Archaeologist of the Year 2019

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Sponsor of the 2019 Archaeologist of the Year award.
We are delighted to announce that Richard Osgood is the winner of this year’s prestigious Archaeologist of the Year award
Richard Osgood collects the Archaeologist of the Year 2019 award.
Richard Osgood collects the Archaeologist of the Year 2019 award.
(Photo: Adam Stanford/Aerial-Cam)

Top honours for Archaeologist of the Year at the prestigious Current Archaeology Awards for 2019 went to Richard Osgood of the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO). In 2011, Richard co-founded Operation Nightingale – an initiative using archaeological fieldwork to aid the recovery of wounded veterans – and since then the project has gone from strength to strength. In the last year, its excavations have barely been out of the pages of CA, including work at Barrow Clump (CA 336 and 343), Rat Island (CA 339), Bulford (CA 342), and Barton Farm (CA 345), as well as in an overview of Operation Nightingale’s latest manoeuvres in CA 338. Since 2004, Richard has worked as Senior Archaeologist for the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), responsible for managing and preserving monuments and archaeological sites within the entire Ministry of Defence estate. Previously, he was Research Assistant to Professor Sir Barry Cunliffe and also advised Philip Pullman on archaeology in the Northern Lights trilogy. Richard is a regular contributor on the BBC’s Digging for Britain.

Accepting the award, Richard Osgood said:

“I would like to honour [fellow-nominees for Archaeologist of the Year] Sophie Jackson and Christophe Snoeck, who have worked on projects that will have a massive legacy. I would also like to thank my boss and my team, all the readers of Current Archaeology, and all the volunteers and members of Operation Nightingale – this award is for their endeavours.”

Below are all the nominees in this category:


Sophie Jackson

For the past ten years, Sophie has been deeply involved in the archaeology of Bloomberg’s new European HQ, taking the lead on plans for the award-winning reconstruction of London’s Temple of Mithras (CA 334). Officially known as ‘London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE’, this is the first new interpretation of a Roman ruin for over 20 years, and in its first year of operation it has attracted over 100,000 visitors. Sophie is MOLA’s Director of Research and Engagement, and an experienced field archaeologist who has worked for various organisations in the UK and abroad. She has been involved with major archaeological projects including the Jubilee Line Extension, the Thames Strategy East, and the Thames Tideway tunnel, and has designed and managed programmes of archaeological work for some of the most complex developments in the UK.


Richard Osgood

In 2011, Richard co-founded Operation Nightingale – an initiative using archaeological fieldwork to aid the recovery of wounded veterans – and since then the project has gone from strength to strength. In the last year, its excavations have barely been out of the pages of CA, including work at Barrow Clump (CA 336 and 343), Rat Island (CA 339), Bulford (CA 342), and Barton Farm (CA 345), as well as in an overview of Operation Nightingale’s latest manoeuvres in CA 338. Since 2004, Richard has worked as Senior Archaeologist for the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), responsible for managing and preserving monuments and archaeological sites within the entire Ministry of Defence estate. Previously, he was Research Assistant to Professor Sir Barry Cunliffe and also advised Philip Pullman on archaeology in the Northern Lights trilogy. Richard is a regular contributor on the BBC’s Digging for Britain.


Christophe Snoeck

Few can have missed the recent news coverage of a study examining the Neolithic cremated human remains buried at Stonehenge in the monument’s earliest phase (CA 344). This work shed new light on the origins of the Stonehenge dead, and quite how far people were prepared to travel to the site 5,000 years ago. The science behind the study was developed by Christophe during his DPhil in Archaeological Science at the University of Oxford, where he examined the structural and isotopic modifications that occur during cremation and how they can be studied in archaeological contexts. His findings have the potential to revolutionise what we can understand from cremated remains. Christophe is currently a post-doctoral researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the Scientific Coordinator of the CRUMBEL project (Cremations, Urns, and Mobility: Ancient Population Dynamics in Belgium).


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