Jane Kershaw

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Jane Kershaw
FSA
Born1982 (age 42–43)
Occupation
  • Archaeologist
AwardsLeverhulme Early Career Fellowship
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of Oxford
Thesis (2010)
Academic work
DisciplineArchaeology
Institutions
  • Oxford archaeology

Jane Frances Kershaw FSA (b. 1982) is a British archaeologist and academic. She is the Gad Rausing Associate Professor of Viking Age Archaeology at the University of Oxford.[1] Her research focusses on Viking Age archaeology, particularly on metalworking and the bullion economy in Viking England.

Biography

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Kershaw has an undergraduate degree in history from the University of Oxford and then studied at Harvard University before returning to Oxford for her PhD.[2] Her 2010 PhD thesis was titled Culture and gender in the Danelaw: Scandinavian and Anglo-Scandinavian brooches, 850-1050 and was supervised by Helena Hamerow. Kershaw was awarded a studentship in Archaeology at Queen's College, Oxford in 2010. In 2011 she received a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Oxford from the British Academy to continue research into the bullion economy of Viking England.[3] She held a Junior Research Fellowship at Balliol College, Oxford in 2014 and was awarded a Leverhulme Trust from 2017–2019 to study Britain's Viking silver hoards.[1]

Kershaw has undertaken excavations at Coquet Valley, Northumberland.[4] She has written for The Conversation[5] and British Archaeology.[6] Kershaw appeared on an episode of In Our Time in March 2019 about 'The Danelaw'.[7]

Kershaw was elected as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London on 15 May 2024.[8]

Select publications

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  • Kershaw, J., Merkel, S., Woods, A., Evans, J., Pashley, V., Chenery, S. 2025. "The Provenance of Silver in the Viking‐Age Hoard From Bedale, North Yorkshire", Archaeometry doi:10.1111/arcm.70031.
  • Savage, C., Naismith, R., Merkel, S., Kershaw, J. 2025. "Sources of silver in twelfth-century northern English and Scottish coins: a preliminary look", British Nusmismatic Journal 94, 87–100.
  • Kershaw, J., Merkel, S., Naismith, R. 2024. "Byzantine plate and Frankish mines: the provenance of silver in north-west European coinage during the Long Eighth Century (c. 660–820)", Antiquity 98 (398), 502–517.
  • Kershaw, J., Merkel, S.W., Oravisjärvi, J., Kooijman, E., Kielman-Schmitt, M. 2021. "The scale of dirham imports to the Baltic in the ninth century: new evidence from archaeometric analyses of early Viking-Age silver", Fornvännen 116 (3), 185–204.
  • Kershaw, J. 2016. "Scandinavian-style metalwork from southern England: new light on the ‘First Viking Age’ in Wessex", in Lavelle, R. and Roffey, S. (eds). Danes in Wessex: the Scandinavian impact on southern England, c.800-c.1100, Oxford, Oxbow.

References

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  1. ^ a b "Dr Jane Kershaw". University of Oxford. Retrieved 22 September 2025.
  2. ^ Kershaw, Jane F. "Viking Identities: Scandinavian Jewellery in England". Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2025-09-22.
  3. ^ "Postdoctoral Fellowship Awards 2011". British Academy. Retrieved 22 September 2025.
  4. ^ "Northumberland dig: Archaeologists start search for Viking Great Army camp". BBC News. 10 October 2022. Retrieved 22 September 2025.
  5. ^ Kershaw, Jane (20 August 2025). "Vikings were captivated by silver – our new analysis of their precious loot reveals how far they travelled to get it". The Conversation. Retrieved 22 September 2025.
  6. ^ Kershaw, Jane (2010). "On the trail of Viking women". British Archaeology. No. 115. pp. 18–23.
  7. ^ "The Danelaw". In Our Time. 28 March 2019. BBC.
  8. ^ "Dr Jane Kershaw FSA". Society of antiquiaries of London. Retrieved 22 September 2025.
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