- Eckardt, H. (2002) Illuminating Roman Britain. Montagnac: Instrumentum
- Eckardt, H. (2002) The Colchester Lamp Factory. Britannia 33, pp77-93
- Eckardt, H. (1999) The Colchester Child's Grave. Britannia 30, pp57-90.
Hella Eckardt

-
+44 (0) 118 378 6266
-
Professor
- Head of Department of Archaeology
Areas of interest
- Theoretical approaches to material culture
- Roman objects
- The Archaeology of the Roman provinces
- Mobility and migration in the Roman world
- The deposition of Roman objects in rivers.
Postgraduate supervision
Hella currently co-supervises two PhD projects:
- Ringing the changes: the social significance of finger-rings in Roman Britain
- Making Flour The German Way: imported lava quern stones in Roman Britain.
Previous student topics have included:
- Pipeclay figurines in Roman Britain
- Tools in Roman London: industry, household practice and ritual deposition across the ancient city
- Lighting equipment in Lusitania
- Romano-British pewter vessels in the British Museum
- The economic implications of Samian ware from Britain and Germany
- Clay objects in Ostia
- Romano-British bronze figurines
- Mortaria in Roman Britain
- Romano-British pewter vessel.
Hella would welcome research proposals on the archaeology of Roman Britain and the north-western provinces and on Roman Material Culture. For further information, please contact h.eckardt@reading.ac.uk
Teaching
Hella teaches provincial Roman archaeology and material culture studies. Her research focuses on theoretical approaches to the material culture of the north-western provinces. She is particularly interested in the relationship between the consumption of Roman objects and the expression of social and cultural identitiesResearch centres and groups
Research projects
Hella's current research is about the deposition of Roman objects in rivers. Such finds have usually been assumed to be rubbish deposits or the result of accidental loss, but some may be deliberate ritual offerings. With Philippa Walton, she is currently writing a book about the huge assemblage of Roman objects from the River Tees at Piercebridge.
With Gundula Müldner and Mary Lewis, Hella examined the evidence for incomers in Romano-British towns through a combination of material culture, skeletal and isotope research. This showed that there is considerable evidence for individuals of very diverse origins living in later Roman towns such as York and Winchester. Read more about the project: A Long Way from Home: Diaspora Communities in Roman Britain.
She is also very interested in explaining these findings to the wider public and especially school children. Read more at Romans Revealed.
Background
Hella's research focuses on theoretical approaches to the material culture of the north-western provinces and she is particularly interested in the relationship between the consumption of Roman objects and the expression of social and cultural identities. She has published books on:- lighting equipment (Illuminating Roman Britain, 2002)
- objects associated with grooming and personal adornment (with Nina Crummy: Styling the body, 2008)
- Roman migration (A long way from home: diaspora communities in Roman Britain, 2010)
- Roman artefacts and identities (Objects and Identities: Roman Britain and the north-western provinces, 2014)
- the material culture of literacy (Writing and power in the Roman world: literacies and material culture, 2018).
Academic qualifications
- BA (Mainz)
- MA (London)
- PhD (Reading)
Publications
- Eckardt, H. and Walton, P. , eds. (2021) Bridge over troubled water: the Roman finds from the River Tees at Piercebridge in context. Britannia Monographs , 34. Roman Society , London. pp 336. ISBN: 9780907764489 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.5284/1085344
- Eckardt, H. (2019) Britannia in numbers: 50 years of the journal of Romano-British and kindred studies. Britannia , 50 pp. 1-11. ISSN: 1753-5352 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0068113X19000345 (Editorial)
- Eckardt, H. and Williams, S. (2018) The sound of magic? Bells in Roman Britain. Britannia , 49 pp. 179-210. ISSN: 0068-113X | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0068113X18000028
- Eckardt, H. (2018) Writing and power in the Roman world: literacies and material culture. Cambridge University Press , New York. pp 260. ISBN: 9781108418058 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/9781108284172
- Eckardt, H. (2017) Writing power: the material culture of literacy as representation and practice. In: Van Oyen, A. and Pitts, M. , (eds.) Materialising Roman Histories. University of Cambridge Museum of Classical Archaeology Monograph Oxbow Books (3). , Oxford. pp. 23-30. ISBN: 9781785706769
- Eckardt, H. , Muldner, G. , Speed, G. (2015) The late Roman field army in Northern Britain? Mobility, material culture and multi-isotope analysis at Scorton (N. Yorks). Britannia , 46 pp. 191-223. ISSN: 0068-113X | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0068113X1500015X
- Eckardt, H. (2014) Objects and Identities: Roman Britain and the north-western provinces. Oxford University Press , Oxford. pp 296. ISBN: 9780199693986
- Eckardt, H. , Muldner, G. , Lewis, M. (2014) People on the move in Roman Britain. World Archaeology , 46 (4). pp. 534-550. ISSN: 0043-8243 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2014.931821
- Clarke, A. , Creighton, J. , Eckardt, H. (2013) Introduction: Michael Fulford and Roman Silchester. In: Eckardt, H. and Rippon, S. , (eds.) Living and Working in the Roman World, Essays in Honour of Michael Fulford. Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplementary Series , 95. Journal of Roman Archaeology , Portsmouth, Rhode Island. pp. 19-30.
