David Gibbins (born 1962) is an

underwater archaeologist Underwater archaeology is archaeology practiced underwater. As with all other branches of archaeology, it evolved from its roots in pre-history and in the classical era to include sites from the historical and industrial eras. Its acceptance has ...

and a bestselling novelist.

Early life

Gibbins was born in 1962 in

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Yellowhead Highway, and has served as th ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...

, Canada, to British parents who were academic scientists. He is related to the Victorian historian Henry de Beltgens Gibbins and to Brigadier Henry John Gordon Gale, DSO and Bar. After growing up in Canada, New Zealand and England he attended the

University of Bristol , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

, where he was awarded a First Class Honours Degree in Ancient Mediterranean Studies. He spent part of 1984 in Turkey funded by a Travel Scholarship from the British Institute of Archaeology in Ankara. In 1984 he was awarded a Research Scholarship by Corpus Christi College,

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

, where he completed a PhD in

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...

in 1991. He qualified as a scuba diver in Canada at the age of 15, and since then has dived extensively around the world.

Career

Academic career

From 1991 to 1993 he held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the

from the Canadian

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC; french: Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada, CRSH) is a Canadian federal research-funding agency that promotes and supports post-secondary research and traini ...

. From 1993 to 2000 he was a lecturer in the School of Archaeology, Classics and Oriental Studies at the

University of Liverpool , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

, and from 1999 to 2001 he was an Adjunct Professor of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology. During the 1980s and 1990s he led many expeditions to investigate ancient shipwrecks and submerged ruins in the Mediterranean, including Roman shipwrecks off

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

and the harbour of ancient

Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the cla ...

. In 1999–2000 he was part of an international team excavating a 5th-century BC shipwreck off

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

. His publications on ancient shipwreck sites have appeared in scientific journals, books and popular magazines. Since 2002 he had been a full-time writer and independent scholar. In 2015 he co-founded the research group Cornwall Maritime Archaeology, which has made numerous shipwreck discoveries off south-west England. In 2016 he rediscovered the wreck of the ''Schiedam'', a ship involved in the evacuation of English Tangier in 1684 and associated with Samuel Pepys, and in 2018 the site of the President, an English East Indiaman. In 2019 on another wreck he discovered a unique 16th century copper-alloy statuette of the crucified Christ attributable to

Guglielmo della Porta Guglielmo della Porta (c. 1500–1577) was an Italian architect and sculptor of the late Renaissance or Mannerist period. He was born to a prominent North Italian family of masons, sculptors and architects. His father Giovanni Battista della Por ...

.
A copper alloy crucified Christ from the Mullion Pin Wreck
'

Writing

On leaving academia he became a novelist, writing archaeological thrillers derived from his own background. His novels have sold over three million copies and have been ''

London Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, wh ...

'' and ''New York Times'' bestsellers. His first novel, ''

Atlantis Atlantis ( grc, Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος, , island of Atlas) is a fictional island mentioned in an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato's works '' Timaeus'' and '' Critias'', wherein it represents the antagonist naval power that b ...

'', published in the UK in 2005 and the US in 2006, was published in 30 languages. Since then he has written ten further novels which have been published in more than 200 editions internationally. His main series is based on the fictional maritime archaeologist Jack Howard and his team, and forms contemporary novels involving an archaeological backdrop. He has also written two historical novels set in ancient Rome.

Honours

He is a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellow, for which he received the Churchill Medallion of the Trust. He is a

Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

and a

Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

Select bibliography

Fiction

Jack Howard series

# Gibbins, David. 2005. ''

''. London: Headline and New York: Bantam Dell. # Gibbins, David. 2006. ''

Crusader Gold ''Crusader Gold'' is an archaeological adventure novel by David Gibbins. First published in 2006, it is the second book in Gibbins's Jack Howard series. It has been published in more than 20 languages and was a New York Times bestseller. Plot su ...

''. London: Headline and New York: Bantam Dell. # Gibbins, David. 2008. '' The Last Gospel''. (''The Lost Tomb'' in US). London: Headline and New York: Bantam Dell. # Gibbins, David. 2009. '' The Tiger Warrior''. London: Headline and New York: Bantam Dell. # Gibbins, David. 2010. '' The Mask of Troy''. London: Headline and New York: Bantam Dell. # Gibbins, David. 2011. '' The Gods of Atlantis''. (''Atlantis God'' in US). London: Headline and New York: Bantam Dell (2012). # Gibbins, David. 2013. ''Pharaoh''. London: Headline and New York: Bantam Dell. # Gibbins, David. 2014. ''Pyramid''. London: Headline and New York: Bantam Dell. # Gibbins, David. 2016. ''Testament''. London: Headline and New York: Thomas Dunne Books. # Gibbins, David. 2018. ''Inquisition''. London: Headline and New York: Thomas Dunne Books.

