Sara Champion


Sara Champion 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.

Early life and education

Champion was born Sara Hermon in 1946, the second of four children. The family lived in Kenya and Tanzania for six years of her childhood. Champion later attended Benenden School. After Benenden Champion attended the University of Edinburgh where she studied for a Masters degree in archaeology under Professor Stuart Piggott. In 1968 Champion moved to St Hugh's College, Oxford, where she studied for a D. Phil. under the supervision of Professor Christopher Hawkes concentrating on the Early European Iron Age.

Academic and archaeological work

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. 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, and electronic archaeology. Another area of research and interest was role the visibility of women in archaeology.
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.

Personal life

Champion met Tim Champion while studying at Oxford and they were married in 1970 at St Paul's Church in Knightsbridge. In 1972 the Champions moved to Southampton where their two sons, Edward and William, were born, in the mid seventies, and 1978 respectively.
Champion's interests outside archaeology included music and she was a long-term member of the Southampton Philharmonic choir.
Champion died of cancer in May 2000. Coldplay, the band of which her son Will is a member, dedicated their debut album Parachutes to her on its release in July 2000.

Selected publications

The Prehistoric Society's annual Sara Champion Memorial Lectures are held every October at the Society of Antiquaries lecture theatre in Burlington House, Piccadilly, London.