Sonia Chadwick Hawkes, (5 November 1933 – 30 May 1999) was a leading specialist in early Anglo-Saxon archaeology, described as a "discerning systematiser of the great array of Anglo-Saxon grave furnishings". She led major excavations on Anglo-Saxon cemeteries at Finglesham in Kent and Worthy Park in Hampshire. Biography Early life Born Sonia Elizabeth Chadwick, on 5 November 1933 in Crayford, she was the only child of Albert Andrew Chadwick and Doris Chadwick (formerly Doris Benger). The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography notes that Albert Andrew Chadwick was an engineer, but gives no information on Doris Chadwick beyond her name. She excavated at Lullingstone Roman Villa (Kent) as a school girl, and at an early medieval site at Morgan Porth (Cornwall) from 1951 to 1953. The experience at Morgan Porth shaped her later interest in early medieval archaeology. She studied English at Bedford College, University of London, before undertaking post-graduate research supervised by Vera I. Evison. Career In 1956 Chadwick began a multi-year excavation at a prehistoric site on Longbridge Deverill Cow Down in Wiltshire. The work was carried out for the Ministry of Works and concluded in 1960. Chadwick contributed to the inaugural volume of Medieval Archaeology in 1957, published by the recently established Society for Medieval Archaeology; she edited a posthumous article on the early medieval art of the Jutes from Anglo-Saxonist Edward Thurlow Leeds. Chadwick's early research explored the decorated metalwork found in early medieval graves. She produced a study re-assessment of 1920s finds from the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Finglesham, a prelude to her own excavations there from 1959. The field of Anglo-Saxon archaeology developed significantly in the early 20th century with systematic approaches to data; Hawkes was part of a wave of archaeologists including J. N. L. Myres, Vera Evison, and Audrey Meaney who continued this trend, investigating cemeteries to explore the history of England in the early Middle Ages. In 1958, she was appointed Curator of Scunthorpe Museum. The museum took over excavations at an Anglian cemetery in Fonaby, Lincolnshire; Chadwick was responsible for the finds and began indexing them – a project which was built on by Alison M. Cook and the finished product published in more than two decades later. Chadwick spoke about the work at Longbridge Deverill at the 'Problems relating to the Iron Age in Southern Britain' conference in December that year, organised by the Council for British Archaeology at the Institute