News

It has been a terrific year writing about archaeology and anthropology for the Guardian. However, they have decided to end the Science Blog Network, which unfortunately means the end of the Past and the Curious archaeology blog. Thank you to the editors...

Peter was awarded funding from the John Morrison Memorial Fund for Hellenic Maritime Studies at the British School at Athens. He will use the funds to stay at the BSA and complete an article on the development ancient naval warships based on his PhD...

The 2018 field season of the Battle of the Egadi Islands survey will be held in July and August. The project is a collaboration between the Soprintendenza del Mare and RPM Nautical Foundation.

ICOM Austria invited Peter give to Palmyra Lecture on threats to underwater cultural heritage. Peter discussed the looting, trafficking, and destruction of cultural heritage, with special emphasis on underwater sites.

Peter presented a paper titled "The Sea as a Hyperobject: Navigating beyond maritime cultural landscapes?" at the Entangled Sea conference in Manchester. Abstract The recent “speculative turn” in continental philosophy has challenged long-standing theories...

The Drain the Ocean series premiered its Mediterranean episode, which included a segment filmed at the Battle of the Egadi Islands site during the 2017 field season.

Peter served as a discussant at the Honor Frost Foundation 2018 Policy Forum titled "Managing Shipwrecks" at the British Academy in London.

Simon Keay and Peter presented "Navigating the Harbours and Canals of the Portus Romae: new approaches" on the recent research on Portus for the Roman Society in London.

Peter attended the OSCE/Carabinieri 2018 Counter-Terrorism Conference on Reversing the Flow of Foreign Terrorist Fighters held in Rome, Italy.

Peter presented “Culture Under Threat: The Black Market Stage of Antiquities Trafficking” to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Vienna, Austria.

Peter was invited to the Explorers Club Annual Dinner as one of the 2017 Rolex Explorers. He presented on his research on survey and 3D visualization of Mediterranean underwater cultural heritage in Albania, Greece, and Italy. Photography by Felix...

Peter presented "Reconstructing the Harbourscape of Portus" to the Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica, Escuela Española en Roma.

Peter was invited to present the results of the 2017 Fournoi fieldwork at the annual Institute of Nautical Archaeology meeting in Monaco.

Peter is joining the British School at Rome for a year long research fellowship examining the Imperial port of Rome, Portus. The research will include modeling the navigational environment of the ancient port.

National Geographic visited RPM Nautical Foundation's research to film for an upcoming documentary program. The series is expected in air in a year's time and feature one of RPMNF's ongoing projects.

The collaboration between the Soprintendenza del Mare and RPM Nautical Foundation continued at the Battle of the Egadi Islands site. The project has spanned a decade and led to the discovery of numerous artifacts from the battle in 241 BC.

Peter taught the course "Underwater Archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean: shipwrecks, sunken cities, drowned landscapes and the ancient world" for the Bloomsbury Summer School at University College London. Students learned about the wide range of...

The Honor Frost Foundation awarded a grant for the study of paleomagnetism in ancient amphoras. The study examines amphoras from submerged environments and hopes to elucidate the date of firing through analysis at the National Oceanographic Centre...

The fieldwork at Fourni, Greece, continued for a third season. A number of new shipwrecks were discovered, while the focus was on documenting the sites that had been found during the previous seasons.

The Guardian has launched a new science blog about archaeology and anthropology. Peter joins four other researchers to bring new stories from the social sciences to the public. Ready to dive in? Check out the blog on the Guardian's website.

The Archaeology of Underwater Caves is an exploration of karst and marine caves around the world. Caves have drawn explorers since early forays by John Leland, King Henry VIII’s antiquary, at Bath in 1545, Helisäus Rößlin’s work at Niederbronn-les-Bains in 1593, and...

I was invited by the Bournemouth Archaeological Society to give a talk on the latest findings in underwater archaeology. It was a great time that ended in karaoke at the pub after the talk!

The Institute of Nautical Archaeology has awarded the Fourni Underwater Survey a grant for its 2017 field season. The third season at Fourni will consist of remote sensing and 3D modeling of the shipwrecks that have been found in previous seasons- 45 in total.

My third lesson with TED Ed is titled "Are Ghost Ships Real?" It examines the age-old phenomenon of "ghost" ship- ships that sail on their own without crews. While these stories have inspired Bram Stoker, Nosferatu, and Pirates of Caribbean, they are based on real...

I gave an invited lecture to the Centre for Maritime Archaeology in the Oxford's Institute of Archaeology. It was an honor speaking to Centre about my research!