I absolutely co-sign this. It works for palaeolandscapes beautifully!

Peter Campbell@petercampbell.bsky.social · 3mo ago

On his 100th birthday, petition to rename ‘century’ an Attenborough. As an archaeologist, I would love to say a shipwreck is over 20 Attenboroughs old.

On his 100th birthday, petition to rename ‘century’ an Attenborough. As an archaeologist, I would love to say a shipwreck is over 20 Attenboroughs old.

Sending a belated Happy Birthday wish to our expert Dr. Peter Campbell, the brilliant Maritime Archaeologist! 🌊⚓️ We hope you're diving into a great celebration! May your day be as exciting as discovering a hidden shipwreck. Cheers! @petercampbell.bsky.social

National Geographic goes behind the scenes with @petercampbell.bsky.social as part of an OSCE investigation into the seizure of some 200 Cambodian, Bactrian, and Gandharan antiquities that were "roughly removed" from archeological sites. www.nationalgeographic.com/history/arti...

How did hundreds of antiquities end up in a London warehouse? These sleuths are on the case.

National Geographic Explorer Peter Campbell provides an inside look at the early stages of a heritage crime investigation.

nationalgeographic.com

Caffè Greco 1760-2025. One of the oldest coffee houses in Europe has closed, which served historical figures such as Goethe, Byron, Hans Christen Andersen, Sitting Bull, Mark Twain, John Keats, Gogol, and more. It was a mainstay of my Rome tours with the British School at Rome, and to meet friends.

Half of the Tiber survey team in Rome for planning the next phase.

Serop Simonian of the alleged Dib-Simonian trafficking network is on the lam after French authorities released him amid a sprawling investigation of his role in trafficking looted Egyptian antiquities to institutions including the Met and Louvre Abu Dhabi. www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/03/27/s...

Alleged head of Egyptian antiquities trafficking ring leaves France amid ‘breakdown’ in criminal investigation

Serop Simonian was allowed to leave Paris and return to his hometown of Hamburg following a French magistrate’s decision that was subsequently overturned on appeal

theartnewspaper.com

In Rome for the Underwater Archaeological Missions in the Mediterranean conference in the beautiful Instituto Centrale del Restauro. Many brilliant colleagues presenting on missions that span the Mediterranean- and all in memory of our colleague Sebastiano Tusa.

The OSCE Heritage Crime Task Force ran another training workshop in Poland this week. Investigators from around Eastern Europe gathered to learn investigative techniques and forensic evidence collection for heritage crimes. Another impactful workshop for the OSCE.

Thrilled to announce that myself and colleagues have created Heritage Crime Investigations Inc to provide bespoke training workshops and forensic kits for heritage managers, police, and military. We’ve hit the ground running with consultancies for a number of institutions. heritagecrime.com

Roads less travelled: we are visiting the remote atolls of the Seychelles - Saint-Francois, Assumption, and Astove. Accessing these locations with PONANT is a special opportunity as they are home to endangered species and fascinating archaeology. #ponant #explorersclub

Another OSCE Heritage Crime Task Force training workshop is in the books: this time tackling underwater heritage crime. Big thanks to our hosts in Portugal, good to see the task force and Portuguese archaeologists again!

JHU archaeologist’s discovery of earliest alphabet. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/lo...

Johns Hopkins archeologist discovers ‘humanity’s earliest-known’ alphabet

A Johns Hopkins University archeologist and his team are credited with discovering “humanity’s earliest-known alphabetic writing.”

thebaltimorebanner.com

As we approach the Winter Solstice, here's what Stonehenge looked like in the 16th century. BL Add MS 28330; Lucas De Heere, Corte Beschryvinghe van Engheland, Schotland, ende Irland; 1573 CE-1575 CE; England (London); f.36r

A full week of Birthdays ahead at Past Preservers, starting off with our expert, Underwater Archaeologist, Dr @petercampbell.bsky.social! Happy Birthday Peter!

TOI on Sotheby's "10 Commandments" sale: "the story the sellers (or forgers) tell is almost always a tall tale, which has been spun so as to convince the buyer that some inscription is ancient and that it was pulled from the soil of some archaeological site." blogs.timesofisrael.com/sothebys-sam...

