Professor Ben Russell

An expert in the art and archaeology of the Roman Empire, Ben has extensive fieldwork experience around the Mediterranean—in Türkiye, Greece, Italy, Tunisia, Libya, Croatia—as well as in the UK. He has excavated at the famous Roman site of Aphrodisias in Türkiye for more than fifteen years and has previously directed excavations at Aeclanum in the Irpinia region of southern Italy. Ben has published widely on topics as diverse as Roman architecture, sculpture, the economy, shipwrecks, military equipment, and vernacular construction. He has published books on the Roman marble trade, Aphrodisias, and crafts in antiquity, and is currently writing a new book on Roman stoneworkers. Ben is Professor of the Archaeology of the Roman Empire at the University of Edinburgh and has previously worked at the University of Oxford, the British School at Rome, and King’s College London.