Dirk Booms

Dirk Booms was born and raised in Belgium, and studied Classical Archaeology there, in Rome, and finally at the University of Cambridge (UK), where he received his PhD. He is a specialist in the history and archaeology of the Mediterranean, both ancient and medieval. After lecturing at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford, he became Curator of Roman Mediterranean Archaeology at the British Museum in London. He has organized 4 exhibitions, including the internationally acclaimed "Sicily, Culture and Conquest", which focused on the island’s Greek and Norman periods, and has published several books on the Roman Empire and Sicily. Dirk also has over 25 years of archaeological excavation experience at multiple sites in Europe and North Africa, with major projects including the private villa of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius near Rome and a very early Christian church and cemetery in North Africa. As an archaeologist of the "longue durée", Dirk expertly weaves together narratives of the myriad peoples, cultures, and languages that have shaped the fascinating history of this complex region. He has been a National Geographic Expert for the past 10 years.