Martin Biddle

Martin Biddle (born June 4, 1937 in North Harrow , Middlesex ) is a British archaeologist .

Martin Biddle was interested in archaeological digs from an early age. He participated in his first excavation in 1949 at the age of 12. It was an excavation by Mortimer Wheeler in St Albans ( Verulamium ), overseen by Molly Cotton . He searched the wheelbarrows for things that might have been overlooked. In 1952 he took part in a Wheeler excavation at Stanwick . From 1950 to 1955 he attended the Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood . He did his National Service with the Royal Tank Regiment . In October 1957 he came to Berlin with the rank of troop leader. However, the squadron was disbanded due to army cuts. After a letter to Wheeler, he was sent to the excavations of Kathleen Kenyon in Jericho . He studied archeology and anthropology at Pembroke College in Cambridge from 1958 to 1961 . Two years later he became the first lecturer in medieval archeology in England at the University of Exeter (1963–1967). He was then a visiting fellow at All Souls College , Oxford (1967-1968) and in 1968 became director of the Winchester Research Unit. He was professor of anthropology and art history at the University of Pennsylvania (1977-1981) and was director of the university museum. He was Lecturer of the House at Christ Church , Oxford (1983–1986) and Astor Senior Research Fellow in Medieval Archeology at Hertford College (1989–2002). He taught at the University of Oxford from 1997 until his retirement in 2002 as Professor of Medieval Archeology.

Biddle is considered a great connoisseur of medieval Winchester and a pioneer of medieval urban archeology. From 1952 to 1955 he conducted the excavations at the Manor of the More near Rickmansworth , an important palace from the time of Henry VIII. An account of the excavations was published in 1959 in The Archaeological Journal . He led the excavations in Winchester from 1961 to 1971. It was the largest archaeological excavation and historical research ever carried out in a British city. The establishment of the Winchester Research Unit was intended to complete the excavation and research and prepare the results for publication in the Winchester Studies series . Since 1968 he has been the editor of Winchester Studies . During the excavations he also met his wife Birthe Kjølbye. They married in 1966. The marriage had two daughters. He carried out further excavations with his wife at the Abbey of St Albans and in Repton (1974-1993). His wife died of cancer in 2010.

Biddle is a widely honored scientist for his research. He was awarded the British Archaeological Association's Reginald Taylor & Lord Fletcher Essay Prize in 1965 for his contribution to Nicholas Bellin . In 1964 he became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London , 1970 Fellow of the Royal Historical Society , and in 1985 he was admitted to the British Academy . He and his wife Birthe Kjølbye-Biddle received the Frend Medal from the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1986 . Martin Biddle became Officer (OBE) in 1997 and Commander (CBE) of the Order of the British Empire in 2014 . Biddle became an Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College in 2006.

Fonts

Monographs

• Christ's tomb. New Testament sources. Historical and archaeological research - surprising findings. From the English by Heike Pitt-Killet (= Biblical Archeology and Contemporary History. Vol. 5). Brunnen-Verlag, Giessen 1998, ISBN 3-7655-9804-6 .
• with Dominic Tweddle, Birthe Kjølbye-Biddle: Corpus of Anglo-Saxon stone sculpture. Vol. 4: South-east England. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1995, ISBN 0-19-726129-9 .

Editorships

• The Winchester mint and coins and related finds from the excavations of 1961-71 (= Winchester studies. Vol. 8). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2012, ISBN 0-19-813172-0 .
• with Frank Barlow: Winchester in the early Middle Ages. An edition and discussion of the Winton Domesday (= Winchester studies. Vol. 1). Clarendon Press, Oxford 1976, ISBN 0-19-813169-0 .

literature

• Martin Henig (Ed.): Intersections. The archeology and history of Christianity in England, 400-1200. Papers in honor of Martin Biddle and Birthe Kjølbye-Biddle. Archaeopress, Oxford 2010, ISBN 978-1-4073-0540-0 .

Web links

• Publications by Martin Biddle in the Opac der Regesta Imperii
• Page from Biddle on the Winchester Excavations Committee

Remarks

1. ↑ Martin Biddle, Lawrence H. Barfield, Alan Millard: The Excavation of the Manor of the More, Rickmansworth. In: The archaeological journal 116 (1959) pp. 136-199.
2. ^ Martin Biddle: Nicholas Bellin of Modena, an Italian artificer at the courts of Francis I and Henry VIII. In: Journal of the British Archaeological Association , ser. 3, 29 (1966), pp. 106-121.