Lecture
The Chilterns Landscape and Archaeology
Speaker: Dr Jill Eyers
Tue, 6 Jun 2023

About the lecture:
Starting with the making of the Chiltern hills, the talk explains the geological processes involved in shaping the landscape.
People have then interacted with that landscape from hunter-gatherer times to today. This talk covers the Chilterns of our early ancestors – from Ice Age to Bronze Age.
Born in London, with an early childhood in Australia, Dr Eyers studied geology and achieved her doctorate with the Department of Earth Sciences, Open University in 1992. Since that time she has lectured for several universities including Reading, Oxford, and the Open University.
Her geological career has taken her to many parts of the world with projects in the Caribbean, Brazil, and Turkey being particularly exciting. She has worked in Turkey on archaeological sites and led many field tours to both archaeological and geological locations.
More recently her geological expertise has been put to good use giving advice and training to archaeologists. This work became so successful and enjoyable that in 2006 she set up her own business ‘Chiltern Archaeology’. A variety of interesting projects include Iron Age, Saxon and Norman sites, and infamously Roman investigations into a villa site in Buckinghamshire, southern England (Yewden Villa). The results of this project went worldwide with research into 97 baby burials. These findings were broadcast on BBC television’s Digging for Britain and have resulted in several professional papers.
Dr Eyers is the author of numerous books such as a field guide series called ‘Rocks Afoot’, the Geology and Archaeology of Lycia, Turkey, Journey through the Chiltern Hills, Food down the ages, The Little Tree Book, Chiltern Trails and Tales, and Geology of the Norfolk coast, amongst many others.
Dr Eyers is a regular contributor to archaeological television programmes as well as BBC Radio Oxford, Berkshire and London. She gives talks to a wide range of audiences and particularly enjoys working with children in schools.