Sara Champion

Sara Champion (11 November 1946 – 14 May 2000) was a British archaeologist with an interest in the European Iron Age and the role and visibility of women working in archaeology. She was editor of PAST, the newsletter of The Prehistoric Society from 1997 until her death in 2000. The Prehistoric Society hosts an annual Sara Champion Memorial Lecture.

. . . Sara Champion . . .

Champion was born Sara Hermon, the second of four children. The family lived in Kenya and Tanzania (Tanganyika at the time) for six years of her childhood. Champion later attended Benenden School. After Benenden, Champion attended the University of Edinburgh, where she studied for a master’s degree in archaeology under Stuart Piggott. In 1968 Champion moved to St Hugh’s College, Oxford, where she studied for a D.Phil. under the supervision of Christopher Hawkes concentrating on the Early European Iron Age.[1]

Champion undertook a two-year research fellowship in archaeology at Southampton University. She also lectured at the archaeology department there and taught on the Adult and Continuing Education courses.[1] Champion also worked for English Heritage, overseeing the upkeep and preservation of the scheduled monuments of West Hampshire and Dorset. Champion recognised the potential of the internet for archaeology and she lectured and wrote articles on the application of internet resources in the teaching of archaeology,[2] and electronic archaeology.[3] Another area of research and interest was role the visibility of women in archaeology.[4]

Six years after Champion’s death a seminar room in the Crawford Building, the new building for the archaeology department at the university, was named in her honour.[5]

. . . Sara Champion . . .

. . . Sara Champion . . .