Dr Gareth Edmund Williams

I am a historian and archaeologist specialising in the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons, and was curator of the exhibitions Vikings: life and legend at the British Museum (2014) and Viking Voyagers at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall (2015-17). I have published extensively on both Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, particularly on the subjects of warfare, coinage and economy and ships. I am an academic advisor to the Jorvik Centre, and for ten years was an advisor on the development of the new Museum of the Viking Age in Oslo, Norway. In 2017-18 I was a Senior Researcher on the Viking Phenomenon research project at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, and I have lectured at universities and conferences all round the world, as well as on cruises of Scandinavia and the Baltic.

I was a curator at the British Museum from 1996 to 2024, and was also the director of Tutbury Castle in Staffordshire, where I led an interdisciplinary research project into the history and archaeology of the castle site from prehistory to the present day. I also edited and co-authored a monograph on a major Viking site at Aldwark in North Yorkshire. In addition to my academic work, I have also worked as an expert witness in a number of police investigations into the illegal sale of antiquities and modern forgeries, one of which was featured on the BBC TV series Expert Witness, and was also the focus of the BBC podcast Fool's Gold. In addition to featuring in these two series, I have appeared in a large number of other documentaries for TV, radio and cinema.

I am currently working on publications on Viking warfare (including the ‘great armies’ of the late 9th century), and on Anglo-Saxon, Viking and Norman hoards. I also work as a freelance lecturer, and in addition to straightforward historical lectures Gareth gives presentations in character and in full historical costume as a range of figures from the 10th to the 17th centuries.

My classes for University of Cambridge Professional and Continuing Education are PowerPoint-based, but will also include the opportunity to handle a mixture of genuine and replica artefacts.