Judy Birmingham

Jean "Judy" Birmingham AM is a prominent English historical archaeologist, who has been based in Sydney, Australia, for most of her career.

She attended the University of Archaeology during the late 1940s and early 1950s. In 1961 an opening for an Iron Age specialist was created at the University of Sydney, and she was recommended for the post. She and her then-husband Michael travelled to Australia, where she taught as a lecturer, specialising in Iron Age Cyprus and Anatolia.

In 1966 she began to look for sites close to Sydney where her students could get basic training in archaeological techniques. In 1967 she began running excavations at the site of Irrawang Pottery, the pottery works owned by James King at Irrawang just north of Newcastle. This project is considered to be one of the first examples of historical archaeology in Australia.

Birmingham was instrumental in forming the Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology (ASHA) which was founded as the Australian Society for Historical Archaeology in 1970. ASHA began at the University of Sydney and developed because of Birmingham's enthusiasm for historical archaeology. She edited early issues of the ASHA Newsletter, organised special publications and the Conferences. She served as the society's first secretary, and later served as president.

In 1973, Birmingham and historian Ian Jack proposed teaching a course in historical archaeology at the University of Sydney. As detailed by Jack, the course proposal was fought by the conservative members of the archaeology department; however the proposal was accepted and the first course in historical archaeology in Australia was taught by Birmingham, Jack, geographer Dennis Jeans and historian Ken Cable. The course also had a significant fieldwork component to give student essential practical training.