David Gibbins (born 1962) is an underwater archaeologist and a bestselling novelist.

He was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, to English parents who were both academic scientists. He travelled around the world with them by sea as a boy, including four years living in New Zealand, before returning to Canada. He attended the University of Bristol, England, where he was awarded a First Class Honours Degree in Ancient Mediterranean Studies. He then went to Cambridge University as a Research Scholar of Corpus Christi College, where he completed a PhD in Archaeology in 1990.

Gibbins learned to scuba dive at the age of 15 in Canada, and dived under ice, on shipwrecks and in caves while he was still at school. He has led numerous underwater archaeology expeditions around the world, including five seasons excavating ancient Roman shipwrecks off Sicily and a survey of the submerged harbour of ancient Carthage. In 1999-2000 he was part of an international team excavating a 5th century BC shipwreck off Turkey. His many publications on ancient shipwreck sites have appeared in scientific journals, books and popular magazines. Most recently his fieldwork has taken him to the Arctic Ocean and to Mesoamerica.

After holding a Research Fellowship at Cambridge, he spent most of the 1990s as a Lecturer in the School of Archaeology, Classics and Oriental Studies at the University of Liverpool. On leaving teaching he become a novelist, writing archaeological thrillers derived from his own background. His first novel, Atlantis, published in the UK in 2005 and the US in September 2006, has sold more than half a million copies and is published in 28 languages, and has been a No. 1 bestseller. His second novel, Crusader Gold, was published in the UK in July 2006 and the US in May 2007. Atlantis is also being made into a major film. His third novel, The Last Gospel (The Lost Tomb in US) was published in 2008.

Among his awards Gibbins has held a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship.

He divides his time between fieldwork, a farm in Canada where he writes, and England. He has a daughter, whose mother is the philosopher and broadcaster Angie Hobbs. He is related to the 19th century historian Henry de Beltgens Gibbins.

David Gibbins' Atlantis book cover, published by Headline

Select Bibliography

Non-fiction

• Gibbins, David, 1988. 'Surgical instruments from a Roman shipwreck off Sicily.' Antiquity 62 (235), pp. 294-7.
• Gibbins, David. 1990. 'The hidden museums of the Mediterranean.' New Scientist 128 (1739), pp. 35-40.
• Gibbins, David and Christopher Chippindale(eds), 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 Christopher Chippindale]], 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. '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. ISBN 978-1-872587-09-7
• Gibbins, David, 1997. 'Deleta est Carthago?' Antiquity 71 (271), pp. 217-219.
• Gibbins, David. 1998. 'Maritime archaeology'. in Shaw, I. and R. Jameson (eds) Dictionary of Archaeology. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-17423-3
• 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. (eds.), Hellenistic Economies. London/New York: Routledge, pp. 273-312. ISBN 978-0-415-23466-5
• Gibbins, David and Jonathan Adams (eds), 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.

Fiction

• Gibbins, David. 2005. Atlantis. London: Headline. ISBN 978-0-7553-2422-4
• Gibbins, David. 2006. Crusader Gold. London: Headline. ISBN 978-0-7553-2927-4
• Gibbins, David. 2008. The Last Gospel (The Lost Tomb in US). London: Headline. ISBN 978-0-7553-3514-5

References

• Sue Fox, 'Best of Times, Worst of Times: David Gibbins', London Sunday Times, December 4 2005.

External links

• David Gibbins official website
• David Gibbins at the Internet Book List

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