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.

Finally, 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 three key innovations that enabled medieval farmers to feed a rapidly growing population: crop rotation, widespread adoption of the mouldboard plough, and ‘extensive’ cultivation.

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