Christopher Hugh Gosden (born 6 September 1955) is a British and Australian

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, ...

specialising in archaeological theory, especially theories of materials, the archaeology of colonialism, the archaeology of technology and magic, the archaeology of

identity Identity may refer to: * Identity document * Identity (philosophy) * Identity (social science) * Identity (mathematics) Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Identity'' (1987 film), an Iranian film * ''Identity'' (2003 film), an ...

, particularly

English identity According to some scholars, a national identity of the English as the people or ethnic group dominant in England can be traced to the Anglo-Saxon period. For Lindy Brady and Marc Morris, Bede's '' Ecclesiastical History of the English People'' and ...

. He is Emeritus Professor of European Archaeology and was Director of the Institute of Archaeology at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. He is also a

trustee Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, refers to anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the ...

of the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

Early life and education

Gosden was born on 6 September 1955. His biological mother was Jean Weddell (1928–2013), a physician, academic, and bell-ringer. She gave him up for adoption soon after birth, and he was subsequently adopted by Hugh and Margaret Gosden. The family emigrated to Australia, but later returned to the United Kingdom: he holds both Australian and British citizenship. He reconnected with his birth mother in 1987. Gosden studied at the

Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield The Department of Archaeology at the University of Sheffield, UK, was an academic Academic department, department dedicated to archaeology from 1976 to January 2025. As of 2025 it is no longer providing undergraduate and postgraduate courses in a ...

, graduating with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

(BA) degree in 1977 and a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

(PhD) degree in 1983.

Academic career

From 1984 to 1985, Gosden was a visiting fellow and

postdoctoral researcher A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary acade ...

at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

. He then moved to

La Trobe University La Trobe University is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora, Victoria, Bundoora. The university was established in 1 ...

, where he had been appointed a

lecturer Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct re ...

in its Department of Archaeology in 1986. He had been promoted to senior lecturer by the time he left Australia in 1993. In 1994, Gosden joined the

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

of the

Pitt Rivers Museum Pitt Rivers Museum is a museum displaying the archaeological and anthropological collections of the University of Oxford in England. The museum is located to the east of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, and can only be accessed ...

and a university lecturer in archaeology. He was also a

fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

St Cross College, Oxford St Cross College, known colloquially as StX, is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1965, St Cross is a graduate college with gothic and traditional-style buildings on a central site in St Giles', just sou ...

, from 1994 to 2006: he is now an

Emeritus Fellow ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some ca ...

of the college. He was awarded a

title of distinction The University of Oxford introduced Titles of Distinction for senior academics in the 1990s. These are not established chairs, which are posts funded by endowment for academics with a distinguished career in British and European universities. Howeve ...

as Professor of Archaeology in 2004, and served as head of the

School of Archaeology The School of Archaeology is an academic department of the University of Oxford comprising the Institute of Archaeology and the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art (RLAHA), and is part of Oxford's Social Sciences Division ...

between 2004 and 2006. He stepped down as Curator of the Pitt Rivers Museum in 2006, when he was appointed to the Chair of European Archaeology and elected a fellow of

Keble College, Oxford Keble College () is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its main buildings are on Parks Road, opposite the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, University Museum a ...

. In 2005, Gosden was elected a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...

(FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences. In 2016, he was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA). He retired from Oxford in 2023 but is still working on various archaeological projects. He is the Principal Investigator for the ERC funded HORSEPOWER project in collaboration with the British Museum and colleagues at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and, the Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie (LEIZA).

Personal life

In 1992, Gosden married Jane Kaye. She is a legal scholar and Director of the Centre for Law, Health and Emerging Technologies at the University of Oxford. They have two children.

Selected works

* Pollard, A. Mark and Gosden, Chris (2023). An Archaeological Perspective on the History of Technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781009184212. * Gosden, Chris et al. (2021). ''English Landscapes and Identities. Investigating Landscape Change from 1500 BC to AD 1086''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198870623. * * Gosden, Chris (2018). ''Prehistory: a very short introduction (2nd edition)''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198803515. * * * * ISBN 9780199548064.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gosden, Chris British archaeologists Fellows of Keble College, Oxford Fellows of the British Academy 1955 births Alumni of the University of Sheffield Trustees of the British Museum Living people Academic staff of the Australian National University Academic staff of La Trobe University Fellows of St Cross College, Oxford Australian archaeologists Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities People associated with the Pitt Rivers Museum