Carenza Lewis

In 1985, following study at Cambridge University and taking part in an archaeological dig in Jordan, Carenza joined the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, now part of English Heritage, as a field archaeologist for Wessex. Although she has a speciality in the medieval landscape, she has worked on sites from many periods – from prehistoric Avebury to the 'Mulberry harbours' used for the D-Day landings of World War II. For two-and-a-half years, she was seconded to the History Department of Birmingham University, where she was involved in bringing together all sorts of information from a wide variety of sources to investigate how the landscape of the East Midlands affected settlement and vice versa. She later repeated the same exercise for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. She is now based at the University of Cambridge.

Besides her work and caring for her two small children – and grabbing whatever time is left to do a bit of painting – she also has two books to her credit. She co-edited the first, a collection of essays on the medieval landscape of Wessex. The second – Village, Hamlet and Field, about the medieval landscape of the East Midlands – was published by Manchester University Press (price £45.00) in summer 1997. At present, she is working on a multi-period book on south Wiltshire.

Her ideal site would be a deserted medieval village accompanied by prehistoric remains and a Roman villa, allowing archaeologists to trace the area's settlement right through the centuries.

Carenza: the Cornish connection

While most of the Time Team regulars must make do with names such as Tony, Mick and Phil, Carenza Lewis is blessed with something more interesting. So where does 'Carenza' come from?

The name translates from its Cornish origins as 'loving', the Cornish word for love being 'car' (the 'enz' is the present participle). This, in turn, comes from the same Euro-linguistic roots as words like caress or charity (or carita, for example, from the Italian). In fact, large parts of the Cornish language bear much closer relation than English to others descended from the Latin (notably the Spanish and Italian) because it retained links with Roman Europe after the departure of the Romans for much longer than other parts of Britain.

Carenza was told as a child that her name was Spanish, and that it had been brought over to England by survivors of the Spanish Armada. Shipwrecked off the Cornish coast, one of these had swam ashore (unlikely since few of the Spanish sailors could swim), married a local girl and named their daughter Karenza – the traditional Cornish spelling being with a 'K'. The name is found in the fictional Poldark family, which also hailed from Cornwall, although the character never appeared in the television series.

Neither Carenza nor her parents have any connection with Cornwall. Her mother knew a girl at school who was named Karenza and thought it would make a nice name for her daughter. Carenza's godfather's brother suggested it would look better spelt with a 'C'.