[1] Swan read archaeology at Cardiff University, graduating in 1965.
She learnt to excavate with Leslie Alcock at Dinas Powys hillfort whilst still at school.
[2] In the 1990s, she identified pottery from various sites on Scotland's Antonine Wall, built by the Numidian governor of Roman Britain, Quintus Lollius Urbicus, of a North African style, one being a casserole dish that may have been a precursor to the modern tajine.
Swan was a member of the Study Group for Roman Pottery since its inception in 1971.
She was a Trustee of the Rei Cretariae Romanae Fautores, an international society dedicated to the study of Roman ceramics.