Joyce Tyldesley (Winner of Archaeologist of the Year 2025) - - credit Adam Stanford, www.adam-stanford.co.uk
Joyce Tyldesley (Winner of Archaeologist of the Year 2025) [Photo credit: Adam Stanford, www.adam-stanford.co.uk\]
A Professor who emphasises making archaeology accessible to all has taken home top honours at the prestigious Current Archaeology Awards, after being crowned Archaeologist of the Year for 2025.
Joyce Tyldesley, Professor of Egyptology at the University of Manchester, has shown a career-long determination to make the past accessible to as wide an audience as possible, having taught archaeology at many levels, from free online MOOCs and podcasts to night-school classes (including WEA and U3A) and university courses.
At the University of Manchester, her team has also developed a pioneering suite of online Egyptology programmes designed to reach students who, for various reasons, could not dream of attending traditional, face-to-face lectures.
She has written over 20 scholarly yet user-friendly books for adults, and many books for children, as well as working in the museum sector, and as an interviewee on many television documentaries, and Joyce also has extensive fieldwork experience in Britain, Europe, and Egypt.
In 2024, Joyce was awarded the OBE in recognition of her services to Egyptology and heritage, and her work has now been recognised with a coveted archaeology award.
The trophy was presented by Julian Richards, an archaeologist and educator best-known for presenting the BBC’s Meet the Ancestors, at the annual Current Archaeology Live! conference in London on 1 March. Held in partnership with the UCL Institute of Archaeology, this year’s event hosted a record audience, with at least 600 in attendance at UCL’s Institute of Education.
Joyce Tyldesley said: ‘I feel so honoured to win the archaeologist of the year award: thank you to Current Archaeology and to everyone who voted. I regard this as an award to be shared with my amazing team at the University of Manchester, all of whom are all dedicated to making the past accessible to all. I would like to give special thanks to Paul Bahn, who has supported my writing career for over 40 years, to Rosalie David who gave me my first permanent teaching post, and to my husband, Steven Snape.’
This year’s Current Archaeology Award for Archaeologist was sponsored by Andante Travels
Notes for Editors: Current Archaeology Awards
This year’s Current Archaeology Award for Archaeologist was sponsored by Andante Travels.
The Current Archaeology Awards celebrate the people, publications, and projects that have made an outstanding contribution to archaeology.
Current Archaeology is the UK’s leading archaeology magazine, covering the latest archaeological discoveries in the UK and Ireland since 1967.
More information about the Awards, including the nominees and winners in all categories, can be found at www.archaeology.co.uk/vote