Catherine Johns (born 1941) is a British archaeologist and

museum curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

. She is a specialist in Roman jewellery, Romano-British provincial art, and

erotic art Erotic art is a broad field of the visual arts that includes any artistic work intended to evoke erotic arousal. It usually depicts human nudity or sexual activity, and has included works in various visual mediums, including drawings, engr ...

Career

Johns worked for many years, until 2002, as the Curator of Roman Britain at the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. She was elected as a Fellow of the

Society of Antiquaries of London A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Soci ...

in January 1973. Johns has published numerous articles and books on archaeological subjects including the Snettisham Jeweller's Hoard, the

Hoxne Hoard The Hoxne Hoard ( ) is the largest hoard of late Roman silver and gold discovered in Britain, and the largest collection of gold and silver coins of the fourth and fifth centuries found anywhere within the former Roman Empire. It was found by ...

, and the

Barber Cup A barber is a person whose occupation is mainly to cut, dress, groom, style and shave men's and boys' hair or beards. A barber's place of work is known as a "barbershop" or a "barber's". Barbershops are also places of social interaction and publi ...

. From 2003 to 2011 she was appointed by the

Department for Culture, Media and Sport , type = Department , logo = Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport logo.svg , logo_width = , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = Gove ...

as a member of the reviewing committee on the 'Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest'. She served three terms as a member of this Reviewing Committee. As part of this body, in 2009, she helped block the export of a unique Viking mount from

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

valued at over £50,000. Johns has also served on the committees of the Society of Antiquaries of London, the

Roman Society The culture of ancient Rome existed throughout the almost 1200-year history of the civilization of Ancient Rome. The term refers to the culture of the Roman Republic, later the Roman Empire, which at its peak covered an area from present-day Lo ...

, and the

British Archaeological Association The British Archaeological Association (BAA) was founded in 1843 and aims to inspire, support and disseminate high quality research in the fields of Western archaeology, art and architecture, primarily of the mediaeval period, through lectures, co ...

. She is a former Chair of the Society of Jewellery Historians and a former trustee of the Roman Research Trust. In 2010 she was elected as a Corresponding Member of the Archaeological Institute of America.

Personal life

Johns was married to fellow archaeologist and British Museum curator Donald Bailey. In 2005, the contributions of both Johns and Bailey to the world of archaeology was recognised with the publication of a

festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

in their honour, titled ''Image, Craft and the Classical World: Essays in honour of Donald Bailey and Catherine Johns''. Johns wrote an obituary for her husband for

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

following his death in September 2014.

Select bibliography

*Johns, C. 1982. ''Sex or Symbol? Erotic Images of Greece and Rome''. London, British Museum. *Potter, T. W. and Johns, C. 1992. ''Roman Britain'' (Exploring the Roman World).

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by facult ...

. *Johns, C. 1996. ''The jewellery of Roman Britain : Celtic and classical traditions''. Ann Arbor,

University of Michigan Press The University of Michigan Press is part of Michigan Publishing at the University of Michigan Library. It publishes 170 new titles each year in the humanities and social sciences. Titles from the press have earned numerous awards, including ...

. *Johns, C. and Burnett, A. 1997. 'The Snettisham Roman jeweller's hoard''. London, British Museum. *Johns, C. 2005. ''Little Book of Erotica''. London, British Museum. *Johns, C. 2006. ''Horses : history, myth, art''. Cambridge, Massachusetts,

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...

. *Johns, C. 2008. ''Dogs : history, myth, art''. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press.

External links

Bibliography of Catherine Johns

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johns, Catherine Employees of the British Museum British curators Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Living people British women archaeologists Classical archaeologists British archaeologists Women classical scholars British women curators 1935 births British women historians