Professor John Grattan

Professor
n/a Photograph of Professor John Grattan.

Contact

Email: jpg@aber.ac.uk
Office: C12
Phone: +44 (0)1970 622 922
Fax: +44 (0)1970 622 659

Responsibilities

  • Director of Marketing and Recruitment.
  • Careers, PDP and Skills Development

Teaching Areas

Modules Taught

Module coordinator for:

  • Forensic Geoscience (EA22710)
  • Geohazards (EA22810)
  • Volcanic Activity: Hazards And Environmental Change (EA30420)

Contribute to:

  • Global Environmental Issues (GG12710)
  • Chemical Aspects Of Pollution (ES30110)
  • People, Climate And Environment: A Palaeoenvironmental Perspective (GG33720)
  • Dissertation Planning: Quaternary Environmental Change (EAM2510)
  • Research Techniques In Quaternary Science (EAM2630)
  • Research Dissertation In Quaternary Environmental Change (EAM3450)
  • Chemical Aspects Of Pollution (ES30110)

Research

Group Affiliation

Research Interests

Volcanic Hazards. Environmental impact of volcanic eruptions. Cultural responses to extreme events. Ecotoxicology. The industrial legacies of the ancient world. The inception and development of the first factories. Landscape archaeology. Geochemical records of environmental change.

Biography

John's research interests range from volcanism to archaeology. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, an expert member of the International Volcanic Health Hazard Network and Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Archaeological Science. He has conducted innovative research into the health impacts of volcanic gases and is currently investigating European mortality crises which followed the eruptions of the Laki Fissure (1783) and Tambora (1815). He is also a leading investigator of cultural responses to extreme events and rapid environmental change and has just published a book on this subject "Living under the Shadow". His volcanic research has been the subject of considerable media interest; he has participated in the BBC docudrama "supervolcano" and BBC TV's Timewatch strand recently dedicated an entire programme to his research, unfortunately entitled "Killer cloud"! These are frequently repeated somewhere on digital televison.

When away from volcanoes he is very interested in the appearance of industry in the ancient world, he feels that the emergence of the "factory" concept in the ancient world is an unacknowledged revolution in human thinking as profound as the invention of farming. In the next few years he will lead the excavation of one of the oldest known copper factory sites in the world, in the desert of southern Jordan.

The arid environment of Jordan has preserved the environmental legacy of ancient industrial activity and John has conducted extensive research into this problem. He has identified dangerous levels of metal contamination in th eexcavated bones of Roman miners and in the food and tents of modern Bedouin.

John is a highly regarded lecturer, he was a late entrant to higher education and believes passionately that going to university is a privilege that can change people's lives, it changed his!

