Peter Campbell – a short biography

Hello! I’m Peter Campbell, one of the facilitators for the Shipwrecks and Submerged Worlds course and a maritime archaeologist who works all over the world. I research everything from ancient Greek and Roman trade to American Civil War Ironclads and Royal Navy gunboats to sunken cities and underwater caves. Archaeology – and work in general – might as well be exciting, so I am always looking for new ways to explore the past!

I am the Director of Archaeology for the Albanian Center for Marine Research and one of the Field Directors for the Illyrian Coastal Exploration Program. Together with my ACMR and ICEP colleagues I teach international field schools along some of the beautiful and historically important coastline in the world with partners like the regional UNESCO Centre, the International Centre for Underwater Archaeology in Zadar, Croatia. The main course photo is one of the incredible sites located along the Adriatic coast.

I also find underwater caves to be enormously interesting. As the underwater archaeologist for the Cave Archaeology Investigation & Research Network (CAIRN) I am editing a book titled The Archaeology of Underwater Caves, due out this fall.

In 2011, I returned to university to pursue a PhD at the Centre for Maritime Archaeology at University of Southampton, though I continue my work with the ACMR and CAIRN. My PhD research examines innovation and technological change, primarily through examining an ancient naval battlefield recently discovered off the coast of Sicily by the Soprintendenza Del Mare and RPM Nautical Foundation, where I am a research associate.  Using the latest methods, I am reverse engineering the warship rams and conducting impact testing to figure out how precisely these ancient weapons worked. Impact testing consists of smashing exact replicas of the rams together – science and archaeology!

You can find me on Twitter @peterbcampbell, where I’m often discussing underwater research or engaging in archaeological debates on topics like treasure hunting, the Santa Maria, why Hitler stole art (and why culture is a target during conflict), and the illicit antiquities trade. You can read my papers on Academia.edu or find my current projects at my website. Also head over to MaritimeArchaeology.com and to Institute for Archaeologists Maritime Affairs Group, two websites I help run, to find out the latest on the underwater research!