Division of Archaeology

People

Catherine Mary Hills

University Senior Lecturer

Office: 1.7, West Building.
Phone: +44 (0) 1223 333528
Fax: +44 (0) 1223 333503
Email: ch35@cam.ac.uk
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Current Research Interests

My research interests focus on the early medieval period in Europe, especially the region around the North Sea. During the 1970s and 80s I directed the excavation of the large Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Spong Hill, Norfolk which remains the only cemetery of its type in England to have been excavated and published in its entirety. It contained more than 2000 cremations and 57 inhumations, dating to the later fifth and sixth centuries AD. This was the basis for my PhD and from it derive my interests in early Anglo-Saxon England and the early medieval period in the North Sea . Topics which interest me include the archaeology of burial, the identification of ethnicity, religious belief and migration in the archaeological record, and the relationship between history and archaeology. I also have an ongoing interest in the public presentation of archaeology. In the 1980s I presented two archaeological series on Channel 4, and in recent years I have been much involved with the reconstructed Anglo-Saxon village at West Stow.

• Anglo-Saxon archaeology in general, particularly the nature and course of Anglo-Saxon migration across the North Sea, and the subsequent development of new societies on the basis of both Romano-British and incoming Germanic peoples;
• the iconography of the early medieval, pre-Christian peoples of northern Europe as shown through bracteates, runes, animal ornaments, etc;
• burial archaeology;
• history and archaeology;
• publication and presentation of archaeology to the public.