Audrey Lilian Meaney (19 March 1931 – 14 February 2021) was an

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

and historian specialising in the study of

Anglo-Saxon England Anglo-Saxon England or early medieval England covers the period from the end of Roman Empire, Roman imperial rule in Roman Britain, Britain in the 5th century until the Norman Conquest in 1066. Compared to modern England, the territory of the ...

. She published several books on the subject, including ''Gazetteer of Early Anglo-Saxon Burial Sites'' (1964) and ''

Anglo-Saxon Amulets and Curing Stones The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to Ge ...

'' (1981).

Biography

Meaney was born in England on 19 March 1931, and took a BA in English at Oxford. In 1955, she was appointed Carlisle Research Student at

Girton College, Cambridge Girton College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college at Cambridge. In 1948, it was granted full college status by the un ...

, to undertake her PhD in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic (completed in 1958), entitled ''A Correlation of Linguistic and Archaeological Evidence for Anglo-Saxon Heathenism''. This established Meaney's interdisciplinary approach to early medieval history, which is noteworthy for its combination of archaeological and textual sources. On finishing her PhD, Meaney moved to Australia, to the English Department at the University of New England; 'in the interests of her marriage' she moved to Sydney, taking temporary academic positions there until, in 1968, she was appointed to the recently formed

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a Public university, public research university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the Sydney metropolitan area. ...

, where she taught until her retirement in 1989, balancing the requirements of work with those of motherhood. In 1984, she became the first Macquarie academic to be elected as a Fellow to the Australian Academy of the Humanities. According to Di Yerbury:

Her contribution to Macquarie University extended deep into its fabric and well-being. She was very influential in the early development of the new University's teaching programs. She was active in several committees, and took on the responsibilities of Acting Head of the School of English and Linguistics. She quietly but persistently promoted the role of women and women's studies. Indeed, her interest in the role of women has been a dominant theme in her research into Anglo-Saxon culture, removing yet another layer of invisibility over women's place in history.

Meaney took a leading role in founding the Sydney Medieval and Renaissance Group and the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. On her retirement, she moved to Cambridge. Meaney produced ''A Gazetteer of Early Anglo-Saxon Burial Sites'', published by

George Allen & Unwin George Allen & Unwin was a British publishing company formed in 1911 when Sir Stanley Unwin purchased a controlling interest in George Allen & Co. It became one of the leading publishers of the twentieth century and established an Australian ...

in 1964. Asserting that it was "in intention exhaustive up to the end of 1960", she noted that she had not included later discoveries due to her residence in Sydney. While teaching in Australia, Meaney returned frequently to the UK to undertake excavations and 1970 saw her publication, jointly with Sonia Hawkes, of the excavation report for ''Two Anglo-Saxon cemeteries at Winnall, Winchester, Hampshire''. The 1980s saw Meaney shifting her focus from archaeology to written texts, developing her work on amulets in an influential series of articles on Anglo-Saxon medicine which have made her one of the most important commentators on the history of early medieval Western medicine. A detailed list of Meaney's publications up to around 1992 was provided by Sue Spinks. Meaney was elected as a Fellow of the

Society of Antiquaries of London The Society of Antiquaries of London (SAL) is a learned society of historians and archaeologists in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1707, received its royal charter in 1751 and is a Charitable organization, registered charity. It is based ...

on 1 January 1977 and to the

Australian Academy of the Humanities The Australian Academy of the Humanities was established by Royal Charter in 1969 to advance scholarship and public interest in the humanities in Australia. It operates as an independent not-for-profit organisation partly funded by the Australi ...

in 1984.

Legacy

Meaney's retirement from Macquarie University prompted a 1992 special issue of the journal ''Parergon'', ''Essays on Early England in Honour of Audrey Meaney''.''Parergon'', 10 (1992). In 2010, Oxbow Books published an anthology titled '' Signals of Belief in Early England: Anglo-Saxon Paganism Revisited'', edited by the archaeologists

Martin Carver Martin Oswald Hugh Carver, FSA, Hon FSA Scot, (born 8 July 1941) is Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at the University of York, England, director of the Sutton Hoo Research Project and a leading exponent of new methods in excavation and sur ...

, Alex Sanmark and Sarah Semple. The book was published in honour of Meaney, "in appreciation of her studies of Anglo-Saxon paganism." In the foreword, the archaeologist Neil Price commented on Meaney and her influential work, noting that most of the published studies that had previously delved into the world of Anglo-Saxon paganism came from her "monumental output", and that it was her "years spent patiently excavating Anglo-Saxon attitudes this collection honours."

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* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Meaney, Audrey Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge Australian archaeologists Australian women archaeologists Historians of England Anglo-Saxon studies scholars Australian historians Australian women historians Place of birth missing Place of death missing 1931 births British women historians British women archaeologists 2021 deaths Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities English emigrants to Australia