Joana Valdez-Tullett

I joined the International Team at Wessex Archaeology in August 2022 as a Senior Heritage Consultant, and soon after became a Technical Specialist. I have worked in the Historic Environment sector for 20 years, in fieldwork, consultancy, with local authorities and government bodies, contract archaeology and academic research in Iberia, Britain, Ireland and more recently in Western Asia.

As a Technical Specialist, my expertise spans business development, consultancy, fieldwork and project management. More recently, I have been involved in the delivery of complex projects in the Middle East.  

I am a prehistorian and rock art specialist and completed my PhD at the University of Southampton in 2017, later publishing my thesis ‘Design and Connectivity: The Case of Atlantic Rock Art’, as a monograph. Following this, I held a Postdoctoral Research position with Scotland’s Rock Art Project (2017-2021), a community co-production project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and hosted by Historic Environment Scotland. This was a collaborative community project which aimed to enhance understanding and awareness of prehistoric rock art in Scotland through community engagement and research. I led the design and implementation of the project’s research and gained considerable experience with Public and Community Archaeology. As part of the Festival of Archaeology, I wrote a blog post on British rock art for our website.  

I also specialize in Digital Archaeology and lecture part-time on this subject at Durham University. My research interests include prehistoric connectivity, critical heritage and gender archaeology. Along with colleagues at the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, I co-founded the Hidden Voices Project to raise the profile of female Scottish archaeologists and acknowledge their contribution to the field. I am also the Social Media Manager for the European Association of Archaeologists.  

Outside of archaeology, I am an avid yogi, but also enjoy boxing, good walks and beach combing.