Total War Rome series

# Gibbins, David. 2013. ''Destroy Carthage''. London: Macmillan and New York: Thomas Dunne Books. # Gibbins, David. 2015. ''The Sword of Attila''. London: Macmillan and New York: Thomas Dunne Books.

Non-fiction

* Gibbins, David, 1988. "Surgical instruments from a Roman shipwreck off Sicily." ''Antiquity'' 62 (235), pp. 294–7. * Edge, C.J. & Gibbins, D.J. 1989. "Underwater discovery of Roman surgical instruments", British Medical Journal. 298, pp. 1645-6. * Gibbins, David. 1990. "The hidden museums of the Mediterranean." ''New Scientist'' 128 (1739), pp. 35–40. * Gibbins, David and

Christopher Chippindale Christopher Ralph Chippindale, FSA (born 13 October 1951) is a British archaeologist. He worked at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology from 1988 to his retirement in 2013, and was additionally Reader in Archaeology at the University of ...

(editors), 1990. "Maritime archaeology." ''Antiquity'' 64 (243), pp. 334–400. * Gibbins, David, 1990. "Analytical approaches in maritime archaeology: a Mediterranean perspective". ''Antiquity'' 64 (243), pp. 376–389. * Gibbins, David and

, 1990. "Heritage at sea: proposals for the better protection of British archaeological sites underwater". ''Antiquity'' 64 (243), pp. 390–400. * Gibbins, David. 1993. "Bronze Age wreck's revelations." ''Illustrated London News'' 281 (7116), pp. 72–3. * Gibbins, David, 1993. "Das im Mittelmeer verborgene Museum." ''Mannheimer Forum 92/93. Ein Panorama der Naturwissen schaften.'' Mannheim: Boehringer Mannheim, pp. 175–243. * Gibbins, David, 1995. "What shipwrecks can tell us." ''Antiquity'' 69:263, pp. 408–411. * Gibbins, David J.L., Mike M. Emery and Keith J. Mathews, 1996. ''The Archaeology of an Ecclesiastical Landscape''. ''Chester Archaeology Excavation and Survey Report'' No. 9. Chester City Council/The University of Liverpool. * Gibbins, David, 1997. "Deleta est Carthago?" ''Antiquity'' 71 (271), pp. 217–219. * Gibbins, David. 1998. "Maritime archaeology". in Shaw, I. and R. Jameson (editors) ''Dictionary of Archaeology''. Oxford: Blackwell. * Gibbins, David. 2000. "Classical shipwreck excavation at Tektas Burnu, Turkey." ''Antiquity'' 74:283, pp. 199–201. * Gibbins, David. 2001. "Shipwrecks and Hellenistic trade." in Zofia H. Archibald et al. (editors), ''Hellenistic Economies''. London/New York: Routledge, pp. 273–312. * Gibbins, David and Jonathan Adams (editors), 2001. ''Shipwrecks.'' ''World Archaeology'' 32.3. London: Routledge. ISSN 0043-8243 * Gibbins, David and Jonathan Adams, 2001. "Shipwrecks and maritime archaeology." ''World Archaeology'', 32:3, pp. 279–291. * Gibbins, David. 2001. "A Roman shipwreck of c. AD 200 at Plemmirio, Sicily: evidence for north African amphora production during the Severan period." ''World Archaeology'' 32.3, pp. 311–334. * Gibbins, David. 2019. "The 9th Lancers and the assault on the 'Qaudrilateral' during the Battle of the Somme, 15 September 1916. ''The Chapka'' (Regimental Journal of the Royal Lancers (Queen Elizabeth's Own)) 2018: 138–41

Footnotes

References

* Sue Fox, 'Best of Times, Worst of Times: David Gibbins', London ''Sunday Times'', December 4, 200

External links

David Gibbins official website

David Gibbins on website of agency Luigi Bonomi Associates

Amazon.co.uk David Gibbins Author Page

Amazon.com David Gibbins Author Page

Fantastic Fiction David Gibbins Author Page

Total War Rome series
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gibbins, David 1962 births Living people Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Alumni of the University of Bristol Atlantis Canadian archaeologists Canadian non-fiction writers Canadian male novelists Canadian underwater divers Writers from Saskatoon Canadian thriller writers Underwater archaeologists Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society Male non-fiction writers