Barbara Alison Birley (born 15 February 1976) is an archaeologist and museum curator working at the Roman fort of

Vindolanda Vindolanda was a Roman auxiliary fort ('' castrum'') just south of Hadrian's Wall in northern England, which it pre-dated. Archaeological excavations of the site show it was under Roman occupation from roughly 85 AD to 370 AD. Located near th ...

, near

Hadrian's Wall Hadrian's Wall (, also known as the ''Roman Wall'', Picts' Wall, or ''Vallum Aelium'' in Latin) is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Roman Britain, Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. Ru ...

Biography

Birley is the curator for the Vindolanda Trust, where she works on the conservation, cataloguing, and display of the Roman artefacts found at the fort, and serves as the Chair of the Roman Finds Group. She 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 17 June 2021. Birley has published on the Roman jewellery and combs found at Vindolanda, as well as on public engagement with archaeology, including the 'Stories from the Frontier' project, which is developing a digital game to help visitors to Vindolanda engage with the site. Birley is married to

Andrew Birley Andrew Robin Birley (born 28 October 1974) is a British archaeologist and the Director of Excavations on the site of Vindolanda. He is the son of Robin Birley and Patricia Birley and grandson of Eric Birley, who founded the department of Archa ...

, also an archaeologist working at Vindolanda.

Select publications

*Birley, B. and Greene, E. 2006.
The Roman Jewellery from Vindolanda
' (Research reports, New Series Vol IV). Vindolanda Trust. *Birley, B. 2014. "A penannular brooch and two strap-ends from Vindolanda". ''Archaeologia Aeliana'' Series 5. Vol 43, pp. 73-76. *Birley, B. 2016. "Keeping Up Appearances on the Romano-British Frontier", ''Internet Archaeology'' 42. *Birley, B. 2018. "Stylising the functional: Wooden hair combs from Vindolanda", in Ivleva, T., De Bruin, J., and Driessen, M. (eds) ''Embracing the Provinces: Society and Material Culture of the Roman Frontier Regions''. Oxbow Books. *Stocks, C., Birley, B., and Collins, R. 2018. "Stories from the Frontier: Linking Past and Present at Vindolanda through Digital Gameplay", ''Thersites'' 8. *Birley, B. and Griffiths, B. 2022. "From academic research to delivery: translating knowledge to deliver accessible and captivating programmes" in Alberti, M. & Mountain, K. (eds)
Hadrian's Wall: Exploring its Past to Protect its Future
'. Archaeopress, pp. 34-45

References

American women archaeologists Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London 21st-century American archaeologists Living people American curators American women curators 1976 births People from Englewood, Colorado Women classical scholars North East England Roman Britain {{US-archaeologist-stub