Carenza Rachel Lewis (born 30 November 1963)[1] is a British academic archaeologist and television presenter.
Early life
Lewis received her formal education at the private All Hallows Convent School in Norfolk.[2] She studied archaeology and anthropology at Girton College, Cambridge.[3]
Lewis was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1998.[4] In 1999, she was elected a visiting fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where she was a Senior Research Associate and Affiliated Lecturer.[5] In 2004, she took on a new post at Cambridge to promote undergraduate archaeology, and created Access Cambridge Archaeology.[6] In 2015, Lewis was appointed to the Professorial Chair of 'Public Understanding of Research' at the University of Lincoln.
Television career
In the early 1990s she joined the team presenting the Time Team series, a new television programme designed to make archaeology accessible for the general public, which was first broadcast on Channel 4 Television in 1994. She appeared on the show from 1993 to 2005, appearing each season from the first through the twelfth. The ratings success of the Time Team series led to further television presenting commissions for Lewis, including the series House Detectives (1997–2002).[7]
In 2000, Lewis presented an episode of the BBC's theoretical history programme entitled What If, where she examined the failed revolt of Queen Boudicca and the Iceni against the Roman Empire in AD 60. She also devised and presented a series called Sacred Sites for HTV.
In 2022, she rejoined the Time Team crew for its YouTube revival.
Personal life
Lewis has three children.[9] In 2000, she appeared in national print media detailing her experiences as one of a number of victims of medical misdiagnosis at the hands of Dr James Elwood in the late 1990s.[10][11]
Aston, Mick and Lewis, Carenza (eds.) (1994) The Medieval Landscape of Wessex Oxford: Oxbow
Lewis, Carenza, Mitchell-Fox, Patrick and Dyer, Christopher (1997) Village, Hamlet and Field: Changing Medieval Settlements in Central England Manchester University Press
Lewis, Carenza, Harding, Phil and Aston, Mick (2000) Time Team's Timechester: a companion to archaeology; ed. Tim Taylor London: Macmillan
Aberg, Alan and Lewis, Carenza (eds.) (2000) The Rising Tide: Archaeology and Coastal Landscapes Oxford: Oxbow
