Helen Geake
Dr Helen Geake is one of the key members of Channel 4's popular and long-running archaeology series Time Team, presented by Tony Robinson, along with Mick Aston and Phil Harding.[1]
Geake was born in Wolverhampton in 1967 but grew up in Bath. She originally trained as a secretary. However, reading archaeology books and attending lectures by Mick Aston led her to study medieval archaeology at University College London. Subsequently she took a PhD at the University of York in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries contemporary with the spectacular ship burial at Sutton Hoo.[1]
After university she worked as assistant keeper of archaeology at Norwich Castle Museum. Currently she is Finds Advisor for Early Medieval to Post-Medieval Objects for the Portable Antiquities Scheme, based at Cambridge University Department of Archaeology.[2] She first worked for Time Team in 1998 as a digger, and took part occasionally thereafter as an Anglo-Saxon specialist. She joined the frontline team of presenters for the 2006 series.[1]
She has contributed a number of articles on her specialist field, editing and writing other works. In 2003 she was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.[3] She is also a regional member of the Council of Rescue: The British Archaeological Trust.[4]
Geake is married with two sons and a daughter, and lives in Suffolk. She is a cousin of the late John E Geake, for whom the asteroid 9298 Geake is named.
Selected works
- The Use of Grave Goods in conversion-Period England c.600-c.850, British Archaeological Reports, Oxford, 1997. ISBN 0-86054-917-8
- 'Why were hanging bowls deposited in Anglo-Saxon graves?' in Medieval Archaeology vol. 43, 1999.
- Early Deira: Archaeological Studies of the East Riding in the Fourth to Ninth Centuries AD (editor, with Jonathan Kenny), Oxbow Books, Oxford, 2000. ISBN 1-900188-90-2
- 'Persistent problems in seventh-century burial', in S. Lucy and A. Reynolds (eds.), Burial in Early Medieval England, Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph 17, W.S. Maney and Son, London, 2002. ISBN 1-902653-65-3
- 'The control of burial practice in Anglo-Saxon England' in Martin Carver (ed.), The Cross Goes North: : Processes of Conversion in Northern Europe, AD 300-1300, York Medieval Press, 2003. ISBN 1-84383-125-2
References
- ^ a b c "channel4.com - Time Team - Meet the Team - Helen Geake". www.channel4.com. Retrieved 2010-03-02.
- ^ Helen Geake's profile at Cambridge University; Helen Geake's page at the Portable Antiquities Scheme site
- ^ Society of Antiquaries of London List of Fellows
- ^ List of Council members of Rescue