14 Facts About Andrew Sherratt

Andrew George Sherratt was an English archaeologist, one of the most influential of his generation.

Andrew Sherratt was best known for his theory of the secondary products revolution.

Andrew Sherratt received his PhD from Cambridge in 1976, writing his thesis on The Beginning of the Bronze Age in south-east Europe.

Andrew Sherratt moved to Oxford, having been appointed Assistant Keeper of Antiquities at the Ashmolean Museum in 1973.

Andrew Sherratt was a reader at the University of Oxford from 1997 and Professor from 2002.

Andrew Sherratt travelled widely and received international recognition for his work.

Andrew Sherratt was invited to give the prestigious Human Context and Society lectures at Boston University in 1998 and his topic was Between Evolution and History: long-term change in human societies.

Andrew Sherratt regularly contributed outside of his main field, for instance through a position on the editorial board of the historical journal Past and Present.

Such interests in linking across continents meant that Andrew Sherratt maintained an interest in all the major shifts in humanity from global colonisation, through the spread of agriculture to the development of metallurgy and urbanism, including the Indo-European question and the development of new forms of consumption.

Andrew Sherratt recognised the importance of psychoactive drugs and medicine to early culture, and he was co-editor of Consuming Habits, Drugs in History and Anthropology.

Andrew Sherratt was invited to present the four part television series, Sacred Weeds, which aired to critical acclaim in 1998.

Andrew Sherratt had a significant hand in designing Oxford's undergraduate course in archaeology and anthropology, playing a key role as an interlocutor in the development of a new generation of archaeologists who drew from social anthropology as well as archaeology.

Shortly before his death of a heart attack in Witney, Andrew Sherratt had initiated a project, ArchAtlas, that uses modern remote sensing technology, combined with image and text, to graphically communicate complex patterns of change and interaction across time and space.

Andrew Sherratt married Susan Andrew Sherratt in 1974; they had three children and co-authored several academic articles.