Judy Birmingham, Date of Birth, Place of Birth

Judy Birmingham

British-Australian archaeologist

Date of Birth: 01-Jan-1932

Place of Birth: Essex, England, United Kingdom

Profession: archaeologist, anthropologist

Nationality: United Kingdom, Australia

Zodiac Sign: Capricorn

Jean (Judy) Birmingham is a prominent English historical archaeologist, who has been based in Sydney, Australia, for most of her career. Birmingham received her MA in Classics from the University of St Andrews in 1953 and latter attended the UCL Institute of Archaeology and received her MA in Archaeology from there in 1959.
In 1961, an opening for an Iron Age specialist was created at the University of Sydney, and Birmingham was recommended for the post.
Birmingham and her then-husband Michael travelled to Australia, where she taught as a lecturer, specialising in Iron Age Cyprus and Anatolia.In 1966, Birmingham began to look for sites close to Sydney where her students could get basic training in archaeological techniques.
In 1967, Birmingham began running excavations at the site of Irrawang Pottery, the pottery works owned by James King at Irrawang just north of Newcastle.
This project is considered to be one of the first examples of historical archaeology in Australia.In 1973, Birmingham and historian Ian Jack proposed teaching a course in historical archaeology at the University of Sydney.
As detailed by Jack, the course proposal was fought by the conservative members of the archaeology department; however the proposal was accepted and the first course in historical archaeology in Australia was taught by Birmingham, Jack, geographer Dennis Jeans and historian Ken Cable.
The course also had a significant fieldwork component to give student essential practical training.