Dr Anna Gannon

Honorary Research Associate

(to 30/9/2017)

Contact Information

Email:ag335@cam.ac.uk

Academic Interests

Dr Anna Gannon gained her first degree in Italy, where she studied Modern Languages and specialised in German Philology. She read History of Art at the University of Cambridge, where she went on to get a PhD for her work on Anglo-Saxon coinage and art, which was published as The Iconography of Early Anglo-Saxon Coinage (Oxford University Press, 2003). She has worked at the British Museum as an assistant curator in the Coin Department, and as special researcher in the Department of Prehistory and Europe, reporting on Treasure, and as a contributor and editor of annual reports to Parliament.

Her principal research interests are in Anglo-Saxon coinage, Late Antiquity and the advent of Christianity, Germanic and Insular Art and culture, and Classical Architecture. She has written a number of articles in English and Italian on coinage and metalwork and has curated an exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Knots and Crosses) and contributed to one at the Fitzwilliam (Art in the Round), which also travelled to Norwich and Ipswich.

She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, London, Fellow of St Edmund's College, and Affiliated Lecturer in the Department of History of Art.

She is Director of Studies for History of Art for St Edmund's, Lucy Cavendish, Fitzwilliam, Wolfson and Selwyn College.

Selected Publications

Monograph

  • The Iconography of Early Anglo-Saxon Coinage (6th-8th centuries), Oxford 2003.    (Paperback reprint, Oxford University Press 2010)

Recent Publications

  • ‘Coins, images and tales from the holy land: questions of theology and orthodoxy’, in New perspectives – Studies in early medieval Coinage, T Abramson, ed. Woodbridge 2011, 88-103.
  • ‘... And Pretty Coins All in a Row’, Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History, 16, H. Hamerow and L. Webster eds., Oxford 2009, 13-18.
  • ‘Series K: Eclecticism and entente cordiale’, Two Decades of Discovery. Studies in Early Medieval Coinage 1, ed. T. Abramson (Woodbridge, 2008), pp. 45-52.
  • ‘A Chip off the Rood’, in Cross and Culture in Anglo-Saxon England, Karen Louise Jolly, Catherine E. Karkov and Sarah Larratt Keefer,eds. Morgantown, WV,2008, 153-71.
  •  ‘Three coins in a fountain’ (proceedings of the Caput Urbium session, 2002 - IMC Leeds conference) Roma Felix — Formation and Reflections of Medieval Rome, É.  Ó Carragáin and C Neuman de Vegvar (eds.) Ashgate, 2007, 287-306.
  •  ‘Pushing Boundaries: some Anglo-Saxon Zoomorphic Metalwork’ (proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Insular Art ‘Making and Meaning’ Trinity College, Dublin 25-28 August 2005), R. Moss ed., Dublin 2007, 40-49.
  • ‘Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery’, in Coinage and History in the North Sea World (c.500-1250), B. Cook and G. Williams eds., Leiden 2006, 193-208.
  • ‘The Five Senses and Anglo-Saxon Coinage’, Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History, 13, Oxford S. Semple ed., 2006, 97-104.
  • ‘I Signori degli Anelli: confronti e prospettive’, Anulus sui effigii Identità e rappresentazione negli anelli-sgillo longobardi (Atti della giornata di studio, Milano Università Cattolica, 29 Aprile 2004) S. Lusuardi Siena ed., Milan 2006, 3-11.
  • ‘Riches in Heaven and on Earth: some thoughts on the iconography of coinage at the time of Æthelbald’ in Æthelbald and Offa. Two Eighth-Century Kings of Mercia Papers from a Conference held in Manchester in 2000 Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies, D. Hill and M. Worthington eds., BAR British Series 383, 2005, 133-8.
  • Treasure Annual Report 2003 – Department of Culture, Media and Sport, London 2005 (as general editor and contributor for the Departments of Coins & Medals and Prehistory & Europe of the British Museum).
  • Treasure Annual Report 2002 – Department of Culture, Media and Sport, London 2004 (as general editor and contributor for the Departments of Coins & Medals and Prehistory & Europe of the British Museum).
  • ‘Quando una Tradizione è una Novità: le prime monete Anglosassoni’, in La Tradizione Iconica come Fonte Storica, LIN,Maria Caccamo Caltabiano, Daniele Castrizio, Mariangela Puglisi eds., Reggio Calabria, 2004, 517-27.
  • ‘Animali sulle prime monete Anglosassini. Simboli di potere spirituale o temporale?’, in L’immaginario e il potere nell’iconografia monetale, monetale’ Dossier di lavoro del seminario di studi LIN, Milano 11 Marzo 2004, Società Numismatica Italiana - Collana di Numismatica e Scienze Affini, Milano 2004, 153-160.
  • ‘The Anglo-Saxons: The Not-So-Dark Ages’, Saxon, Newsletter Sutton Hoo Society no. 38, 2003.
  • ‘King of all Beasts – Beast of all Kings. Lions in Anglo-Saxon Coinage and Art’, Medieval Animals - Archaeological Review from Cambridge, vol. 18, ed. A. Pluskowski, Cambridge 2002, 22-36.
  • ‘Two small hoards of William I’ (with G. Williams) British Numismatic Journal 2001, vol .71, 2002, 162-4.
  • ‘La formula anglosassone delle nove erbe’, Ævum,Rassegna di Scienze storiche linguistiche e filologiche, LIV, Università Cattolica, Milan 1980, 283-6 (as Anna Giraudo).