Andrew Sherratt was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 archaeologist, one of the most influential of his generation.

Sherratt was born in Oldham

Oldham

Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amid the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, south-southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of the city of Manchester...

, Lancashire

Lancashire

Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

 on 8th May 1946. From 1965, he studied archaeology

Archaeology

Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

 and anthropology

Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...

 at Peterhouse, Cambridge University, completing his degree in 1968. He received his Ph.D. from Cambridge in 1976, writing on 'The Beginning of the Bronze Age in south-east Europe' . By then he had already moved to Oxford, having been appointed Assistant Keeper of Antiquities at the Ashmolean Museum

Ashmolean Museum

The Ashmolean Museum on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is the world's first university museum...

 in 1973. At Oxford University he received the title of Reader in 1997 and Professor in 2002. Oxford remained his academic home until 2005 when he took up a professorship at the University of Sheffield

University of Sheffield

The University of Sheffield is a research university based in the city of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It is one of the original 'red brick' universities and is a member of the Russell Group of leading research intensive universities...

. Sherratt travelled widely and received international recognition for his work. He was invited to give the prestigious Human Context and Society lectures at Boston University

Boston University

Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...

 in 1998 and his topic was 'Between Evolution and History: long-term change in human societies' .

Perhaps Sherratt's most cited publication was 'Plough and pastoralism: aspects of the secondary products revolution' , published in 1981 in 'Pattern of the Past: Studies in Honour of David Clarke

David Clarke

-Entertainment:* David Clarke , motion picture and Broadway actor* Dave Clarke * Dave Clarke , techno DJ from England-Sport:* David Clarke , English footballer...

' , the first article in which he described his idea of a 'Secondary products revolution

Secondary products revolution

Andrew Sherratt's model of a secondary products revolution involved a widespread and broadly contemporaneous set of innovations in Old World farming...

' .

He regularly contributed outside of his main field, for instance through a position on the editorial board of the historical journal Past and Present. His ability to work at a continental, even global, scale of analysis has invited comparisons with V. Gordon Childe.

Analysis at the continental scale led him into adaptation of world-systems theory to questions of change on the large scale in archaeology, notably in the first volume of the Journal of European Archaeology ( 'What would a Bronze Age world system look like? Relations between temperate Europe and the Mediterranean in later prehistory' ) and in his 1995 David Clarke Memorial Lecture, also published in JEA: 'Reviving the grand narrative: Archaeology and long-term change' . Such interests in linking across continents meant that Andrew maintained an interest in all the major shifts in humanity from global colonisation, through the spread of agriculture to the development of metallurgy and urbanism, including the Indo-European question and the development of new forms of consumption. A collection of his most significant publications in many of these areas appeared in 1996 as Economy and Society in Prehistoric Europe: changing perspectives.

Sherratt's interest in broad scale patterns in history (really pre-history) attracted perhaps his most prestigious accolades, such as when the University of Chicago's historian William McNeill conferred a portion of the prestigious Erasmus Prize

Erasmus Prize

The Erasmus Prize is an annual prize awarded by the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation, a Dutch non-profit organization, to individuals or institutions that have made notable contributions to European culture, society, or social science. The Praemium Erasmianum Foundation was founded on 23 June 1958 by...

 he won in 1996 upon Sherratt. The Erasmus Prize, awarded annually by the Dutch Praemium Erasmianum Foundation 'for exceptionally important contributions to European culture', requires the winner to pass on his prize-money to chosen nominees.
Sherratt recognised the importance of psychoactive drugs and medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

 to early culture, and he wrote Consuming Habits, Drugs in History and Anthropology. Sherratt was invited to present the four part television series, Sacred Weeds

Sacred Weeds

Sacred Weeds was a four part television series of 50 minute documentaries investigating the cultural impact of psychoactive plants on a broad array of early civilisations. The series was filmed at Hammerwood Park by the producer, Sarah Marris, and her production company TVF...

, which aired to critical acclaim in 1998.

Sherratt was always a stimulating and inspirational teacher. He had a significant hand in designing Oxford's undergraduate course in archaeology and anthropology, playing a key role as an interlocutor in the development of a new generation of archaeologists who drew from social anthropology as well as archaeology. However, presenting his ideas at the appropriate scale has been a constant challenge, as is reflected in an early edited work, the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Archaeology, published in 1980 and subsequently translated into German, French, Italian, Dutch and Swedish.

Shortly before his death of a heart attack

Myocardial infarction

Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...

 in Witney

Witney

Witney is a town on the River Windrush, west of Oxford in Oxfordshire, England.The place-name 'Witney' is first attested in a Saxon charter of 969 as 'Wyttannige'; it appears as 'Witenie' in the Domesday Book of 1086. The name means 'Witta's island'....

 (near Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

), Andrew had initiated a project, ArchAtlas, that uses modern remote sensing technology, combined with image and text, to graphically communicate complex patterns of change and interaction across time and space.

Video

• Sacred Weeds: Salvia Divinorum
• Sacred Weeds: Henbane
• Sacred Weeds: Blue Lily
• Sacred Weeds: Amanita Muscaria

Footnotes