tablewares: using the artefactual evidence to investigate eating and drinking practices across the Roman world', in E. Minchin and H. Jackson  (eds) Festschrift for Graeme Clarke, SIMA - Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology, 186-198. Uppsala: Astrom editions (2017)
• 'Everyday foodways and social connections in Pompeian houses', in L. Steel and K. Zinn, eds, Exploring the materiality of food “stuffs”: Transformations, symbolic consumption and embodiments, 152-186. London and New York: Routledge (Taylor and Francis, 2016).
• 'Characterising Roman artefacts for investigating gendered practices in contexts without sexed bodies', American Journal of Archaeology 119.1 (2015)
• 'Artefacts and people on the Roman frontier', in D. J. Breeze, R.H. Jones, and I. A. Oltean, eds, Understanding Roman frontiers: A celebration for Professor Bill Hanson, 121-134. Edinburgh: John MacDonald (2015).
• 'Conversations and material memories: insights into outback domestic life at the Old Kinchega Homestead', Historical Archaeology 48.1 (2014): 87-104.
• 'Soldiers' families in the early Roman Empire', in B. Rawson, ed., Families in the Greek and Roman worlds: a companion, 161-182. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell (2011)
• 'Understanding Pompeian household practices through their material culture', FACTA: A Journal of Roman material culture studies 3 (2009): 11-32
• 'Mapping for gender: interpreting artefact distribution in Roman military forts in Germany', Archaeological Dialogues 13.1 (2006): 1-48
• 'Pompeian households', on-line companion to Monograph 42, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA (The Stoa: A Consortium for Electronic Publication in the Humanities). http://www.stoa.org/pompeianhouseholds
• 'Artefact distribution and spatial function in Pompeian houses', in B. Rawson and P. Weaver, eds, The Roman family in Italy: status, sentiment and space, 321-354 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1997)
• 'Roman households: an archaeological perspective', in H. Parkins, ed., Roman urbanism: beyond the consumer city, 112-146 (Routledge, London and New York, 1997)
• 'Why do excavation reports have finds' catalogues?', in C. G. Cumberpatch and P.W. Blinkhorn, eds, Not so much a pot, more a way of life, 77- 84 (Oxbow Books, Oxford, 1997)
• 'On-going seismic activity and its effect on living conditions in Pompeii in the last decades', in T. Fröhlich and L. Jacobelli, eds, Archäologie und Seismologie: La regione vesuviana dal 62 al 79 d.C.: problemi archeologici e sismologici (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut Rom, Soprintendenza Archeologica di Pompei, Osservatorio Vesuviano), 183-190 (Biering and Brinkman, Munich, 1995)