- Eckardt, H. (2011) Heating and lighting. In: Allason-Jones, L. , (eds.) Artefacts in Roman Britain: their purpose and use. Cambridge University Press pp. 180-193. ISBN: 9780521860123
- Chenery, C. , Eckardt, H. , Muldner, G. (2011) Cosmopolitan Catterick? Isotopic evidence for population mobility on Rome’s Northern frontier. Journal of Archaeological Science , 38 pp. 1525-1536. ISSN: 0305-4403 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2011.02.018
- Muldner, G. , Chenery, C. , Eckardt, H. (2011) The 'Headless Romans': multi-isotope investigations of an unusual burial ground from Roman Britain. Journal of Archaeological Science , 38 (2). pp. 280-290. ISSN: 0305-4403 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2010.09.003
- Leach, S. , Eckardt, H. , Chenery, C. , Muldner, G. , Lewis, M. (2010) A Lady of York: migration, ethnicity and identity in Roman Britain. Antiquity , 84 (323). pp. 131-145. ISSN: 0003-598X | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00099816
- Eckardt, H. (2010) A long way from home: diaspora communities in Roman Britain. In: Eckardt, H. , (eds.) Roman diasporas: archaeological approaches to mobility and diversity in the Roman Empire. Journal of Roman Archaeology , Portsmouth, Rhode Island. pp. 99-130. ISBN: 9781887829786
- Chenery, C. , Müldner, G. , Evans, J. , Eckardt, H. , Leach, S. , Lewis, M. (2010) Strontium and stable isotope evidence for diet and mobility in Roman Gloucester, UK. Journal of Archaeological Science , 37 (1). pp. 150-163. ISSN: 0305-4403 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2009.09.025
- Leach, S. , Lewis, M. , Chenery, C. , Müldner, G. , Eckardt, H. (2009) Migration and diversity in Roman Britain: a multidisciplinary approach to immigrants in Roman York, England. American Journal of Physical Anthropology , 140 (3). pp. 546-561. ISSN: 0002-9483 | doi: DOI:10.1002/ajpa.21104
- Eckardt, H. , Booth, P. , Chenery, C. , Müldner, G. , Evans, J. , Lamb, A. (2009) Oxygen and strontium isotope evidence for mobility in Roman Winchester . Journal of Archaeological Science , 36 (12). pp. 2816-2825. ISSN: 0305-4403 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2009.09.010
- Eckardt, H. , Clarke, A. , Hay, S. , Macaulay, S. , Ryan, P. , Thornley, D. , Timby, J. (2009) The Bartlow Hills in context: report on recent excavations. Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society , XCVIII pp. 47-64.
- Eckardt, H. , Brewer, P. , Hay, S. , Poppy, S. (2009) Roman barrows and their landscape context: a GIS case study at Bartlow, Cambridgeshire. Britannia , 40 (1). pp. 65-98. ISSN: 1753-5352 | doi: DOI:10.3815/006811309789786025
- Eckardt, H. and Crummy, N. (2008) Styling the body in late Iron Age and Roman Britain: a contextual approach to toilet instruments. Instrumentum Monograph No. 36 Instrumentum , Montagnac. ISBN: 9782355180095
- Eckardt, H. (2008) Technologies of the body: Iron Age and Roman grooming and display. In: Garrow, . , Gosden, . , Hill, . , (eds.) Rethinking Celtic Art. Oxbow Books , Oxford. pp. 113-128. ISBN: 1842173189
- Astin, T. , Eckardt, H. , Hay, S. (2007) Resistivity imaging survey of the Roman barrows at Bartlow, Cambridgeshire, UK. Archaeological Prospection , 14 (1). pp. 24-37. ISSN: 1075-2196 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/arp.287
- Fulford, M. , Clarke, A. , Eckardt, H. (2006) Life and Labour in Late Roman Silchester: Excavations in Insula IX from 1997. Britannia Monograph 22 Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies , London. pp 0.
- Eckardt, H. and Crummy, N. (2006) 'Roman' or 'native' bodies in Britain: the evidence of late Roman nail-cleaner strap-ends. Oxford Journal of Archaeology , 25 (1). pp. 83-103. ISSN: 0262-5253 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0092.2006.00250.x
- Eckardt, H. (2005) The social distribution of Roman artefacts: the case of nail-cleaners and brooches in Britain. Journal of Roman Archaeology , 18 pp. 139-160.
- Clarke, A. , Eckardt, H. , Fulford, M. , Rains, M. , Tootell, K. (2005) Silchester Roman Town: the Insula IX Town Life Project: the Late Roman archaeology. University of Reading
- Eckardt, H. (2004) Old objects in Roman contexts: portable material culture and memory in the Roman provinces. In: Croxford, . , Eckardt, . , Meade, . , Wakes, . , (eds.) TRAC: Proceedings of the Thirteenth Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference, Leicester 2003. Oxbow Books , Oxford. pp. 36-50.
- Eckardt, H. and Williams, H. (2003) Objects without a past. In: Williams, . , (eds.) Archaeologies of Remembrance: death and memory in past societies. Kluwer/Plenum Academic Press , New York & London. pp. 141-170.