Andrew Sherratt (8 May 1946– 24 February 2006) was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
archaeologist, one of the most influential of his generation.
Sherratt studied archaeology and
anthropologyAnthropology is the study of human beings, everywhere and throughout time....
at Cambridge University, completing his degree in 1968. He received his Ph.D. from Cambridge in 1976, writing on
'The Beginning of the Bronze Age in south-east Europe' . By then he had already moved to Oxford, having been appointed Assistant Keeper of Antiquities at the
Ashmolean MuseumThe Ashmolean Museum on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is the world's first university museum...
in 1973.
Andrew Sherratt (8 May 1946– 24 February 2006) was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
archaeologist, one of the most influential of his generation.
Sherratt studied archaeology and
anthropologyAnthropology is the study of human beings, everywhere and throughout time....
at Cambridge University, completing his degree in 1968. He received his Ph.D. from Cambridge in 1976, writing on
'The Beginning of the Bronze Age in south-east Europe' . By then he had already moved to Oxford, having been appointed Assistant Keeper of Antiquities at the
Ashmolean MuseumThe Ashmolean Museum on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is the world's first university museum...
in 1973. At Oxford University he received the title of Reader in 1997 and Professor in 2002. Oxford remained his academic home until 2005 when he took up a professorship at the
University of SheffieldThe University of Sheffield is a leading research university, located in Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. Ranked within the World's top 70 Universities published by THE - QS World University Rankings and constantly ranked amongst the top 20 universities in Britain and Europe according to The...
. Sherratt travelled widely and received international recognition for his work. He was invited to give the prestigious Human Context and Society lectures at
Boston UniversityBoston University is a private nonsectarian university located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Although chartered by the Massachusetts Legislature in 1869, Boston University traces its roots to the establishment of the Newbury Biblical Institute in Newbury, Vermont in 1839...
in 1998 and his topic was
'Between Evolution and History: long-term change in human societies' .
Perhaps Sherratt's most cited publication was
'Plough and pastoralism: aspects of the secondary products revolution' , published in 1981 in
'Pattern of the Past: Studies in Honour of David ClarkeDavid Clarke or Dave Clarke may refer to:* Dave Clarke, techno DJ from England* David Clarke , motion picture and Broadway actor* David Clarke Australian businessman, director of several large companies...
' , the first article in which he described his idea of a
'Secondary products revolutionAndrew Sherratt's model of a secondary products revolution involved a widespread and broadly contemporaneous set of innovations in Old World farming: early use of domestic animals for primary carcass products was broadened from the 4th-3rd millennia BC to include exploitation for renewable...
' .
He regularly contributed outside of his main field, for instance through a position on the editorial board of the historical journal
Past and Present. His ability to work at a continental, even global, scale of analysis has invited comparisons with V. Gordon Childe.
Analysis at the continental scale led him into adaptation of world-systems theory to questions of change on the large scale in archaeology, notably in the first volume of the
Journal of European Archaeology (
'What would a Bronze Age world system look like? Relations between temperate Europe and the Mediterranean in later prehistory' ) and in his 1995 David Clarke Memorial Lecture, also published in
JEA:
'Reviving the grand narrative: Archaeology and long-term change' . Such interests in linking across continents meant that Andrew maintained an interest in all the major shifts in humanity from global colonisation, through the spread of agriculture to the development of metallurgy and urbanism, including the Indo-European question and the development of new forms of consumption. A collection of his most significant publications in many of these areas appeared in 1996 as Economy and Society in Prehistoric Europe: changing perspectives.
Sherratt's interest in broad scale patterns in history (really pre-history) attracted perhaps his most prestigious accolades, such as when the University of Chicago's historian William McNeill conferred a portion of the prestigious
Erasmus PrizeThe Erasmus Prize is an annual prize awarded by the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation, a Dutch non-profit organization, to individuals or institutions that have made notable contributions to European culture, society, or social science. The Praemium Erasmianum Foundation was founded on 23 June 1958 by...
he won in 1996 upon Sherratt. The Erasmus Prize, awarded annually by the Dutch Praemium Erasmianum Foundation 'for exceptionally important contributions to European culture', requires the winner to pass on his prize-money to chosen nominees.
Sherratt recognised the importance of psychoactive drugs and
medicineMedicine is the art and science of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
to early culture, and he wrote
Consuming Habits, Drugs in History and Anthropology. Sherratt was invited to present the four part television series,
Sacred WeedsSacred Weeds was a four part television series of 50 minute documentaries investigating the cultural impact of psychoactive plants on a broad array of early civilisations. The series was filmed at Hammerwood Park by the producer, Sarah Marris, and her production company TVF...
, which aired to critical acclaim in 1998.
Sherratt was always a stimulating and inspirational teacher. He had a significant hand in designing Oxford's undergraduate course in archaeology and anthropology, playing a key role as an interlocutor in the development of a new generation of archaeologists who drew from social anthropology as well as archaeology. However, presenting his ideas at the appropriate scale has been a constant challenge, as is reflected in an early edited work, the
Cambridge Encyclopedia of Archaeology, published in 1980 and subsequently translated into German, French, Italian, Dutch and Swedish.
Shortly before his death of a
heart attackMyocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, is the interruption of blood supply to part of the heart, causing some heart cells to die...
in
WitneyWitney is a town on the River Windrush, west of Oxford in Oxfordshire, England.-Notable buildings:The Church of England parish church of St. Mary the Virgin was originally Norman. The north porch and north aisle were added in this style late in the 12th century, and survived a major rebuilding in...
(near
OxfordOxford is a city, and the county town of Oxfordshire, in South East England. The city has a population of just under 165,000, with 151,000 living within the district boundary. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre...
), Andrew had initiated a project, ArchAtlas, that uses modern remote sensing technology, combined with image and text, to graphically communicate complex patterns of change and interaction across time and space.
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