George Speake

[2][3] He is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute of Archaeology at Oxford,[2][3] and "a leading authority on Anglo-Saxon animal art.

[5][6] George Speake was educated at the Slade School of Fine Art in the 1960s, and the University of Oxford, where he studied at St John's College and at the Institute of Archaeology, in the 1970s.

[7] At Oxford he studied under Christopher and Sonia Hawkes, obtaining a Ph.D. in 1974 with a thesis about Anglo-Saxon animal art.

[13] It provided a comprehensive look at "style II" art,[14] the form of zoomorphic decoration used in Northern Europe from the middle of the sixth century AD to the end of the seventh.

[16][17] Speake's work was credited with discussing every known example of the style through 1974—the date of his Ph.D.—and with proving that it was introduced to England from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.