Malcolm Todd

Malcolm Todd (27 November 19396 June 2013) was an English archaeologist. Born in Durham, England, the son of a miner, Todd was educated in classics and classical archaeology at St David's College, Lampeter and Brasenose College, Oxford. He subsequently served as a reader and professor at the University of Nottingham and the University of Exeter respectively. During this time, Todd conducted notable excavations at sites of Roman Britain. He was later principal at Trevelyan College, Durham. Todd retired from Durham in 2000, and subsequently dedicated himself to research and writing. He was the author and editor of several works on the archaeology of Roman Britain and the Germanic peoples in the Migration Period.

Early life Malcolm Todd was born in Durham, England, on 27 November 1939, the son of Wilfrid Todd and Rose Evelyn Johnson. Durham was at the time a characteristic mining and farming community, and his father was a miner.

Education Todd went to grammar school in Hartlepool. Encouraged by his father, who did not want his son to become a miner, he received his Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in classics from St David's College, Lampeter, and a diploma in classical archaeology from Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1963. Among his teachers at Oxford were Ian Richmond. Todd married Molly Tanner on 2 September 1964, with whom he had a daughter and a son. He became a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute in 1977. It was while at Exeter that he carried out his most notable archaeological fieldwork. Todd uncovered a previously unrecognised Roman occupation of the Iron Age hillfort in Hembury.

Last years Map of tribal movements of the Migration Period. Todd was recognised as one of the world's leading experts on the archaeology of the period. Though well liked by many of his students, Todd had little patience with administrative work, and had an ambivalent view on the digitization of academia. As a result, he took an early retirement from Trevelyan in 2000, which enabled him to focus entirely on writing and research.

After his retirement Todd returned to Exeter, where he continued to own a house. During this time he edited and published Companion to Roman Britain (2004), which has been referred to by The Times as an essential work. He also published the results of his excavations at Charterhouse-on-Mendip.

Todd died of a heart attack on 6 June 2013. Throughout his career, he was the author of numerous books and scholarly articles, and also wrote entries for works such as the Encyclopædia Britannica, Cambridge Ancient History and Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. His bibliography includes three books about the Germanic peoples, on whom he was considered to be a leading expert. Several of these were translated into multiple languages, such as French, German and Italian. His books also covered topics related to the Roman Empire, including the Aurelian Walls, Roman currency, populated places of Britain, Romano-British tribes, and the end of Roman rule in Britain.