The Blogs: Sotheby’s Samaritan 10 Commandments and the Antiquities Market: Caveat Emptor

From the blog of Chris Rollston at The Times of Israel

blogs.timesofisrael.com

I don't know about archaeology, but in paleontology, it's not uncommon for peasant farmers to forge significant fossils (typically by carving new features into a fossil, or sticking two fossils together) for financial incentive.

Here's me doing my favorite thing last week: talking about the looting (and return!) of the Bubon bronzes, a story I have been researching, writing, and speaking about since 2012. www.npr.org/2024/12/08/n... 1/5

A Danish museum agrees to return a bronze sculpture looted from Turkey

A Danish museum has agreed to return the bronze head of a Roman Emperor to Turkey. The sculpture was among thousands of artifacts looted from Turkey and sold to American and European museums. (This story first aired on All Things Considered on Dec. 3, 2024.)

npr.org

Another case of a forgery made by "an ordinary peasant" (and sorry, but that kind of statement reeks of elitism) is the Kensington rune stone, made in the 19th C madina in the 19th in Minnesota by a Swedish immigrant: www.raa.se/in-english/h...

How the runes went from Hassela to Minnesota

The Kensington Runestone, which was found in the Swedish settlements of Minnesota in 1898 by the immigrant Olof Ohman, is perhaps the world’s most famous and co

raa.se

2,500-year-old shipwreck and anchors discovered off coast of Sicily - CBS News www.cbsnews.com/news/2500-ye...

2,500-year-old shipwreck and anchors discovered off coast of Sicily

A shipwreck dating back to the 5th and 6th centuries B.C. was discovered earlier this year off the coast of Sicily, Italian officials said.

cbsnews.com

Exciting news: a previously unknown script (and language?) has been discovered in Georgia. However, as a heritage crime specialist, this find gives me pause. A thread. jaha.org.ro/index.php/JA...

Would you like to learn about the shipwrecks and pirates of the Indian Ocean? Join me on this Ponant and the Explorers Club voyage to the Seychelles, Kilwa, and Zanzibar. We'll explore the maritime history of each location and discuss recent discoveries! us.ponant.com/africa-middl...

Cruise Zanzibar, Aldabra & the Treasures of the Indian Ocean from Victoria, Mahé to Zanzibar - February 2025 | Ponant

Through PONANT’s alliance with The Explorers Club, this voyage will feature maritime archaeologist Peter Campbell. Peter has led archaeological missions across multiple countries, exploring shipwrecks...

us.ponant.com

Classical Cat Problems 🐈‍⬛

The Glyptotek museum in Copenhagen will return a bronze portrait of Roman Emperor Septimius Severus to Türkiye. It was illegally excavated and removed from the country in the 1960s and bought by the Danish museum in 1970🏺 www.anews.com.tr/art/2024/11/...

Septimius Severus statue head returned to Türkiye after 60 years

The bronze statue head of Roman Emperor Septimius Severus, looted in the 1960s, has been returned to Türkiye after nearly six decades. This marks a significant step in the countrys efforts to reclaim ...

anews.com.tr

Colin Renfrew, a truly influential personality in archaeology, passed away the night before last. Few people have shaped #archaeology & in particular the theoretical debates as much as he did. I really like the photo, because it connects a lot: The thinker in the field. 📷 ANA-MPA (Eleni Markou)

Professor Lord Colin Renfrew – 1937-2024 | University of Cambridge www.cam.ac.uk/news/profess...

In the field mapping the riverbottom of the Tiber. Thanks to National Geographic we are conducting the first systematic underwater archaeological survey in the centre of Rome. It is a great partnership between the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro, Carabineri Subacque, Vigili Del Fuoco, and Norbit.

Hello Bluesky! Migrating over from the dreaded X! Looking forward to connecting with you all. To get started, here is a photo of six badass female underwater archaeologists finishing up a race on a historic boat in Croatia.

Victory worn by time. Warship ram from the Battle of the Egadi Islands (241 BC).