National Geographic Expert

Dirk Booms

Archaeologist Dirk Booms has lectured at Cambridge, Oxford, and the University of London, Birkbeck. He was Curator of Roman Mediterranean Archaeology at the British Museum. His main research interests are architecture (including 3D reconstructions) and inscriptions, and he has excavated in Italy, Belgium, Turkey, and Tunisia.

He has worked in Italy over many years and curated the major Sicily: Culture and Conquest exhibition at the British Museum, for which he also co-authored the companion publication and organized a conference and public events programs. Dirk has curated three other exhibitions for the British Museum, all focused on the Roman Empire. He has been involved in the excavation and reconstruction of the imperial villa of the emperor Marcus Aurelius at Villa Magna, Italy. His doctoral research focused on life at Roman Imperial villa complexes and their usage and decoration as statements of power and identity by the emperors.