Andrew G. Williamson

Andrew G. Williamson was a British archaeologist who specialised in the historic archaeology of southern Iran, Arabia and the Persian Gulf.

Career

Williamson studied at Pembroke College, University of Oxford under the supervision of Ralph Pinder-Wilson. His doctoral research involved a survey of Sasanian and Islamic period settlements along the Iranian coast and inland through parts of Fars and Kerman between 1968 and 1971. He also completed initial excavations at Sirjan in 1970 and Tepe Dasht-i Deh close to Tepe Yahya in 1971 and 1972.
In 1973, before completing his doctoral thesis, he was appointed as the first Director of Antiquities of Oman, tasked with the formation of the Department of Antiquities and plans for the formation of the National Museum of Oman, which eventually opened in 2016.. Whilst in Oman, he began work with the Harvard Archaeological Survey to document the Early Islamic port of Sohar.
In 1975, Williamson died when his vehicle detonated a landmine in the southern Dhofar region whilst returning in a military convoy from the early Indian Ocean port site of Khor Rori.
A project to catalogue Williamson's archive has been initiated by Seth Priestman and Derek Kennet.