Neil Faulkner (archaeologist)


Neil Faulkner is a British archaeologist, historian, writer, lecturer, broadcaster, and political activist.

Biography

Educated at King’s College, Cambridge and the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, Faulkner was a school teacher before becoming an archaeologist.
He is currently a Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, Editor of Military History Monthly, and Co-director of the Great Arab Revolt Project and the Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project. On 22 May 2008, he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Research

Originally trained as a Romanist, he has been excavating an Anglo-Saxon site at Sedgeford in Norfolk since 1996. In 2016, he completed a ten-year field project looking at the military campaigns of Lawrence of Arabia in southern Jordan.
The author of many articles and numerous academic papers, his ten books include The Decline and Fall of Roman Britain, Apocalypse: The Great Jewish Revolt Against Rome, Rome: Empire of the Eagles, A Visitor’s Guide to the Ancient Olympics, A Marxist History of the World: From Neanderthals to Neoliberals, and Digging Sedgeford: A People's Archaeology. His latest book is Lawrence of Arabia's War.

Media appearances

Faulkner appears frequently on television, both at home and abroad. His TV work includes Channel Four's Time Team, BBC2's Timewatch, and Sky Atlantic's The British. He appears as both academic specialist and political commentator. He has recently made several short history documentaries for Tariq Ali's regular Telesur series The World Today.
In 2019, Faulkner appeared on BBC Radio 4's programme In Our Time to discuss Lawrence of Arabia.

Politics

Faulkner is a Marxist and a revolutionary socialist activist. Having previously been a long-standing member of the Socialist Workers Party and then a member of Counterfire, he left in order to set up Brick Lane Debates and the Left Book Club.
He has recently joined the Labour Party. He is active in Momentum, and has been centrally involved in popularising "Corbynomics".

Publications