Andrew Birley

Andrew Robin Birley (born 28 October 1974) is the Director of Excavations on the site of Vindolanda and the son of Robin Birley and grandson of Eric Birley, who founded the department of Archaeology at Durham University. He graduated from the University of Leicester in the summer of 1996, he has been working on the site for 18 years, ten of which have been in full-time employment by the Vindolanda Trust. Andrew is responsible for the day to day running of the excavations and the welfare of the volunteers while on the site. He began work towards obtaining his PhD in 2004 which he completed in 2010. Andrew has appeared in a number of television programmes about Roman Britain and archaeology for the BBC, the History Channel, National Geographic and the Discovery Channel.

Published works include relevant contributions to the Vindolanda Excavation Reports from 1997 to 2009, the 'Eyeopener' series, 'Following the Eagle', as well as a fascicule on Roman locks and keys from the site of Vindolanda.