Dr Jamie Sewell

A classical archaeologist, author and experienced tour lecturer, Jamie has fifteen years’ experience supervising excavations in Britain, Germany, Romania and Italy, including digs at Pompeii. He holds a PhD in Roman Archaeology from the University of London and has lectured at Durham University and Humboldt University in Berlin.

Jamie’s research focuses on the archaeology of towns in Hellenistic Italy and the wider Mediterranean, examining how and why larger settlements transformed as a result of the Roman conquest of the peninsula. This included a major project at Durham University — the Marie Curie-funded ROMURBITAL study — which built an analytical database of nearly 600 higher-order settlements across the Italian peninsula between 350 BCE and 300 CE.

He has authored a book and many articles on Roman urbanism, settlement and archaeology. This combination of academic research and hands-on excavation allows Jamie to explain not only what survives at an archaeological site, but also what the remains reveal about the people who lived, worked and worshipped there.

With more than a decade’s experience as a guide, Jamie leads Travel Editions tours including Ancient Sicily and Pompeii and Herculaneum, drawing together the history, archaeology and human stories behind some of the ancient Mediterranean’s most remarkable sites.

Jamie’s engaging and accessible approach brings ruined cities and monuments vividly to life. Whether exploring a Greek temple, a Roman theatre or the streets and houses preserved beneath the shadow of Vesuvius, he helps travellers look beyond the stones to understand the communities and cultures that created them.