Dr Alexander Thomas
Researcher of Viking Age England
Dr Alexander Thomas
Researcher of Viking Age England
Background image: The New King Barrows of the Stonehenge landscape, Wiltshire. © Alexander Thomas.
Dr Alexander Thomas BA MA PhD (Bris.)
Dr Alexander Thomas is an independent historical and archaeological academic researcher of Viking Age England. Originally from Hertfordshire, Alexander holds undergraduate , masters and doctoral degrees from the University of Bristol.
His PhD in Archaeology and Anthropology examined the archaeological and manuscript landscapes of the late 9th century AD Danelaw Boundary. A paper based on Alexander's research was a top-3 finalist at the 2020 John Hurst Memorial Prize , organised by the Medieval Settlement Research Group. During his studies, Alexander also led various seminars, tutorials and workshops for first and second year anthropology and archaeology students.
Alexander has worked as a proofreader with Pen & Sword Books for their archaeology and historical fiction imprints, click here to view the titles.
Pen & Sword Proofreading
Alexander has proofread titles for Pen & Sword’s archaeology and historical fiction imprints, including:
Darwin's Apprentice: An Archaeological Biography of John Lubbock (Owen 2012)
The Woodville Connection (Martin 2013)
An Archaeological History of Britain (Eaton 2014)
Early Ships and Seafaring Vols. 1–2 (Grail 2014 & 2015)
An Archaeology of Human Decapitation Burials (Tucker 2014)
That Quiet Earth (Fellows 2014)
How Compassion Made Us Human (Spikins 2015)
An Anthology of Ancient Mesopotamian Texts (Franke 2016)
William Boyd Dawkins and the Victorian Science of Cave Hunting (White 2016)
The Curse of the Pharaohs' Tombs (Harrison 2017)
Alexander has experience of various types of archaeological survey and of producing reports to Chartered Institute for Archaeologists’ (CIfA) standards.
His interests include art history and sailing. He has taken various courses at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, and has completed several Royal Yachting Association (RYA) courses and qualifications.
Alexander has also developed and built a variety of fluid websites for the media, education, and heritage sectors. He is fully competent in Microsoft Office suite, Adobe Creative Cloud (including Adobe Illustrator, InDesign and Dreamweaver), Quantum GIS (QGIS), ReflexW, Geoplot, and TerraSurveyor. He also has a working knowledge of Python, HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript and SQL.
Researcher
Alexander is an independent historical and archaeological researcher of Viking Age and early medieval England.
His work explores how early medieval societies organised, understood, and navigated their landscapes. He uses spatial, quantitative, and behavioural pattern analysis - including GIS mapping, statistical modelling, and the study of textual and manuscript transmission - to make sense of the often messy and uneven extant evidence.
His Routledge monograph, published on 22 June 2026, provides the first major reassessment of the Danelaw in more than three decades. Bringing together documentary, literary, scientific, and archaeological evidence, it applies innovative statistical modelling to reconstruct the regions of Viking Age England and reassess the Danelaw’s duration, boundary, trade dynamics, and identity. The findings reveal a far more intricate political geography than traditionally assumed, including counter‑intuitive evidence for increased trade during this period.Research interests
The Danelaw as a dynamic legal region and social construct.
The spatial extent of Scandinavian influence in England.
The transmission and reception of early English law codes.
Modelling and mapping historical patterns across multiple datasets.
Memberships
The Offa's Dyke Collaboratory Research Network
The Medieval Loyalty Research Network
The Rochester Cathedral Research Guild
Alexander has contributed contextual articles to Rochester Cathedral's Textus Roffensis translation and transcription project led by Dr Christopher Monk .
Doctoral Research: The Danelaw Boundary
Agreed in the late 9th century AD between Kings Alfred and Guthrum, Alexander's doctoral research at the University of Bristol concerned the Danelaw Boundary (c. AD878 – 890) between the Danelaw and the Kingdom of Wessex.
Research included:
The analysis of diverse data sources and the identification of anomalous patterns
The formulation of a methodology to examine a varied dataset, compiled from broad sources, using flat databases as well as landscape and data visualisation
The development of solutions to resolve research problems by adapting multidisciplinary methods.
Selected Works
Conferences, Lectures and Events
During and after his doctoral research, Alexander has been a chair, panellist, and speaker at various international medieval studies and medieval archaeology conferences, including at the Universities of Bristol, Bournemouth, Durham, Leeds, Lincoln, and Oxford.
He has also given lectures to archives and to societies, such as the Medway Archives and Hertfordshire Anglo-Scandinavian Society respectively. Alexander has also co-organised several postgraduate archaeology and medieval conferences.
Click here to view a list of selected conferences, papers and events.
Selected Conferences, Lectures & Events
2026
2025
2024
2023
2019
2018
2017
2016
Speaker Invitations
Alexander welcomes requests to speak at events and conferences on various aspects of the Viking Age and Viking Age governance. Please email him if you wish to enquire.
“Highly knowledgeable speaker, giving in-depth detail. Excellent visual presentation. Well delivered.”
“Very informative, interesting to discover facts about Danelaw and early Kings. Fascinated by depth of research.”
“A 'tour de force' of research and scholarship. Quite mind-blowing.”
Teaching and Marking
Alexander has led various seminars, tutorials and workshops, on archaeological practice and theory units, for first and second year anthropology and archaeology undergraduates at Bristol including:
Pre-Excavation Techniques (renamed Archaeological Practice )
Alexander has experience of marking first and second year undergraduate essays and exams. He also has experience of teaching adult learning classes which introduce Viking Age England.