Dr
Katie A.
Hemer

BA Hons (Cantab), MSc, PhD

School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities

Honorary Senior Research Fellow

Dr Katie Hemer
Profile picture of Dr Katie Hemer
k.hemer@sheffield.ac.uk
Minalloy House

Full contact details

Dr Katie A. Hemer
School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities

Minalloy House
10-16 Regent Street

Sheffield

S1 3NJ

Profile

I read Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge (Fitzwilliam College) where I focused on Indian archaeology for my final year.

I subsequently studied for an MSc in Palaeopathology at Durham University, followed by a second MSc in Biomolecular Archaeology at the University of Sheffield.

I remained at 51²è¹Ý¶ù for my doctorate, which I was awarded in 2011. During the 2011-12 academic year, I was appointed as a University Teacher to cover Professor Mike Parker Pearson’s study leave.

Between 2012-2015, I held a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship (“East meets West: Mobility and cultural contact between the Mediterranean and western Britain in the early medieval period, c.400 – 800 A.Dâ€), and in 2013, I was also awarded a University of Sheffield Vice Chancellor’s Fellowship.

After returning from maternity leave in 2017, I transitioned from my VC Fellowship to become a Lecturer.

Qualifications
  • BA Hons (Cantab) Archaeology and Anthropology (First Class)
  • MSc Palaeopathology
  • MSc Biomolecular Archaeology
  • PhD (Sheffield)
  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Research interests
  • Early medieval period
  • Bioarchaeology, including stable isotope analysis (diet and population mobility)
  • Western Britain
  • Early medieval trade and migration
  • The Archaeology of Children and Childhood
  • Human osteology and Palaeopathology
  • Funerary Archaeology
  • Disability and physical impairment in past populations

Current Research Projects

Scremby Anglo-Saxon Cemetery

I am currently working with Dr Hugh Willmot from the Department and Dr Adam Daubney (Portable Antiquities Scheme) on the current excavations of the late 5th- and early 6th-century cemetery at Scremby, Lincolnshire.

Excavation of over 20 burials has shown the cemetery was the focus for a number of very high status burials.

Scientific analysis of the human remains, including stable isotope analysis, and material culture from the cemetery is on-going.

The St Patrick’s Chapel Excavation Project

I am the co-director of The St Patrick’s Chapel Excavation Project, which is a collaborative research project with Dyfed Archaeological Trust. St Patrick’s Chapel is an early medieval (5th-10th century AD) Christian cemetery situated in sand dunes overlooking Whitesands Beach, Pembrokeshire.

Publications

Edited books

  • Hadley DM & Hemer KA (Ed.) (2014) Medieval Childhood: Archaeological Approaches. Oxford: Oxbow Books.
  • Hadley D & Hemer K (Ed.) (2014) Medieval Childhood: Archaeological Approaches. Oxford: Oxbow Books.

Journal articles

  • Hemer KA, Booth TJ, Raffone C, Mann C, Corkhill CL & Willmott H (2021) . Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 39.
  • Hemer K & Verlinden P (2020) . Childhood in the Past.
  • Hemer KA (2019) . Childhood in the Past, 12(1), 3-5.
  • Hemer K, lamb A, Chenery C & Evans J (2017) . American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 162(3), 423-440.
  • Hemer K, Evans JA, Chenery CA & Lamb AL (2014) . Journal of Archaeological Science, 52, 242-249.
  • Hemer K (2011) Stable isotope analysis of human remains: Brownslade and West Angle Bay. In Groom, P., Schlee, D., Hughes, G., Crane, P., Ludlow, N. and Murphy, K (eds.). Two Early Medieval Cemeteries in Pembrokeshire: Brownslade Barrow and West Angle Bay.. Archaeologia Cambrensis, 160, 133-203.
  • Hadley DM & Hemer K (2011) . Childhood in the Past, 4(1), 63-78.
  • Hemer K (2009) A bioarchaeological study of the human remains from the early medieval cemetery of Cronk Keeillane, Isle of Man. Proceedings of the Isle of Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society, 12(3), 469-486.
  • Hemer K, Evans JA, Chenery CA & Lamb AL () Evidence of early medieval trade and migration between Wales and the Mediterranean Sea region. Journal of Archaeological Science, 40, 2352-2359.

