Amanda Jacqueline Claridge FSA (1 September 1949 – 5 May 2022) was a British professor of Roman archaeology at Royal Holloway, University of London.
Her Scottish mother, Marie (née Cooper), was a flight officer working in intelligence at RAF Bottesford, Leicestershire.
[2] Claridge's parents separated, her father returning to his native New Zealand while her mother relocated to Italy.
As a student Claridge's mother had volunteered on excavations under the direction of Mortimer Wheeler, and this no doubt influenced Claridge to take an undergraduate degree at the Institute of Archaeology in London (now part of UCL), where she was taught by Donald Strong, an authority in Roman art and architectural studies.
[3] In 1976 she assisted John Bryan Ward-Perkins, who had recently retired as Director of the British School in Rome, with the curation and catalogue of the Royal Academy's 'Pompeii AD79' exhibition.