Raksha Dave


Raksha Dave is an archaeologist and TV presenter

Early life and education

Dave graduated with a degree in Archaeology from the Institute of Archaeology in London in 1999.

Archaeological excavation

Dave worked with a commercial archaeological unit, primarily excavating in London with the Museum of London Archaeology Service. She also excavated at the World Heritage Site of Catalhoyuk in Turkey, and sites in Texas and Puerto Rico.

Television work

Dave featured regularly on Time Team between 2003 and 2013 as a Senior Archaeologist and Presenter. In 2018 she was a presenter on season 7 of Digging for Britain, broadcast in 2018. She presented the BBC Learning Zone Ancient Voices programme on prehistory, broadcast in 2015, and co-presented Pompeii’s Final Hours: New Evidence for Channel 5.

Public archaeology

Dave is an advocate for increasing the diversity of archaeologists, was a trustee for the Council for British Archaeology and is a patron of the Young Archaeologists Club. She is a co-founder of the archaeological social-enterprise DigVentures.
Dave is a research affiliate of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.