Professor Helena Hamerow

Professor Helena Hamerow

Professor of Early Medieval Archaeology

Fellow 
 

Helena Hamerow is Professor of Early Medieval Archaeology. Her research explores the evidence for the rural communities, farming practices and economy of northwest Europe during the Early Middle Ages, c 400-1000. This interest led to an ERC-funded project (FeedSax) to investigate the so-called ‘Medieval Agricultural Revolution’. The project deployed novel methodologies to establish the conditions in which medieval crops were grown and how medieval farmers fed a rapidly growing population during a period of climatic warming. She is currently a PI on the project, ‘Molecular Ecologies of Medieval European Landscapes’ which uses sedimentary DNA and archaeological data to investigate the impact of medieval farming on modern patterns of biodiversity.  She has published several books, most recently Feeding Medieval England. A Long ‘Agricultural Revolution’, which was awarded the European Archaeological Association’s Book Prize for 2026. She also publishes on the changing role of women in Conversion-period England and the evidence for gendered patterns of mobility in the same period.

Helena is a Fellow of the British Academy and a corresponding Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America, and has been a Commissioner of Historic England since 2019.