Justin Leidwanger

Biography

Justin Leidwanger’s research focuses on the economic networks that shaped ancient maritime commerce, particularly during the Roman era. These interests lead him to spend more time in, rather than around, the waters of the Mediterranean, where his fieldwork explores the shipwrecks and ports that provide primary archaeological evidence for the modes and mechanisms of exchange. For more than a decade, he has directed survey and excavation projects primarily off the coasts of Turkey, Italy and Cyprus. Since 2011, he has been collaborating with Middle East Technical University and Brock University to investigate the Archaic through Late Roman harbors of Burgaz on the Datça peninsula. In collaboration with the Soprintendenza del Mare, he has recently developed the Marzamemi Maritime Heritage Project, a joint initiative that combines survey and excavation with maritime heritage education and museum and tourism development at the site of several ancient shipwrecks off southeast Sicily.

Research Interest

Ancient economies, Greek and Roman ceramics, seaborne connectivity, maritime archaeology, Roman architecture, archaeological law and ethics