Julian D. Richards

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Julian D. Richards

Academic background
Alma mater University of Cambridge
North Staffordshire Polytechnic
Institutions University of Leeds
University of York

Julian Daryl Richards OBE FSA is a British archaeologist and academic. He works at the University of York where he is Professor of Archaeology, director of its Centre for Digital Heritage, and director of the Archaeology Data Service (ADS). [1] He is also co-director of the academic journal Internet Archaeology , [2] and contributed to the founding of The White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities. [1] His work focuses on the archaeological applications of information technology. He has participated in excavations at Cottam, Cowlam, Burdale, Wharram Percy, and Heath Wood barrow cemetery. [1]

Contents

Career

Sea-faring Danes depicted invading England, from the Miscellany on the Life of St. Edmund, c. 1130 AD Miscellany on the Life of St. Edmund - MS M.736 fol. 9v.jpg
Sea-faring Danes depicted invading England, from the Miscellany on the Life of St. Edmund, c. 1130 AD

Richards studied archaeology and anthropology at the University of Cambridge, after switching from history. He began his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree at North Staffordshire Polytechnic in 1980, researching burial rituals among pre-Christian Anglo-Saxons. [1] His doctoral thesis was titled "An investigation of the significance of form and decoration in Early Anglo-Saxon funerary urns" and was completed in 1985. [3]

In the 1970s or 1980s Richards was a volunteer in the excavations of Viking Age settlements around the Coppergate Shopping Centre in York. He then spent time at the University of Leeds, before returning to York in 1986 to lecture about Anglo-Saxon and Viking archaeology at the University of York. [1]

Richards lectured at the University of York, concentrating on Anglo-Saxon and Viking Age archaeology, particularly mortuary behaviour and settlement evolution, in England. In that capacity he published Viking Age England in 1991, [4] and has worked at Cottam, Cowlam, Burdale, Wharram Percy, and Heath Wood barrow cemetery. As of February 2018, he is re-examining a winter camp used by the Great Viking Army at Torksey, Lincolnshire, [1] [5] [6] stretching over 136 acres (55 ha). [7] [8]

Another concentration of Richards is the intersection of archaeology and technology. In 1985 he co-edited a textbook on archaeological computing, Current Issues in Archaeological Computing, [9] a focus of subsequent books and papers. [1] He is the director of the Archaeology Data Service, a digital archive of archaeological research, [1] and the co-director of Internet Archaeology , an electronic peer-reviewed journal. [2] He is also the director the Centre for Digital Heritage at the University of York. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1991 [10] and is a Member of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (MCIfA).

Richards was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2024 New Year Honours for services to heritage and digital archiving. [11]

Selected works

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danelaw</span> Historical name given to part of England ruled by the Danes (865–954)

The Danelaw was the part of England in which the laws of the Danes held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. The Danelaw contrasts with the West Saxon law and the Mercian law. The term is first recorded in the early 11th century as Dena lage. The areas that constituted the Danelaw lie in northern and eastern England, long occupied by Danes and other Norsemen.

Repton is a village and civil parish in the South Derbyshire district of Derbyshire, England, located on the edge of the River Trent floodplain, about 4+12 miles (7 km) north of Swadlincote. The population taken at the 2001 census was 2,707, increasing to 2,867 at the 2011 census. Repton is close to the county boundary with neighbouring Staffordshire and about 4+12 miles (7 km) northeast of Burton upon Trent.

Lincolnshire, England derived from the merging of the territory of the ancient Kingdom of Lindsey with that controlled by the Danelaw borough Stamford. For some time the entire county was called 'Lindsey', and it is recorded as such in the Domesday Book. Later, Lindsey was applied to only the northern core, around Lincoln; it was defined as one of the three 'Parts of Lincolnshire', along with Holland in the south-east and Kesteven in the south west.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hogback (sculpture)</span> Stone carved Anglo-Scandinavian sculpture

Hogbacks are stone carved Anglo-Scandinavian sculptures from 10th- to 12th-century northern England and south-west Scotland. Singular hogbacks were found in Ireland and Wales. Hogbacks fell out of fashion by the beginning of the 11th century. Their function is generally accepted as grave markers. Similar later grave markers have been found in Scandinavia. In Cornwall similar stones are known as coped stones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Torksey</span> Village in Lincolnshire, England

Torksey is a small village in the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 875. It is situated on the A156 road, 7 miles (11 km) south of Gainsborough and 9 miles (14 km) north-west of Lincoln, and on the eastern bank of the tidal River Trent, which here forms the boundary with Nottinghamshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Heathen Army</span> Norse invasion of England in 865

The Great Heathen Army, also known as the Viking Great Army, was a coalition of Scandinavian warriors who invaded England in AD 865. Since the late 8th century, the Vikings had been engaging in raids on centres of wealth, such as monasteries. The Great Heathen Army was much larger and aimed to conquer and occupy the four kingdoms of East Anglia, Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cottam, East Riding of Yorkshire</span> Human settlement in England

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bagsecg</span> Viking king and leader of the Great Army

Bagsecg, also known as Bacgsecg, was a viking and a leader of the Great Army, which invaded England. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Bagsecg and Healfdene were joint commanders of the Great Army that invaded the Kingdom of Wessex during the northern winter of 870/71.

Sir David Mackenzie Wilson, FBA is a British archaeologist, art historian, and museum curator, specialising in Anglo-Saxon art and the Viking Age. From 1977 until 1992 he served as the Director of the British Museum, where he had previously worked, from 1955 to 1964, as an assistant keeper. In his role as director of the museum, he became embroiled in the controversy over the ownership of the Elgin Marbles with the Greek government, engaging with a "disastrous" televised debate with Greek Minister of Culture Melina Mercouri.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thynghowe</span> Ancient open-air assembly place

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The East Riding of Yorkshire is a local government district with unitary authority status, and is a ceremonial county of England. It is named after the historic East Riding of Yorkshire which was one of three ridings alongside the North Riding and West Riding, which were constituent parts a Yorkshire ceremonial and administrative county until 1974. From 1974 to 1996 the area of the modern East Riding of Yorkshire constituted the northern part of Humberside.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglo-Scandinavian</span> Cultural phase described by historians

Anglo-Scandinavian is an academic term referring to the hybridisation between Norse and Anglo-Saxon cultures in Britain during the early medieval period. It remains a term and concept often used by historians and archaeologists, and in linguistic spheres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Viking activity in the British Isles</span> Aspect of Viking expansion

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Lesley Jane Abrams, is a retired academic historian. She was a Colyer-Ferguson Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, between 2000 and 2016, and Professor of Early Medieval History at the University of Oxford from 2015 to 2016.

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Dawn Marie Hadley is a British historian and archaeologist, who is best known for her research on the Anglo-Saxon and Viking-Age periods, the study of childhood, and gender in medieval England. She is a member of the Centre for Medieval Studies and the department of archaeology at the University of York.

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Penelope Walton Rogers was a British archaeologist and expert in archaeological textiles.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 University of York Bio.
  2. 1 2 Internet Archaeology.
  3. Richards, J. D. (1985). "An investigation of the significance of form and decoration in Early Anglo-Saxon funerary urns". E-Thesis Online Service. The British Library Board. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
  4. Batey 1992.
  5. Hadley & Richards 2016, p. 24.
  6. Weiss 2018.
  7. Pappas 2017.
  8. ScienceDaily 2017.
  9. Nixon 1987.
  10. "Prof Julian Richards". Society of Antiquaries of London. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
  11. "No. 64269". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 2023. p. N15.

Bibliography