About Me
David is a Mediterranean archaeologist and heritage professional. He was a Rome Scholar at the British School at Rome and Sir James Knott Fellow at Newcastle University before moving to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge where he had curatorial responsibility for the Greek and Roman collection. He was Reader in Mediterranean Archaeology at Swansea University (Prifysgol Abertawe) where he helped to establish the Egypt Centre housing the Egyptian collection of the pharmaceutical millionaire Sir Henry Wellcome. He returned to East Anglia as head of humanities at the University of Suffolk with his chair in archaeological heritage awarded through the University of East Anglia (UEA). He is currently Honorary Professor in the Centre for Heritage at the University of Kent, and Honorary Research Fellow in the School of History at UEA.
History of Archaeology
My biography of Dr John Disney considers the founder of the Disney Chair of Archaeology at Cambridge University as well as the background for his collection (‘The Disney Marbles’) that was donated to the Fitzwilliam Museum. Winifred Lamb was the honorary keeper of Greek Antiquities at the Fitzwilliam for nearly forty years. Apart from developing the collection, including the creation of a Prehistoric Gallery, she excavated at Mycenae, Sparta, Thermi on Lesbos, Kato Phana on Chios, and Kusura in western Anatolia. I contributed several memoirs on archaeologists to The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
History of Collecting and Archaeological Ethics
Some of my published research on archaeological ethics has been brought together in two collected volumes, Context Matters: Collating the Past and Artwashing the Past: Context Matters.
Luxury in Classical Greece
Artful Crafts considers the influence of gold and silver plate on Athenian figure-decorated pottery.
Key Publications
Sifting the Soil of Greece: The Early Years of the British School at Athens (1886-1919). Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, suppl. vol. 111. London: Institute of Classical Studies, 2011.
Winifred Lamb: Aegean Prehistorian and Museum Curator. Archaeological Lives. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2018.
The World of Disney: From Antiquarianism to Archaeology. Archaeological Lives. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2020.
Context Matters: Collating the Past. Amelia: ARCA, 2020.
Artwashing the Past: Context Matters. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2024.
Contributions to Edited Volumes
Bahn, P. G. (ed.) The Cambridge Illustrated History of Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Bahn, P. G. The Atlas of World Archaeology. London: Time-Life Books, 2000.
Bahn, P. G., C. Bird, P. Bogucki, J. Callander, P. Duke, C. Edens, D. Evans, D. W. J. Gill, J. F. Hoffecker, G. G. McCafferty, J. McIntosh, E. Miklashevich, M. M. Prüch, L. Steel, A. I. Thackeray, J. Tyldesley, K. Wise, and M. Zender. Archaeology: The Definitive Guide. Sydney: Weldon Owen Publishing, 2002.
”Winifred Lamb: searching for prehistory in Greece.” In Travellers to Greece, edited by C. A. Stray: 33-53. London: Classical Association, 2006.
”Winifred Lamb: her first year as a student at the British School at Athens.” In Archaeology and Women: Ancient and Modern Issues, edited by S. Hamilton, R. D. Whitehouse, and K. I. Wright: 55-75. Walnut Creek (CA): Left Coast Press, 2007.
”The material and intellectual consequences of acquiring the Sarpedon krater.” In All the King’s Horses: Essays on the Impact of Looting and the Illicit Antiquities Trade on our Knowledge of the Past, edited by P. K. Lazrus and A. W. Barker: 25-42. Washington DC: Society for American Archaeology, 2012.
”The Nostell Priory bolsal.” In On the Fascination of Objects: Greek and Etruscan Art in the Shefton Collection, edited by J. Boardman, A. Parkin, and S. Waite: 95-106. Oxford: Oxbow, 2015.
”Brian Shefton: classical archaeologist.” In Ark of Civilization: Refugee Scholars and Oxford University, 1930-1945, edited by S. Crawford, K. Ulmschneider, and J. Elsner: 151-60. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.
”Cryptography and vasology: J.D. Beazley and Winifred Lamb in Room 40.” In Wonders Lost and Found: Papers in Honour of Michael Vickers, edited by N. Sekunda: 194–98. Gdansk: The Institute of Archaeology, Gdańsk University, 2020.
”Tantalising Evidence and a Failed Legal Claim: The Case of the St Louis Art Museum Mummy Mask.” In Cultural Property Crime and the Law: Legal Approaches to Protection, Repatriation, and Countering Illicit Trade, edited by M. Fabiani, K. M. Burmon, and S. Hufnagel, Transnational Criminal Justice: 27–42. New York: Routledge, 2024.