Helen Geake facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Helen Geake FSA
Geake in 2012
Born	1967 (age 57–58) Wolverhampton, England
Alma mater	University of York
Scientific career
Institutions	Norwich Castle Museum Portable Antiquities Scheme
Thesis	The use of grave-goods in conversion-period England c.600–c.850 A.D. (1995)
Doctoral advisor	Martin Carver

Helen Mary Geake (born in 1967) is a British archaeologist. She is an expert in finding and studying small historical objects. Many people know her from the popular Channel 4 TV show Time Team, where she was a main member.

Early Life and Education

Helen Geake was born in Wolverhampton, England, in 1967. She grew up in Bath and went to the private Royal High School Bath. At first, she trained to be a secretary.

However, she became very interested in archaeology by reading books and going to lectures. This led her to study medieval archaeology at University College London. Later, she earned her PhD at the University of York. Her studies focused on Anglo-Saxon burial sites. These sites were from the same time as the famous ship burial at Sutton Hoo. Her PhD paper, finished in 1995, was about "The use of grave-goods in conversion-period England c.600-c.850 A.D."

What Does an Archaeologist Do?

After finishing university, Helen worked at the Norwich Castle Museum. She was an assistant keeper of archaeology there. Later, she joined the Portable Antiquities Scheme. This program helps record archaeological finds made by the public.

She first worked for them in Suffolk. Then she became an expert on objects from after the Roman period, based at Cambridge University. In 2014, she started advising volunteers who record finds at the British Museum. Today, she is the finds liaison officer for Norfolk. She also advises on early-medieval finds for the Portable Antiquities Scheme.

Helen is part of the Department of Archaeology Advisory Board at the University of York. She was also a regional member of the Council of Rescue: The British Archaeological Trust. In 2003, she became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. This is a special honor for people who study history and old objects.

Helen Geake on TV

Geake looking at small finds during a Time Team excavation in Lincoln's Inn Fields

Helen Geake first worked on the TV show Time Team in 1998. She started as a digger. Over time, she appeared more often as an expert on Anglo-Saxon history. From 2006 to 2010, she was one of the main presenters on the show.

Geake with Stewart Ainsworth while filming an episode of Time Team in 2007

In 2012, Helen was in three episodes of Britain's Secret Treasures. Before that, she was an Anglo-Saxon expert in National Geographic specials. These included Saxon Gold: New Secrets Revealed (2011) and 'Saxon Gold: Finding the Hoard' (2010).

Helen Geake in Politics

Helen Geake has also been involved in politics. She ran for the Green Party in elections for the UK Parliament. She ran in the Bury St Edmunds area in 2015 and 2017.

In May 2019, she was elected to the Mid Suffolk district council. She was one of two Green Party councillors for the Elmswell & Woolpit area. She ran again in the 2019 general election and received many votes. However, she did not run for re-election to the Mid Suffolk district council in May 2023.

Personal Life

Helen Geake is married to Angus Wainwright. He is an archaeologist for the National Trust in the East of England. They have two sons and a daughter. Helen is also a cousin of the late John E. Geake. An asteroid called 9298 Geake is named after him.

Selected Publications

Helen Geake has written several books and articles about archaeology:

• 'Burial Practice in Seventh- and Eighth-Century England' in Martin Carver (ed.), The Age of Sutton Hoo, Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 1992. ISBN: 0851153305
• The Use of Grave Goods in conversion-Period England c.600-c.850, British Archaeological Reports, Oxford, 1997. ISBN: 0-86054-917-8

• Early Deira: Archaeological Studies of the East Riding in the Fourth to Ninth Centuries AD (editor, with Jonathan Kenny), Oxbow Books, Oxford, 2000. ISBN: 1-900188-90-2
• 'Persistent problems in seventh-century burial', in S. Lucy and A. Reynolds (eds.), Burial in Early Medieval England, Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph 17, W.S. Maney and Son, London, 2002. ISBN: 1-902653-65-3
• 'The control of burial practice in Anglo-Saxon England' in Martin Carver (ed.), The Cross Goes North: : Processes of Conversion in Northern Europe, AD 300–1300, York Medieval Press, 2003. ISBN: 1-84383-125-2

Images for kids

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  Helen Geake with Tony Robinson at Sutton Hoo June 2024