Staff Publications

Peer Reviewed Book Chapters & Journal Articles

2007

  1. Grattan JP, Gilbertson DD, Hunt CO. 2007. The local and global dimensions of metalliferous pollution derived from a reconstruction of an eight thousand year record of copper smelting and mining at a desert-mountain frontier in southern Jordan. Journal of Archaeological Science, 34: 83-110.
    The local and global dimensions of metalliferous pollution derived from a reconstruction of an eight thousand year record of copper smelting and mining at a desert-mountain frontier in southern Jordan (PDF)
  2. Gilbertson D, Barker G, Mattingly D, Palmer C, Grattan J, Pyatt B. 2007. Archaeology and Desertification: the landscapes of the Wadi Faynan. Archaeology and Desertifiation: The Wadi Faynan landscape survey, Southern Jordan, : 397-424.
  3. El-Rishi H, Hunt C, Gilbertson DD, GRattan JP, McLaren S, Pyatt B, Duller GAT, Gilmore G, Phillips P. 2007. The past and present landscapes of the Wadi Faynan: geoarchaeological approaches and frameworks. Archaeology and Desertifiation: The Wadi Faynan landscape survey, Southern Jordan, : 59-97.
  4. Palmer C, David G, Howeidi e, Hunt C, John G, Susan M, Pyatt Brian. 2007. The Wadi Faynan today: landscape, environment, and people. Archaeology and desertification, The Wadi Faynan Landscape Survey, : 25-58.
  5. el-Rishi H, C H, Gilbertson D, Grattan J, McLaren S, Pyatt B, Duller GAT, Gillmore G, Phillips P. 2007. The past and present landscapes of the Wadi Faynan: geoarchaeological approaches and frameworks. The Wadi Faynan Landscape Survey, : 59-97.
  6. McLaren S, Reynolds T, Gilbertson DD, Grattan JP, Hunt C, Barker G, Duller GAT. 2007. Pleistocene environments and human settlement. Archaeology and desertification: The Wadi Faynan landscape survey, Southern Jordan, : 177-198.
  7. S M, Reynolds T, Gilbertson D, Grattan J, C H, H e, Barker G, Duller G. 2007. Pleistocene environments and human settlement. Archaeology and desertification. The Wadi Faynan Landscape Survey, : 177-198.
  8. Barker G, Hunt C, McLaren S, Reynolds T, el-Rishi H, Gilbertson D, Grattan J. 2007. Early Holocene environments and early farming, c. 11000-7000 cal. BP. Archaeology and Desertifiation: The Wadi Faynan landscape survey, Southern Jordan, : 199-266.
  9. Barker G, Adams R, Creighton O, H e, Gilbertson D, Grattan J, C H, Newson P, Reynolds T. 2007. Chalcolithic and Bronze Age settlement in Wadi Faynan: metallurgy and social complexity. Archaeology and Desertifiation: The Wadi Faynan landscape survey, Southern Jordan, : 227-269.
  10. 12 Mattingly D, Newson P, Creighton O, Tomber R, Grattan J, Hunt C, Gilbertson D, H e, Pyatt B. 2007. The Making of early states: the Iron Age and Nabatean periods. Archaeology and Desertifiation: The Wadi Faynan landscape survey, Southern Jordan, : 271-304.
  11. Newson P, Pyatt B. 2007. The Islamic and Ottoman periods. Archaeology and Desertifiation: The Wadi Faynan landscape survey, Southern Jordan, : 397-424.
  12. Mattingly D, Newson P, Creighton O, Tomber R, Grattan J, Hunt C, Gilbertson D, H e, Pyatt B. 2007. A landscape of imperial power: Roman and Byzantine Phaino. Archaeology and Desertifiation: The Wadi Faynan landscape survey, Southern Jordan, : 305-348.

2006

  1. Grattan JP. 2006. Volcanic eruptions and Archaeology: cultural catastrophe or stimulus?. Quaternary International, 151: 10-18.
    Aspects of Armageddon: An exploration of the role of volcanic eruptions in human history and civilization (PDF)
  2. Mighall TM, Timberlake DA, Jenkins DA, Grattan JP. 2006. Using bog archives to reconstruct paleopollution and vegetation change during the late Holocene. Peatlands: Evolution and Records of Environmental and Climatic Changes, 413-434

2005

  1. Gillmore G, Gilbertson D, Grattan J, Hunt C, McLaren S, Pyatt B, Banda RM, Barker G, Denman A, Phillips P, Reynolds T. 2005. The potential risk from (222)radon posed to archaeologists and earth scientists: reconnaissance study of radon concentrations, excavations, and archaeological shelters in the Great Cave of Niah, Sarawak, Malaysia. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, 60: 213-227.
    The potential risk from <sup>222</sup>radon posed to archaeologists and earth scientists: reconnaissance study of radon concentrations, excavations, and archaeological shelters in the Great Cave of Niah, Sarawak, Malaysia (PDF)
  2. Pyatt FB, Pyatt AJ, Walker C, Sheen T, Grattan JP. 2005. The heavy metal content of skeletons from an ancient metalliferous polluted area in southern Jordan with particular reference to bioaccumulation and human health. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, 60: 295-300.
  3. Grattan J, Rabartin R, Self S, Thordarson T. 2005. Volcanic air pollution and mortality in France 1783-1784. Comptes Rendus Geoscience, 337: 641-651.
  4. Grattan J, Abu Karaki L, Hine D, Toland H, Gilbertson D, Al-Saad Z, Pyatt B. 2005. Analyses of patterns of copper and lead mineralization in human skeletons excavated from an ancient mining and smelting centre in the Jordanian desert: a reconnaissance study. Mineralogical Magazine, 69: 653-666.
  5. Grattan J. 2005. Pollution and paradigms: lessons from Icelandic volcanism for continental flood basalt studies. Lithos, 79: 343-353.

Books

2008

  1. Grattan JP, Torrence R. 2008. Living under the Shadow: . One World Archaeology, : 316.

2005

  1. Sparks S, Self S , Oppenheimer C, Pyle D, Rymer H, Grattan JP. 2005. Super-eruptions: global effects and future threats:Report of a Geological Society of London Working Group.

Reports

2006

  1. Grattan JP, Latto R, Rattle H, Vielba C, Webb D. 2006. Report of an Institutional Audit of the University of Worcester. : 44.