Timothy Taylor (born 10 July 1960) is a British archaeologist, academic, and author specializing in European prehistory and archaeological theory. He is Jan Eisner professor of Archaeology at Comenius University. Taylor previously held academic posts at University of Vienna and University of Bradford, where he served as Reader in Archaeology.
His research spans the later prehistory of Eurasia and thematic topics such as ritual behavior, death practices, cannibalism, sexuality in prehistory, and the development of archaeological theory. He has authored more than 160 scholarly publications, including several monographs translated into multiple languages.
Early life and education
Taylor was born in Norwich, United Kingdom. He studied archaeology and anthropology at University of Cambridge, receiving a Bachelor of Arts (BAHons) from St John's College Cambridge in 1982 and MA in 1985.
He subsequently undertook postgraduate research at the University of Oxford, studying at Christ Church Oxford and later as a Randall-MacIver Student at The Queen's College Oxford.
Taylor completed a PhD in archaeology at the University of Bradford in 1995, focusing on Eastern European archaeology and theoretical approaches to prehistoric societies.
Since, his focus has shifted and he has done extensive work on the archaeology of cannibalism, sexuality and material culture theory. He has also written several popular books on archaeology. In the 1980s and 1990s he frequently presented his work on television. The British Archaeological Award winner for "best popular archaeology on television" 1991 was a "Down to Earth" episode on which he appeared.
In 2020, Taylor was appointed Jan Eisner Professor of Archaeology at Comenius University in Bratislava, where he continues to teach and conduct research in archaeological theory and European prehistory. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA), and of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).
Taylor has participated in a range of academic and advisory bodies, including the Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG) in the United Kingdom. His work addresses themes such as ritual behavior, cannibalism, vampirism, mortuary practices, social hierarchy, and aesthetic expression in prehistoric contexts.
He has also contributed to the development of archaeological theory, teaching the subject for more than three decades at universities including Bradford, Vienna, and Comenius University.
Taylor has been involved in field projects, including research on prehistoric lake-shore settlements and environmental change in Central Europe. He served as principal investigator of the “Beyond Lake Villages” (BeLaVi) project, a multinational study examining Neolithic environmental changes and human settlement patterns around small lakes in Switzerland, Germany, and Austria.
His work frequently employs multi-proxy landscape reconstruction, combining archaeological, environmental, and geophysical data to reconstruct prehistoric environments.
He has also served on editorial boards of several academic publications and has acted as reviewer for major international presses including Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and Yale University Press.He is the author of several influential monographs, including The Prehistory of Sex: Four Million years of Human Sexual Culture (1996), and The Artificial Ape: How Technology Changed the Course of Human Evolution (2010).
In The Artificial Ape, Taylor explores the role of technology in shaping human evolution.
Taylor also discusses the long-term consequences of technological dependence, suggesting that while technology has enhanced human capabilities, it has also begun to reduce certain biological faculties, such as innate memory and physical skills, which were once essential for survival.