Chris Gosden

Christopher Hugh Gosden (born 6 September 1955) is a British and Australian archaeologist specialising in archaeological theory, especially theories of materials, the archaeology of colonialism, the archaeology of technology and magic, the archaeology of identity, particularly English identity. He is Emeritus Professor of European Archaeology and was Director of the Institute of Archaeology at the University of Oxford. He is also a trustee of the British Museum.

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. He reconnected with his birth mother in 1987.

Gosden studied at the Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1977 and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 1983. He then moved to La Trobe University, where he had been appointed a lecturer in its Department of Archaeology in 1986. He was awarded a title of distinction as Professor of Archaeology in 2004, and served as head of the School of Archaeology between 2004 and 2006.

In 2005, Gosden was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (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. 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.