George Speake

George Speake
FSA
Born1944
Died (aged 81)
EducationSlade School of Fine Art
Alma materUniversity of Oxford
Known forLeading authority on Anglo-Saxon animal art
Scientific career
FieldsArt history and archaeology
InstitutionsInstitute of Archaeology at Oxford
Thesis The beginnings and developments of Salin's style II in England  (1974)
Doctoral advisorSonia Chadwick Hawkes[1]
Other academic advisors

George Speake, FSA (1944 or 1945 – 15 January 2026) was an English art historian and archaeologist.[2][3] He was an Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute of Archaeology at Oxford,[2][3] and "a leading authority on Anglo-Saxon animal art."[2] Speake was latterly the Anglo-Saxon Art and Iconography Specialist for the Staffordshire Hoard conservation team,[4] and worked on the reconstruction of the Staffordshire helmet.[5][6]

Early life and education

George Speake was educated at the Slade School of Fine Art in the 1960s, and the University of Oxford, where he studied at St John's College and at the Institute of Archaeology, in the 1970s.[7] At Oxford he studied under Christopher and Sonia Hawkes, obtaining a Ph.D. in 1974 with a thesis about Anglo-Saxon animal art.[7][8][9]

Career

Colour photograph of the horse terminal from the Staffordshire helmet
Horse head terminal from the Staffordshire helmet

Speake specialised in Anglo-Saxon art and iconography.[10] As of 2016 he was working on the reconstruction of the more than 1,000 pieces of the Staffordshire helmet,[4][5] following work on the Prittlewell burial, and teaching fine art and art history.[2] In 2014 he coauthored a book on the Staffordshire Hoard, Beasts, Birds and Gods: Interpreting the Staffordshire Hoard, identifying among other characteristics an "eyeless, open-jawed serpent" depicted on the helmet's cheek guard.[11] A paper on the helmet was due to be published in 2018.[6] He was also an Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute of Archaeology at Oxford.[2]

Speake's 1980 work Anglo-Saxon Animal Art and its Germanic Background,[12] written as the basis for his Ph.D.,[7] is considered "a major break-through in Anglo-Saxon style studies".[13] It provided a comprehensive look at "style II" art,[14] the form of zoomorphic decoration used in Northern Europe from the middle of the sixth century AD to the end of the seventh.[8] Hitherto the least understood style of Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian animal art,[15][8] style II is thought to have been reserved for the upper classes and is found prominently on the objects found in the Sutton Hoo ship-burial and in the Vendel boat graves.[16][17] Speake's work was credited with discussing every known example of the style through 1974—the date of his Ph.D.—and with proving that it was introduced to England from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.[18]

Personal life

Speake's wife, Birgitte, worked as the head of conservation at the Pitt Rivers Museum.[19] They had 2 children:Maria and Caspar Speake.[19] George Speake died on 15 January 2026, at the age of 81, leaving his twin brother John; older sister Heather and younger brother Dennis.[20]

Publications

  • Speake, George (1970). "A Seventh-Century Coin Pendant from Bacton, Norfolk and its Ornament" (PDF). Medieval Archaeology. 14. Society for Medieval Archaeology: 1–16. doi:10.1080/00766097.1970.11735323. Open access icon
  • Hawkes, Sonia Chadwick; Speake, George & Northover, Peter (December 1979). "A Seventh-Century Bronze Metalworker's Die from Rochester, Kent". Frühmittelalterliche Studien. 13: 382–392. doi:10.1515/9783110242126.382. Closed access icon
  • Speake, George (1980). Anglo-Saxon Animal Art. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-813194-1. LCCN 79-41091.
  • Speake, George (1982). "A Romano-British sculptured relief from Stonesfield, Oxon". The Antiquaries Journal. LXII (2). Society of Antiquaries of London: 377–379. doi:10.1017/S0003581500065975. Closed access icon
  • Speake, George (1989). "A Saxon Bed-Burial on Swallowcliffe Down". English Heritage Archaeological Reports. 10. London: Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England. ISBN 1-85074-211-1.
  • Dickinson, Tania M. & Speake, George (1992). "The Seventh-Century Cremation Burial in Asthall Barrow, Oxfordshire: A Reassessment". In Carver, Martin (ed.). The Age of Sutton Hoo: The seventh century in north-western Europe. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. pp. 95–130. ISBN 0-85115-330-5.
  • Speake, George (2007). "Interlace: Thoughts and Observations". In Henig, Martin & Smith, Tyler Jo (eds.). Collectanea Antiqua: Essays in Memory of Sonia Chadwick Hawkes. British Archaeological Reports. Vol. 1673. pp. 127–131. ISBN 978-1407301082.
  • Speake, George (2012). "An Early Romano-British Villa at Combe East End". Oxoniensia. LXXVII. Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society: 1–90. ISSN 0308-5562.
  • Fern, Chris; Speake, George (2014). Beasts, Birds and Gods: Interpreting the Staffordshire Hoard. Warwickshire: West Midlands History. ISBN 978-1-905036-20-2.
  • Speake, George. Aspects of the Staffordshire Hoard Helmet (forthcoming).[6]

References

  1. ^ Henig, Martin; Smith, Tyler Jo (2007), "Introduction", Collectanea Antiqua: Essays in Memory of Sonia Chadwick Hawkes, BAR International Series, no. 1673, BAR Publishing, p. 2
  2. ^ a b c d e Barbican Research.
  3. ^ a b Speake CV.
  4. ^ a b Butterworth et al. 2016, pp. 34, 41.
  5. ^ a b ICON 2016.
  6. ^ a b c Peopling Insular Art 2017.
  7. ^ a b c Speake 1980, p. vii.
  8. ^ a b c Hawkes 1983, p. 446.
  9. ^ Speake, G. (1974). The beginnings and developments of Salin's style II in England (Ph.D. thesis). University of Oxford. Archived from the original on 1 February 2023. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  10. ^ Butterworth et al. 2016, pp. 29, 34, 41.
  11. ^ Fern & Speake 2014, p. 34.
  12. ^ Speake 1980.
  13. ^ Hawkes 1983, p. 448.
  14. ^ Hills 1981, p. 225.
  15. ^ Raw 1981, p. 327.
  16. ^ Hawkes 1983, p. 447.
  17. ^ Higgitt 1982, pp. 62–63.
  18. ^ Hawkes 1983, pp. 446–447.
  19. ^ a b Coulson, Clare (24 August 2025). "Maria Speake and the art of skip-diving". Financial Times. London. Archived from the original on 27 August 2025. Retrieved 24 January 2026.
  20. ^ "Deaths". The Times. London. 24 January 2026. Archived from the original on 24 January 2026. Retrieved 24 January 2026.

Bibliography

allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Speake