Geoff Egan

Geoffrey Egan, FSA (19 October 1951 – 24 December 2010) was a British archaeologist, medievalist and small finds expert. He spent the majority of his career as an archaeologist with the Museum of London's Department of Urban Archaeology (later Museum of London Archaeology), rising from a field archaeologist to a fieldwork director and then a finds specialist. From 2004 to his death, on secondment to the British Museum, he was the national finds adviser on early medieval to post-medieval finds for the Portable Antiquities Scheme.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Geoff Egan with a table of archaeological finds in 2009

Early life and education

Egan was born on 19 October 1951 in Wembley^[1] or Harrow,^[3][4] London, England. He was educated at Harrow County School for Boys, an all-boys grammar school in Harrow.^[1] He then matriculated into Peterhouse, Cambridge, first studying classics before switching to the joint archaeology and anthropology degree.^[3] He graduated from the University of Cambridge with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1976.^[4]

In 1988, he was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree by the University of London for a doctoral thesis titled "Provenanced leaden cloth seals".^[6]

Selected works

• Egan, Geoff (1996). Playthings From the Past: Lead Alloy Miniature Artefacts c. 1300-1800. Jonathan Horne Publications.
• Egan, Geoff; Pritchard, Frances (2004). Dress accessories: c. 1150 - c. 1450. London: Boydell Press. ISBN 978-0851158396.
• Egan, Geoff (2005). Material culture in London in an age of transition: Tudor and Stuart period finds c. 1450- c. 1700 from excavations at riverside sites in Southwark. London: Museum of London archaeology service. ISBN 190199239X.
• Griffiths, David; Philpott, Robert A.; Egan, Geoff (2007). Meols: the archaeology of the North Wirral coast discoveries and observations in the 19th and 20th centuries, with a catalogue of collections (PDF). Oxford University School of Archaeology Monograph Series. Vol. 68. Oxford. ISBN 978-1905905034.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

References

1. Bland, Roger (9 February 2011). "Geoff Egan obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
2. "Geoffrey Egan". The Times. 22 January 2011. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
3. Lewis, Carenza; Catling, Christopher (September 2011). "Dr Geoffrey Egan". Childhood in the Past. 4 (1): 8–10. doi:10.1179/cip.2011.4.1.8. S2CID 218663063.
4. Catling, Chris; Bland, Roger (2011). "Geoffrey Egan PhD, FSA Archaeologist and finds expert". The Portable Antiquities Scheme. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
5. "Geoff Egan: a tribute" (PDF). Post-Medieval Archaeology. 45 (2): 337–349. 2011. doi:10.1179/174581311X13135030529511. S2CID 218677259.
6. Egan, G. (1988). Provenanced leaden cloth seals. discovery.ucl.ac.uk (Thesis). University College London. Retrieved 25 August 2023.