Catherine Hills


Catherine Mary Hills is a British archaeologist and academic, who is a leading expert in Anglo-Saxon material culture. She is a Senior Research Fellow at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge.

Education

In the 1960s Hill excavated with Phillip Rahtz at Beckery chapel, Glastonbury.

Career

She was appointed as a lecturer in Cambridge in 1977 in the Department of Archaeology. Previous to that she was a Field Officer for Norfolk Archaeological Unit. Hills was elected as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1978. She was a Fellow of Newnham College.
Hills was closely associated with the excavation of the famous early Anglo-Saxon cremation cemetery at Spong Hill, North Elmham, Norfolk, where she directed excavations from 1974 until the completion of excavations in 1981. Hills' post-excavation analyses of this major site led to substantial contributions in the fields of early Anglo-Saxon archaeology, particularly regarding burial and migration, and more recently the chronology of the 5th century.
She presented the Channel 4 series The Blood of the British. She is Vice-President of the Society for Medieval Archaeology from 2017-2022.

Selected publications