Julian C. Richards, (born 1951) is a British television and radio presenter, writer and former professional

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

with over 30 years' experience of fieldwork and publication.

Early career

Richards was born in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

. He studied at

Reading University The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

. Between 1975 and 1980, he worked for the Berkshire Archaeological Unit, helping to build the county Sites and Monuments Record. He excavated and carried out a survey of the

Berkshire Downs The Berkshire Downs are a range of chalk downland hills in South east England split between the counties of Berkshire and Oxfordshire. They are part of the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The western parts of the downs ...

. In 1980 he joined the new group

Wessex Archaeology Wessex Archaeology is a British company that provides archaeological and heritage services, as well as being an educational charity. Apart from advice and consultancy, it also does fieldwork and publishes research on the sites it surveys. The comp ...

, based in

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...

. For almost ten years he ran the ''Stonehenge Environs Project'', a detailed study of

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connectin ...

and its surrounding landscape. With Peter Cox and John Hawkes from Wessex Archaeology, Richards started AC Archaeology in 1991. AC Archaeology is still based in Wiltshire, and now also operates an office in Devon. After three years Richards left commercial archaeology and joined

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

to work on its Monuments Protection Programme (MPP). As part of this work, he inspected sites and prepared reports on the protection of important archaeological sites in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

and the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...

Media career

Shortly after joining the MPP, Richards acted as a consultant to a TV programme about the construction of Stonehenge. He later contributed to the programme ''

Meet the Ancestors ''Meet the Ancestors'' (later ''Ancestors'') is a BBC Television documentary series Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series o ...

''. ''Meet the Ancestors'' was commissioned in late 1996. In the spring of 1997 Richards took a year's leave from English Heritage to work on it. He later resigned from his role with English Heritage to work full-time in broadcasting and writing when a second series was commissioned. As of 2005 he has presented six series of ''Meet the Ancestors'', a five-part series ''

Blood of the Vikings ''Blood of the Vikings'' was a five-part 2001 BBC Television documentary series that traced the legacy of the Vikings in the British Isles through a genetics survey.BBC 2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

. In addition, he has written books to accompany both series. For Radio 4 he has presented eleven series of ''Mapping the Town''. Richards is also responsible for creating two site-interactive games: ''Hunt the Ancestor'' (for which he won a British Archaeology award) and ''Viking Quest'', for the BBC History website. He has also been a regular contributor to the BBC History website and magazine. He also received a British Archaeological Award for the programme ''Chariot Queen''. In 2007 he published ''Stonehenge: The Story So Far''. Other works include ''Stonehenge: A History in Photographs''(2004) and the children's book ''The Amazing Pop-up Stonehenge'' (2005). Richards lives with his family in

Shaftesbury Shaftesbury () is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is situated on the A30 road, west of Salisbury, near the border with Wiltshire. It is the only significant hilltop settlement in Dorset, being built about above sea level on a ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

, where he maintains his special interest in the prehistory of

Wessex la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons , common_name = Wessex , image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg , map_caption = S ...

and particularly

. He is patron of the Friends of Cromford Canal.Friends of the Cromford Canal
Retrieved 30 March 2022

References

UKTV History Yesterday is a British free-to-air history-oriented television channel broadcasting in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It launched on 30 October 2002 as UK History and relaunched in its current format on 2 March 2009. It is available on satell ...

Meet the Author
– Video of Julian Richards talking about his book ''Stonehenge: A History in Photographs'' (

RealPlayer RealPlayer, formerly RealAudio Player, RealOne Player and RealPlayer G2, is a cross-platform media player app, developed by RealNetworks. The media player is compatible with numerous container file formats of the multimedia realm, including MP ...

) {{DEFAULTSORT:Richards, Julian 1951 births British radio personalities English television presenters English archaeologists Living people Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London

Early career

Media career

References

External links