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I am a southern Englishman, all my family coming from London, where they ended up from all over the British Isles and north-west Europe, so far as I can tell.
Having read archaeology at the London Institute of Archaeology (now part of University College London), I stayed on there for my PhD, which was on the Roman and other arms from Dura-Europos, Syria.
Subsequently
I worked as an archaeological illustrator specialising in reconstruction
drawing, which in 1985 took me to the British Museum to illustrate a book
on the development of British archaeology since 1945. Transferring to the
British Museum Education Service where I was responsible for presenting later
prehistory and Rome to visitors of all ages, I remained at Bloomsbury until
October 1996 when I moved to Durham on a Leverhulme Special Fellowship to
study the Roman army in the East.
Since January 2000 I have been a lecturer in Archaeology at the School of Archaeological Studies, University of Leicester.
I have excavated quite widely in Britain and in France, Germany and Italy. Over the last few years I have also written a number of books on past cultures, for children and for adults, and continue to be involved in television documentaries as a script consultant and occasional 'talking head'.
For the incurably curious, here's a mugshot