Penelope Rogers obituary
The archaeologist Penelope Rogers, who has died aged 73, started out as a volunteer on digs at Hadrian’s Wall and beneath York Minster in the 1970s. She soon developed a special interest and expertise in textiles.
Despite experiencing some resistance from the archaeological community – she was a woman with no formal qualifications – in 1980 she set up a business, Textile Research, that grew to incorporate a list of 250 clients worldwide, providing analysis for museums and archaeologists of artefacts involving textiles, clothing, animal pelts and dyes. Her Anglo Saxon Lab, established in 2001 to cover all aspects of Anglo-Saxon culture from the fifth to the 11th centuries AD, drew in artefacts from all over Britain and abroad – from sites in Belgium, Germany and Scandinavia, even Canada.
