John Peter Oleson

John Peter Oleson (* 1946 in Hackensack, United States) is a Canadian-American Classic archaeologist who has worked mainly in the field of underwater archeology.

Oleson studied Classical Archaeology at Harvard University. From 1973 to 1976 he taught at Florida State University in Tallahassee. Since 1976 he has been Professor of Classics at the University of Victoria in Canada. In the 1970s and 1980s he participated together with the archaeologist Anna McCann Taggart at various archaeological dives in the Mediterranean. As an author he has written several books about his discoveries in underwater archeology.

In 2010 he received the Pierre Chauveau Medal.

Publications (selection)

• Sources of Innovation in Later Etruscan Tomb Design, Giorgio Bretschneider Editore, Rome 1982, ISBN 88-85007-67-8
• Greek and Roman Mechanical Water - Lifting Devices. The History of a Technology, Phoenix, supplementary vol 16, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1984, ISBN 0-8020-5597-4
• Bronze Age, Greek and Roman Technology: A Select, Annotated Bibliography, New York: Garland Publishing, 1986, ISBN 0-8240-8677-5
• The Roman Port and Fishery of Cosa, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987, ISBN 0-691-03581-4
• The Harbours of Caesarea Maritima. Vol 1: The Site and the Excavations, BAR International Series, supplement 491, 1989, ISBN 0-86054-628-4
• The Harbours of Caesarea Maritima. Vol 2: The Finds and the Ship, BAR International Series, supplement 594, 1994, ISBN 0-86054-768- X
• Greek and Roman Technology: A Sourcebook, London: Routledge, 1997, ISBN 0-415-06136-9
• Deep -Water Shipwrecks off Skerki Bank: The 1997 Survey, Journal of Roman Archaeology, supplement 58, 2004, ISBN 1-887829-58- X
• Handbook of Engineering and Technology in the Classical World, New York: Oxford University Press, 2008 ( Ed. ), ISBN 978-0-19-973485-6
• Humayma Excavation Project, 1: Resources, History and the Water - supply system, ASOR Archaeological Reports, Vol 15, 2010, ISBN 978-0-89757-083-1