Helen Geake

{{Infobox academic

| name = Helen Geake

| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FSA|}}

| image = Helen Geake with the North West Essex ring (7549200844).jpg

| caption = Geake in 2012

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| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1967}}

| birth_place = Wolverhampton, England

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| alma_mater = University of York

| thesis_year = 1995

| thesis_title = The use of grave-goods in conversion-period England c.600–c.850 A.D.

| influences =

| workplaces = Norwich Castle Museum
Portable Antiquities Scheme

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| thesis_url = http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/2461/

| doctoral_advisor = Martin Carver{{cite thesis |last=Geake |first=Helen |year=1995 |title=The use of grave-goods in conversion-period England c.600–c.850 A.D. |type=PhD |publisher=University of York |url=http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/2461/}} {{open access}}

}}

Helen Mary Geake {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FSA}} (born 1967) is a British archaeologist and small finds specialist. She was one of the key members of Channel 4's long-running archaeology series Time Team.{{cite web |url=http://www.channel4.com/programmes/time-team/articles/meet-the-time-team#helen |title=channel4.com – Time Team – Meet the Team – Helen Geake |publisher=www.channel4.com |accessdate=16 September 2012}}

Early life and education

Geake was born in Wolverhampton in 1967 but grew up in Bath where she attended the private Royal High School Bath. She originally trained as a secretary. However, reading archaeology books and attending lectures by Mick Aston led her to study medieval archaeology at University College London. Subsequently, she took a DPhil at the University of York in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries contemporary with the spectacular ship burial at Sutton Hoo. Her thesis was titled "The use of grave-goods in conversion-period England c.600-c.850 A.D." and was submitted in 1995.

Career

File:Helen Geake looking at metal finds.jpg

After university she worked as assistant keeper of archaeology at Norwich Castle Museum before joining the Portable Antiquities Scheme, first as their finds liaison officer for Suffolk and then as finds adviser for post-Roman objects, based at Cambridge University.[http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/~hg260/ Helen Geake's profile at Cambridge University] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080611140108/http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/~hg260/ |date=11 June 2008 }}; [http://www.finds.org.uk/people/profile.php?personID=88 Helen Geake's page at the Portable Antiquities Scheme site] In 2014 she became the PAS's adviser to its voluntary finds recorders, based at the British Museum. As of 2024, she is the finds liaison officer for Norfolk and the PAS's early-medieval finds adviser.{{cite web |title=Profile for Helen Geake |url=https://finds.org.uk/contacts/staff/profile/id/225 |website=The Portable Antiquities Scheme |access-date=30 November 2024 |language=en}}{{cite web |title=Helen Geake (Trustee) |url=https://saxonship.org/home-page/the-team/the-trustees/helen-geake/ |website=The Sutton Hoo Ship's Company |access-date=30 November 2024}}

File:Helen Geake & Tony Robinson - Sutton Hoo 27-06-2024.jpg

Geake is a member of the Department of Archaeology Advisory Board at the University of York and previously acted as a regional member of the Council of Rescue: The British Archaeological Trust.{{cite web |url=https://www.york.ac.uk/archaeology/about-us/department/daab/helen-geake/ |title=Helen Geake |publisher=University of York |accessdate=28 February 2019}}{{Cite web |url=http://www.rescue-archaeology.org.uk/council/contacts.html |title=RESCUE - the British Archaeological Trust - COUNCIL |access-date=23 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090531103916/http://www.rescue-archaeology.org.uk/council/contacts.html |archive-date=31 May 2009 |url-status=dead }}

In January 2003, she was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.{{cite web |url=https://www.sal.org.uk/about-us/fellows-directory/?fs=geake

|title=Fellows Directory: Dr. Helen M Geake FSA |publisher=Society of Antiquaries of London |accessdate=28 February 2019}}

=Television=

File:HelenGeake.jpg while filming an episode of Time Team in 2007]]

She first worked for Time Team in 1998 as a digger, and took part occasionally thereafter as an Anglo-Saxon specialist. She joined the frontline team of presenters, for the 2006 series and continued until 2010.

In 2012 Geake appeared in three episodes of Britain's Secret Treasures having previously appeared as an Anglo-Saxon specialist in National Geographic specials titled Saxon Gold: New Secrets Revealed (2011) and 'Saxon Gold: Finding the Hoard' (2010).{{IMDb name|id=2541080}}

=Politics=

Geake stood for the Green Party in the Bury St Edmunds constituency at the 2015 General Election;{{cite news |title=Director selected as Tory candidate for Bury St Edmunds |date=4 November 2014 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-29906498 |publisher=BBC News |accessdate=13 May 2015}} she came fourth with 7.9 per cent of the vote.{{cite news |title=Bury St Edmunds Parliamentary Constituency |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/constituencies/E14000613 |publisher=BBC News |accessdate=13 May 2015}} In the 2017 General Election she came fourth with 4.2 per cent of the vote.{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/constituencies/E14000613 |title=Election 2017: Bury St Edmunds Parliamentary constituency |work=BBC News |accessdate=8 November 2019}} Geake was newly elected to the Mid Suffolk district council in the May 2019 elections;{{cite news |url=https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/election-2019-mid-suffolk-results-2572704 |title=Mid Suffolk local elections 2019: Shock as Tories lose leader and Green party makes huge gains |work=East Anglian Daily Times |accessdate=14 May 2021 |date=3 May 2019}} she was one of two Green party councillors for the Elmswell & Woolpit ward. She was again the Green candidate at the 2019 general election, where she polled 9,711 votes with 15.7 percent of the vote, an increase of 7,000 votes or 11.5% from the 2017 election.{{cite news |url=https://www.buryfreepress.co.uk/news/greens-name-time-team-star-as-election-candidate-for-bury-9083979/ |title=Time Team star Helen Geake to stand for Green Party in Bury St Edmunds election |work=Bury Free Press |date=25 September 2019 |author1=Mata, William}} Geake did not seek re-election on Mid Suffolk district council in the May 2023 elections.

Personal life

Geake is married to Angus Wainwright, the National Trust archaeologist for the East of England, with two sons and a daughter. She is a cousin of the late John E. Geake, after whom the asteroid 9298 Geake is named.{{citation needed|date=February 2019}}

Selected publications

'Burial Practice in Seventh- and Eighth-Century England' in Martin Carver (ed.), The Age of Sutton Hoo, Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 1992. {{ISBN|0851153305}}
The Use of Grave Goods in conversion-Period England c.600-c.850, British Archaeological Reports, Oxford, 1997. {{ISBN|0-86054-917-8}}
{{cite journal | ref = none | last = Geake | first = Helen | date = 1999 | title = When Were Hanging Bowls Deposited in Anglo-Saxon Graves? | journal = Medieval Archaeology | volume = 43 | pages = 1–18 | doi = 10.1080/00766097.1999.11735623 | url = https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-769-1/dissemination/pdf/vol43/43_001_018.pdf }} {{free access}}
Early Deira: Archaeological Studies of the East Riding in the Fourth to Ninth Centuries AD (editor, with Jonathan Kenny), Oxbow Books, Oxford, 2000. {{ISBN|1-900188-90-2}}
'Persistent problems in seventh-century burial', in S. Lucy and A. Reynolds (eds.), Burial in Early Medieval England, Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph 17, W.S. Maney and Son, London, 2002. {{ISBN|1-902653-65-3}}
'The control of burial practice in Anglo-Saxon England' in Martin Carver (ed.), The Cross Goes North: : Processes of Conversion in Northern Europe, AD 300–1300, York Medieval Press, 2003. {{ISBN|1-84383-125-2}}