[2] Powlesland was born in Romford (Essex) and began participating in archaeological excavations aged 11 in Colchester and continued through his teenage years.
[4][8] Powlesland has advocated a detailed, landscape-scale approach to archaeology, arguing that studying sites in isolation misses the 'connective tissue' of past landscapes.
[9][10] The Landscape Research Centre has carried out this approach; for example studying 400 hectares (990 acres) of Vale of Pickering with geophysics, topographic and aerial survey, and the use of soil sampling for sediments and finds.
[12] Powlesland was an early adopter of computers as part of the archaeological recording process - beginning by writing his own programs for a Wang 2200 in 1982.
[2] Digital methods for recording, processing, analysing and presenting the results of archaeological research were developed and tested by Powlesland and his team throughout various projects.