Elizabeth Fentress


Elizabeth Barringer Fentress is a Roman archaeologist who specialises in Italy and North Africa.

Biography

Fentress was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, University College London, St Hugh's College, Oxford.
She was a Visiting Professor at University College London, Visiting Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford and Mellon Professor at the American Academy in Rome.
She is a former President of the International Association of Classical Archaeology, corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries since 2006. In 2003, she set up , an international database of Mediterranean archaeological excavation. In 2013 she was the winner of the first Archaeological Institute of America Award for Outstanding Digital Archaeology. She is an Honorary Visiting Professor at University College London.
She is married to James Fentress, an anthropologist and historian.

Scholarship

Her primary concentration has been on the application of archaeology to history of the longue durée in both the Italian peninsula and the countries of North Africa. Her work has focused on social and economic aspects of Roman landscapes of all periods, with special regard to the interaction between Roman and non-Roman peoples at their points of contact in areas such as slave markets, the limes, and urban areas. She is also a leader in the application of open-area, single-context stratigraphic excavation and intensive survey techniques, and she has directed or co-directed the following survey and excavation projects: