Landscape Archaeology Medal

Professor Sarah Semple was awarded the 2024 Landscape Archaeology Medal. She is best known for her innovative explorations of early medieval landscapes in Britain and northern Europe.

Her book, 'Perceptions of the Prehistoric in Anglo-Saxon England' (2013), pioneered an approach that integrated landscape, iconographic, textual and archaeological evidence to produce new readings of early medieval landscapes. This work has proven to be seminal, influencing several recent doctoral theses and shaping current understandings of how power was performed in early medieval landscapes.

Sarah Semple is Professor in Archaeology at the Department of Archaeology, Durham University. After studying at the Institute of Archaeology in London (UCL), she worked in commercial archaeology in the UK.

She completed a DPhil in Archaeology at Queen’s College, Oxford investigating early medieval perceptions and uses of the prehistoric landscape, and then an Early Career Postdoctoral Fellowship at St. Cross College focused on early medieval religion and ritual in the landscape.

She helped set up the BA Archaeology programme at the University of Chester, before joining Durham University in 2006.

Her publications, including 'Perceptions of the Prehistoric' (OUP) and, with colleagues, 'Negotiating the North' (Routledge), and special issues in 'World Archaeology' on 'Temporary Places, Gatherings and Assemblies' and 'Necrogeographies', stem from research interests in the landscapes, material culture and funerary archaeology of early medieval Britain and the North Sea zone.

This work particularly focuses on ways of understanding past human interactions with natural and human altered environments and the centrality of physical remains in the shaping of early medieval identity and power.

She is currently leading a major funded project on the political and social development of the kingdom of Northumbria centred on the funerary, bioarchaeological and landscape evidence, and undertaking a field reassessment, including new excavations, at the early medieval royal complex at Yeavering in Northumberland.

"I am absolutely delighted to have been considered for the British Academy Landscape Archaeology Medal in 2024. It is an incredible honour and high point in my career to receive this award! My research in landscape archaeology has been spurred on by a desire to achieve a deep understanding of human engagement and responses to natural and cultural environments in the past and present, and it is wonderful that this has been acknowledged in such a prestigious way. I owe a great deal to my colleagues at Durham and my research students, as well as external research partners, who have constantly stimulated and broadened my research horizons in landscape studies through collaboration and discussions."

– Professor Sarah Semple, August 2024

2023 Professor Carenza Lewis, University of Lincoln

2022 Professor Charles French, University of Cambridge

2021 not awarded

2020 Professor Keith Branigan, Emeritus Professor at the University of Sheffield

2019 Professor Dominic Powlesland, Landscape Research Centre

2017 Professor Tom Williamson, University of East Anglia

2015  Dr David Hall, University of Exeter

2013  Mr Christopher Taylor FBA, Formerly Head of Archaeological Survey, Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England

2011  Dr Conor Newman, Senior Lecturer, Department of Archaeology, National University of Ireland

2009  Professor Tony Wilkinson FBA, Professor of Archaeology, Durham University

2007  Professor Andrew Fleming, Emeritus Professor, University of Wales Trinity St David

Eligible nominations can be for landscape archaeology in any part of the world and in any period, provided that the nominated scholar is based in Britain or Ireland.

Nominations for this award are open from 1 December to 31 January and may only be made by Fellows of the British Academy. Entries should be submitted electronically via this nomination form.

The deadline for submissions is 31 January each year. Nominations will be reviewed, and the winner selected, by the relevant panel.

If you have any queries submitting a nomination, please email [email protected].