
Michelle Comber
NUIG
Michelle Comber is a graduate of the Discipline of Archaeology, NUI, Galway, having completed her primary degree in 1994, master’s degree in 1996, and PhD in 2000. Her research interests lie mainly in the archaeology of Ireland's Early Medieval period (approx. 5th to 12th century AD), especially its fine metalwork (the subject of her MA thesis), economy and settlement (the subject of her PhD thesis), and in tracing social and economic change over broad spans of time. She held a one-year post-doctoral research post at the Centre for the Study of Human Settlement and Historical Change at NUI, Galway (since renamed the Moore Institute). This project studied the Early Medieval landscape of the Beara peninsula, Co. Cork, and was part of a larger landscape study of the peninsula, directed by Prof. William O'Brien of the Department of Archaeology, UCC. Michelle has over 25 years excavation and post-excavation experience (including illustration). She is currently directing a project examining the settlement landscape of the Burren, Co. Clare in the first and second millennium AD, and is director of the international Caherconnell Archaeological Field School. She has been lecturing with the Discipline of Archaeology since 1994 (teaching in the lecture hall, classroom, laboratory, field, and online) and is currently programme director, lecturer, and assessor for the evening and online programmes in Archaeology and Irish Studies.