Professor Helena Hamerow

helena hamerow
Professor of Early Medieval Archaeology
+44 (0)1865 278245
helena.hamerow@arch.ox.ac.uk

Research Interests

The archaeology of northwest Europe from AD 400-1000; Early medieval rural settlements and economy; The archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England; Links between England and mainland Europe c 400-700.

 

Research Profile

Research activities

My research focuses on the archaeology of early medieval northwest Europe, c 400-1000.  Recent projects have examined the impact of lordship, monasteries and population growth on farms and farming.  I am also interested in ‘Great Hall’ complexes in England and what burials reveal about the position of women during the Conversion period. I am currently working with the Ashmolean Museum as External Curator of a special exhibition on early Anglo-Saxon England in its European context.

I am PI of an ERC-funded project called ‘Feeding Anglo-Saxon England. The Bioarchaeology of an Agricultural Revolution’ (‘FeedSax’; http://feedsax.arch.ox.ac.uk ). Using preserved cereal grains, faunal remains, pollen and other data, the FeedSax team is tracing the emergence and spread of key innovations that enabled medieval farmers to feed a rapidly growing population: systematic crop rotation, widespread adoption of the mouldboard plough, and ‘extensive’, low-input cultivation.

I am also one of four PIS of 'Molecular Ecology of Medieval European Landscapes' (MEMELAND), funded by an ERC Synergy Grant (https://www.arch.ox.ac.uk/article/prof-helena-hamerow-one-four-oxford-academics-receive-erc-synergy-grants-address-complex). This project will examine the impact of medieval farming regimes on the biodiversity of northern European landscapes using sedimentary DNA and archaeobotanical remains.

Research Awards

Fellow of the British Academy (2023)

Links

Dorchester-on-Thames

Feeding Anglo-Saxon England: The Bioarchaeology of an Agricultural Revolution

Modelling Urban Renewal and growth in Britain and Norh-West Europe, AD800-1300

Novum Inventorium Sepulchrale

The Origins of Wessex

Publications
Teaching

Undergraduate teaching

Undergraduate course convenor for:

  • FHS option paper - Anglo Saxon Society & Economy in the Early Christian Period
  • FHS option paper - Emergence of Medieval Europe

Postgraduate teaching

Postgraduate taught course options in: 

Doctoral Supervision

I am happy to supervise on a broad range of topics related to the archaeology of early medieval Europe, including its rural economy, mortuary practices, and material culture, in particular for the period c. 400-900.

Current students

Early Anglo-Saxon barrow burials in England: spatial analysis and contextualisation of the Sixth and Seventh Century nationwide funerary landscape.

Wyatt Wilcox | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisors: John Pouncett and Helena Hamerow
Geospatial Analysis of Scandinavian Settlement in Viking Northumbria

Anthony Del Rio | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisors: Helena Hamerow and Jane Kershaw

Past students

Diet and Health in a time of transition: Pictish and Viking age Orkney

Alexandra Johnson (2021) ORA | DPhil Archaeological Science | Supervisors: Rick Schulting and Helena Hamerow
Remnants of a Roman Past: the reuse of Roman objects in early Anglo-Saxon graves, c. AD 5th-7th centuries

Jessica Dunham (2020) ORA | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisor: Helena Hamerow
Cosmology, Fashion and Good fortune: Chinese auspicious ornament in the Han dynasty (206BC - 220AD)

Shengyu Wang (2020) ORA | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisor: Helena Hamerow
Looking to the North Sea: Isotopic and osteological evidence for medieval diet, mobility, and health at Stoke Quay, Ipswich

Nora Farber (2019) ORA | DPhil Archaeological Science | Supervisors: Julia Lee-Thorp and Helena Hamerow
The Role of Anglo-Saxon Great Hall Complexes in Kingdom Formation, in comparison and in context, AD500-750

Adam McBride (2018) ORA | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisor: Helena Hamerow
From Individuals to Settlement Patterns. Bridging the Gap between the Living and the Dead in Early Medieval Populations by an Agent-Based Demographic Model

Andreas Duering (2017) ORA | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisor: Helena Hamerow
Transition from the Late Roman Period to the Early Anglo-Saxon Period in the Upper Thames Valley based on Stable Isotopes

Yurika Sakai (2016) ORA | DPhil Archaeological Science | Supervisors: Helena Hamerow and Julia Lee-Thorp
The Avon Valley in the fifth to mid-seventh centuries: contacts and coalescence in a frontier polity?

Abigail Tompkins (2016) ORA | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisor: Helena Hamerow
Agricultural Development in Mid Saxon England

Mark McKerracher (2013) ORA | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisors: Helena Hamerow and Amy Bogaard
Placed Deposits in Early and Middle Anglo-Saxon Rural Settlements

Clifford Sofield (2012) ORA | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisor: Helena Hamerow
Bernicia and the Sea: Coastal Communities and Landscape in North-East England and South East Scotland, C.450-850 A.D.

Christopher Ferguson (2011) | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisor: Helena Hamerow
A Re-evaluation of the Evidence of Anglian-British Interaction in the Lincoln Region

Caitlin Green (2011) | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisor: Helena Hamerow
Culture and Gender in the Danelaw: Scandinavian and Anglo-Scandinavian Brooches, 850-1050

Jane Kershaw (2010) | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisor: Helena Hamerow
North Sea and Channel Connectivity during the Late Iron Age and Roman Periods (175/150 BC-AD 409)

Francis Morris (2009) | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisors: Helena Hamerow and Andrew Wilson
Social Differentiation and Diet in Early Anglo-Saxon England: Stable Isotope Analysis of Archaeological Human and Animal Remains

Bradley Hull (2008) | DPhil Archaeological Science | Supervisors: Robert Hedges and Helena Hamerow
Late Roman to early Medieval transition in the province of Namur (Belgium)

Gesine Bruss (2005) | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisor: Helena Hamerow

Key words: trade, migration, gender and identity, archives, domestic space, excavations, farming and herding, inequality, medieval, Europe