About Architectural Archaeology

Architectural Archaeology was started in 2001 with the aim of offering developers and those involved in Heritage Interpretation the best that archaeological experience has to offer. Initially based in London, we relocated to Ramsgate (Kent) in 2003.

Born to architects, Dr Samuel graduated as an archaeologist from the London Institute of Archaeology (UCL) in 1980. After five years as an excavator in the City of London, he diverged into illustration and the study of finds. Post-excavation became dominant until a parting of the ways with MoLA (2001). He completed an external part-time external PhD (1998) with the support of the Museum and his late wife and business partner, Kate Hamlyn.

Archaeology without ‘Heritage Interpretation’ might as well not happen. Doctor Samuel has therefore developed his skills in public speaking and lecturing, as well as developing coursework for the Department of Continuing Education  (City University). To this day, he lectures to the Public and Learned Societies and spoke in 2016 at the Society of Antiquaries about a long-lost Classical temple that overlooked the Medway.

Mark has published extensively on the subject of medieval and monastic architecture, as well as many articles and contributions to books. The medieval castles and early modern houses of SW Ireland formed the topic of His PhD thesis. He wrote the widely-acclaimed book on Blarney Castle with Kate in 2008. (In that year He was elected to the Society of Antiquaries). More recently, He has consulted extensively in Cambridge for the main archaeological units operating in that city. He have also diversified into Conflict Archaeology, surveying voluntarily the WW2 infrastructure of Thanet for the KCC Defence of Kent Project, as well as carrying out paid work dealing with specific sites in Thanet. He keys in, draws and paints reconstruction dioramas and written content for Heritage Interpretation of all types. Most recently (2017), He has recently become Consultant (architectural fragments) to Windsor Castle (English Heritage).

View Curriculum Vitae

He is at present putting a 13,000 word ‘popular history’ of the Roman Invasion of Britain through final edit.  The direction in which the subject of history is developing academically in the English-speaking world is a keen interest, but his tastes remain doggedly ‘old-school’. He is an associate member of the Institute of Heritage Interpretation.

Mark recently presented (April 2018) his paper on 'The Dry Dock Ramsgate: Smeaton or Rennie' to the Conference of the Society of Construction Engineers at Queen's College, Cambridge. This has been published in the Proceedings of the Conference (2018)