Dominic Tweddle

Dominic Tweddle, FSA FSA Scot, is an English archaeologist specialising in Anglo-Saxon studies and the Director General of the National Museum of the Royal Navy. Previously he spent time as a Research Assistant at the British Museum and as the Assistant Director of the York Archaeological Trust, where he helped develop the Jorvik Viking Centre. He is also an honorary professor at the UCL Institute of Archaeology and the University of Portsmouth.

Tweddle is known for his 1992 book on the Coppergate Helmet, which built on the work of Greta Arwidsson and Heiko Steuer to provide a typology of European helmets from the end of the Western Roman Empire to the end of the Viking Age.

Education

Tweddle enrolled at Southampton University around 1972, and studied under Colin Renfrew for his first degree, a first class honours degree in archaeology and history. He then spent a year at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he researched Anglo-Saxon and Viking art, before enrolling at the Department of Scandinavian Studies at University College London. In 1986 he was awarded a doctorate; his Ph.D. topic was on Anglo-Saxon sculpture of South-East England. There he studied under Sir David M. Wilson, thereafter the director of the British Museum, a fact which Tweddle credits with helping him obtain his first job.

Career

In 1978 or 1979, while still a student, Tweddle was appointed as a research assistant in the then department of medieval and later antiquities at the British Museum. He worked worked there with, among others, Wilson, James Graham-Campbell and Leslie Webster. After nine months he left because, according to him, "I didn't want to spend the rest of my life in an institution, even one as nice as the BM."

From the British Museum Tweddle went to the York Archaeological Trust in 1979, where he served as assistant director. At the trust he was responsible for research, publication and public presentation, as well as the care and curation of the collections. He was among those who led the development of the Jorvik Viking Centre in the early 1980s, and directed the creation of the Archaeological Resource Centre, a hands-on visitors' experience. He also directed the restoration and furnishing of Barley Hall, a merchant's house built around 1360.

In 1982 Tweddle was involved in the excavation of the eighth-centyry Anglo-Saxon Coppergate helmet, found in York during excavations for the Jorvik Center. He served as part of the artefact research and administration team during the watching brief, and was on hand to assess and record objects as they were found. His resulting 1992 book on the helmet and associated materials, The Anglian Helmet from 16–22 Coppergate, was termed "a major piece of archaeological research" and "a definitive work of undoubted importance". The chapters "Dating" and "Discussion", in particular, were called "without doubt, the strongest and most informative parts of a book with few weak points", and built on the work of previous authors, including Heiko Steuer and Greta Arwidsson, to offer "a wide-ranging survey, from Pictland to Kiev, of post-Roman helmet types, their distributions and their dating."

Publications

• Tweddle, Dominic (1978). "A Fragment of Pre-Conquest Sculpture from Balsham, Cambridgeshire" (PDF). Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society. LXVIII. Cambridge Antiquarian Society: 17–20.
• Addyman, Peter V.; Pearson, Nicholas; Tweddle, Dominic (November 1982). "The Coppergate helmet". Antiquity. LVI (218): 189–194. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00054673.
• Tweddle, Dominic (1983a). "The Coppergate Helmet" (PDF). Fornvännen. 78: 105–112. ISSN 0015-7813.
• Tweddle, Dominic (1983b). "The Coppergate helmet – a recent find in York". In Lamm, Jan Peder; Nordstrom, Hans-Åke (eds.). Vendel Period Studies: transactions of the Boat-Grave Symposium in Stockholm, February 2–3, 1981. Studies – The Museum of National Antiquities, Stockholm. Vol. 2. Stockholm: Statens Historiska Museum. pp. 190–191. ISBN 978-91-7192-547-3. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |lastauthoramp= ignored (|name-list-style= suggested) (help)
• Budny; Tweddle, Dominic (December 1984). "The Maaseik embroideries". Anglo-Saxon England. 13. Cambridge University Press: 65–96. doi:10.1017/S0263675100003525.
• Budny; Tweddle, Dominic (September 1985). "The Early Medieval Textiles at Maaseik, Belgium". The Antiquaries Journal. LXV (2). Society of Antiquaries of London: 353–389. doi:10.1017/S0003581500027177.
• Tweddle, Dominic (1992). The Anglian Helmet from 16–22 Coppergate (PDF). The Archaeology of York. Vol. 17/8. London: Council for British Archaeology. ISBN 1-872414-19-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Bibliography

• "2015 Maritime Media Awards Winners and Nominees". The Maritime Foundation. 2015. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
• "About". HMS Warrior. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
• Härke, Heinrich (1993). "The Anglian Helmet from 16-22 Coppergate (Archaeology of York, XVII/8), by Dominic Tweddle (book review)" (PDF). Medieval Archaeology. XXXVII. Society for Medieval Archaeology: 320–321. doi:10.5284/1000320. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Hole, Brian (19 December 2010). "Interview with Dominic Tweddle, Director General of the National Museum of the Royal Navy". Papers from the Institute of Archaeology. University College London. doi:10.5334/pia.340. Retrieved 23 June 2017. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
• "Honorary Associates". UCL Institute of Archaeology. University College London. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
• "Meet Our Professors". University of Portsmouth. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
• "Professor Dominic Tweddle". National Museum Directors' Council. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
• Rynne, Etienne (March 1994). "The Archaeology of York. Volume 17, fascicule 8. The Small Finds: The Anglian Helmet from 16–22 Coppergate. By Dominic Tweddle". The Antiquaries Journal. 74. Society of Antiquaries of London: 351–353. doi:10.1017/S0003581500024598. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)