Neil Faulkner (22 January 1958 – 4 February 2022) was a British archaeologist, historian, writer, lecturer, broadcaster, and political activist.

Biography

Faulkner was born on 22 January 1958. He was educated at the

Skinners' School The Skinners' School (formally The Skinners' Company's Middle School for Boys and commonly known as Skinners'), is a British Grammar School with academy status for boys located in the town of Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England. Established in ...

in Tunbridge Wells,

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...

and the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, Faulkner was a school teacher before becoming an archaeologist. He was a Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, co-founder and contributing editor of ''Archaeology Worldwide magazine'', editor of ''Military History Matters'', a contributing editor of ''

Current Archaeology ''Current Archaeology'' is a British monthly archaeology magazine. Summary ''Current Archaeology'' describes itself as the "United Kingdom's best selling archaeology magazine", a claim substantiated by British Archaeological Jobs and Resources o ...

'', and co-director of the Great Arab Revolt Project (in Jordan) and the Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project (in Norfolk, England). On 22 May 2008, he was elected a

Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

(FSA). Faulkner was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of blood lymphoma in mid-2021. He died from the cancer in February 2022, at the age of 64.

Research

Originally trained as a Romanist, Faulkner excavated an

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

site at

Sedgeford Sedgeford is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk, about 5 miles south of the North Sea and east of the Wash. It is 36 miles north-west of Norwich. Its area of had a population, including Fring, of 613 at the 2011 Ce ...

in Norfolk from 1996 with the

Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project The Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project (SHARP) is a long-term, multidisciplinary research project based in north-west Norfolk, United Kingdom. It is involved in the investigation of the local history and archaeology, with a st ...

(SHARP). In 2016, he completed a ten-year field project looking at the military campaigns of

Lawrence of Arabia Thomas Edward Lawrence (16 August 1888 – 19 May 1935) was a British archaeologist, army officer, diplomat, and writer who became renowned for his role in the Arab Revolt (1916–1918) and the Sinai and Palestine Campaign (1915–191 ...

in southern Jordan (the Great Arab Revolt Project). The author of many articles and numerous academic papers, his ten books include ''The Decline and Fall of Roman Britain'', ''Apocalypse: The Great Jewish Revolt Against Rome'', ''Rome: Empire of the Eagles'', ''A Visitor's Guide to the Ancient Olympics'', ''A Marxist History of the World: From Neanderthals to Neoliberals'', and ''Digging Sedgeford: A People's Archaeology''. His latest book is ''Lawrence of Arabia's War'' (Yale University Press).

Media appearances

Faulkner appeared frequently on television, both at home and abroad. His TV work includes Channel Four's ''

Time Team ''Time Team'' is a British television programme that originally aired on Channel 4 from 16 January 1994 to 7 September 2014. It returned online in 2022 for two episodes released on YouTube. Created by television producer Tim ...

'', BBC2's ''

Timewatch ''Timewatch'' is a long-running British television series showing documentaries on historical subjects, spanning all human history. It was first broadcast on 29 September 1982 and is produced by the BBC. The ''Timewatch'' brandname is used as a ...

'', and Sky Atlantic's ''The British''. He appeared as both academic specialist and political commentator. He made several short history documentaries for

Tariq Ali Tariq Ali (; born 21 October 1943) is a Pakistani-British political activist, writer, journalist, historian, filmmaker, and public intellectual. He is a member of the editorial committee of the ''New Left Review'' and ''Sin Permiso'', and con ...

's regular Telesur series ''The World Today''. In 2019, Faulkner appeared on BBC Radio 4's programme ''

In Our Time In Our Time may refer to: * ''In Our Time'' (1944 film), a film starring Ida Lupino and Paul Henreid * ''In Our Time'' (1982 film), a Taiwanese anthology film featuring director Edward Yang; considered the beginning of the "New Taiwan Cinema" * ''In ...

'' to discuss Lawrence of Arabia.

Politics

Faulkner was a

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

and a

revolutionary socialist Revolutionary socialism is a political philosophy, doctrine, and tradition within socialism that stresses the idea that a social revolution is necessary to bring about structural changes in society. More specifically, it is the view that revoluti ...

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

. Having previously been a long-standing member of the Socialist Workers Party, from 1980 to 2010, and then a member of Counterfire, he left in order to set up Brick Lane Debates and the Left Book Club. In 2020 he was on the co-ordinating committee of Anti-Capitalist Resistance.

Publications

*''The Decline and Fall of Roman Britain''. Tempus. (2000). *''Apocalypse: The Great Jewish Revolt Against Rome'' (2002) Tempus, first edition; (2012) Amberley Publishing, second edition *''Rome: Empire of the Eagles, 753 BC – AD 476'' (2009), Routledge *''A Visitor's Guide to the Ancient Olympics'', Yale University Press, (1 May 2012) *''A Marxist History of the World: From Neanderthals to Neoliberals'' Pluto Press. (5 abril 2013). *''Digging Sedgeford: A People's Archaeology''. Poppyland Publishing. (2014). * ''Lawrence of Arabia's War: The Arabs, the British and the Remaking of the Middle East in WWI''. Yale University Press. (2016). *''Creeping Fascism: Brexit, Trump, and the Rise of the Far Right''. Public Reading Rooms. (2017). 235 pages. *''A People's History of the Russian Revolution''. Pluto Press. (15 April 2017). *''A Radical History of the World''. Pluto Press. (15 October 2018). 512 pages. *''Abandoned Places of World War I'', Amber Books (2021), *''Empire and Jihad: The Anglo-Arab Wars of 1870-1920''. Yale University Press. (2021)

References

External links

Neil Faulkner's official website

* Obituary: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/mar/15/neil-faulkner-obituary {{DEFAULTSORT:Faulkner, Neil 1958 births 2022 deaths Alumni of King's College, Cambridge British archaeologists British Trotskyists Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London British magazine editors People educated at The Skinners' School Socialist Workers Party (UK) members British Marxists British writers British socialists Deaths from lymphoma