Ian Stead

{{Short description|British archaeologist}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

Ian Mathieson Stead {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FSA|FBA}} (born 1936) is a British archaeologist and curator, specialising in the British Iron Age.

Stead was an Inspector of Ancient Monuments for the UK Government. Along with Geoffrey Wainwright and Brian Davison, Stead was part of the 'Government digging team' working under the Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments.{{cite book |title=The Invisible Diggers: A Study of British Commercial Archaeology |edition=2 |author1=Everill, Paul |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/185248325.pdf |publisher=Oxbow}} With the Inspectorate he undertook excavations at Winterton Roman villa,{{PastScape |num=63693 |desc=|accessdate=8 May 2021}} Baldock,{{cite book |author1=Stead, I. M. |author2=Rigby, V. |date=1986 |title=Baldock: the excavation of a Roman and pre-Roman settlement, 1968-72 |publisher=Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies}} and Verulamium amongst many others. He subsequently worked as the deputy keeper of the Department of Prehistoric and Romano-British Antiquities of the British Museum.{{cite web |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG85385 |title=Dr Ian M Stead |publisher=British Museum |accessdate=8 May 2021}}

He was elected as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA) on 3 March 1966,{{cite web |url=https://www.sal.org.uk/our-fellows/directory/dr-ian-stead/ |title=Dr Ian Stead |publisher=Society of Antiquaries of London |accessdate=8 May 2021}} and as a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) in 1991.{{cite web |url=https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/fellows/ian-stead-FBA/ |title=Dr Ian Stead FBA |publisher=British Academy |accessdate=6 May 2021}} In 1995 he was presented with a festschrift by former colleagues at the British Museum titled Sites and Sights of the Iron Age: Essays on Fieldwork and Museum Research Presented to Ian Mathieson Stead.{{cite journal |author=Ralston, Ian |date=1998 |journal=Britannia |volume=29 |title=Reviewed Work: Sites and Sights of the Iron Age: Essays on Fieldwork and Museum Research Presented to Ian Mathieson Stead by B. Raferty, V. Megaw, V. Rigby |pages=490–491|doi=10.2307/526860 |jstor=526860 }}