Book chapters

  • Shiner M, Hemer K & Commeau R (2019) The St Patrick's Chapel Excavation Project@ Public engagement with the Rescue excavation of an early medieval cemetery in south west Wales In Williams H, Wills-Eve B & Osborne J (Ed.), The Public Archaeology of Death Equinox Publishing (Indonesia)
  • Hemer KA & Evans JA (2018) Oxford University Press
  • Craig-Atkins E (2014) Eavesdropping on short lives: Eaves-drip burial and the differential treatment of children one year of age and under in early Christian cemeteries In Hadley DM & Hemer KA (Ed.), Medieval Childhood: Archaeological Approaches Oxbow Books
  • Hadley DM & hemer K (2014) Introduction: archaeological approaches to medieval childhood, c.500-1500 In Hadley D & Hemer K (Ed.), Medieval Childhood: Archaeological Approaches (pp. 1-25). Oxford: Oxbow.

Reports

  • Hemer K, Edwards N & Davies T (2017) Research Framework For The Archaeology of Early Medieval Wales C. Ad 400–1070
Professional activities and memberships
  • Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London
  • President of the Society for the Study of Childhood in the Past
  • Member of the Historic Environment Trailblazer Group.
  • Member of the Editorial Board for the journal, Childhood in the Past
  • Member of the Editorial Board for the journal, Isle of Man Studies: Proceedings of the Isle of Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society
  • Member of the Irish Isotopes Research Group
Public Engagement
Invited talks
  • November 2015- â€˜On the utmost border of the earth’: life and death in early medieval Wales. UCL Institute of Archaeology / British Museum Medieval Seminar Series, London.  
  • July 2015- Caethion Cymru: investigating slavery in early medieval Wales. Leeds International Medieval Congress 2015.
  • February 2015- A world in motion: investigating population mobility in early medieval western Britain. Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt.
  • February 2015- â€˜A’e tat en argluyd arnau’: perspectives on children and childhood in early medieval Wales. University of Sheffield, MARS lecture series.
  • December 2014- â€˜On the utmost border of the earth’: Long-distance trade and contact with early medieval western Britain. Linking the Mediterranean: Regional and Trans-Regional Interactions in Times of Fragmentation (300 - 800 CE). Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Abteilung Byzanzforschung, Vienna, 11th-13th December.
  • October 2014- â€˜On the utmost border of the earth': evidence for contact and migration in early medieval Wales. Irish Isotopes Research Group, University College Dublin, Dublin.
  • October 2013- Ymchwilio y gorffennol trwy archaeoleg biomoleciwlaidd. Welsh public lecture to Derby Welsh Speakers Society.
  • August 2013- Ymchwilio y gorffennol trwy moleciwlau. Welsh public lecture at the National Eisteddfod, Denbighshire.
Events
  • August/September 2015- The St Patrick’s Chapel Excavation Project Exhibition’ hosted by St David’s Cathedral, Pembrokeshire.
Television and Media
  • December 2016- Contributor – ‘Digging for Britain’, BBC Four
  • Presenter for the Welsh-language channel, S4C:
    • May – September 2015- Presenter, ‘Corff Cymru, Series 3’. Produced by Boom Pictures Cymru. 6-program series, aired May 2016.
    • May – September 2014- Presenter, ‘Corff Cymru, Series 2’. Produced by Boom Pictures Cymru. 6-program series, aired September 2014
    • February – July 2013- Presenter, ‘Corff Cymru'. Produced by Boom Pictures Cymru. 6-program series, aired April 2013.

Links