Celebrating Hampshire Historians

Hawkes, Charles Francis Christopher

5 June 1905 – 29 March 1992

C F C (Christopher) Hawkes spent his early years in London and Northumberland before attending Winchester College and New College, Oxford.

With two other ex-Winchester students he excavated at St Catherine’s Hill at the start of a campaign of Hampshire hillfort digs curtailed by the Second World War.  Before the war, he was an Assistant Curator at the British Museum and from 1946 to 1972, Professor of European Archaeology at Oxford. His specialism was later prehistory (Iron Age) and he contributed greatly to the debate about the origin and movement of pre-Roman societies.

He was married twice, first to Jacquetta (nee Hopkins) with whom he co-authored Prehistoric Britain (1937) and second to Sonia (nee Chadwick) with whom he jointly edited Greeks, Celts and Romans (1973).  He was without doubt one of the ‘golden generation’ of archaeologists, active in the first half of the 20th century.

Sources

Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club & Archaeological Society

Portrait

Contribution to county’s history

Hawkes’ Hampshire excavations, on behalf of the Field Club, included St Catherine’s Hill, Winchester, Quarley Hill, Buckland Rings and Bury Hill, Andover.  Promptly published, the reports covered local history as well as archaeology.  He also contributed papers on the Hampshire Belgae, high status burials, ancient routeways and related issues.

Relevant published works

• Hawkes, C F C, Myers, J N L, Stephens, C G 1930, St Catharine’s Hill, Winchester, Proc Hants Field Club & Archaeol Soc Vol XI.

• Hawkes, C F C 1937, The excavations at Buckland Rings, Proc Hants Field Club & Archaeol Soc Vol XIII pp 124-64

• Hawkes, C F C 1940, The excavations at Quarley Hill, Proc Hants Field Club & Archaeol Soc Vol XIV pp 136-94

• Hawkes, C F C 1940, The excavations at Bury Hill, Proc Hants Field Club & Archaeol Soc Vol XIV pp 291-337

Critical Comments

Other Comments

Contributor

Dave Allen, July 2021

Key Words

Excavations in Hampshire, St Catharine's Hill, Buckland Rings, Quarley Hill, Bury Hill, prehistory, Iron Age

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