David Breeze

David John Breeze, OBE, FSA, FRSE, HonFSAScot, Hon MIFA (born 25 July 1944) is a British archaeologist, teacher and scholar of Hadrian's Wall, the Antonine Wall and the Roman army.

He studied under Eric Birley and is a member of the so-called "Durham School" of archaeology.

He was a close friend and colleague of the late Dr Brian Dobson.

Breeze was educated in Blackpool Grammar School.

After working for the department of archaeology at the University of Durham in 1968–69, Breeze was appointed an Assistant Inspector of Ancient Monuments in the Ministry of Public Building and Works.

He attended the University of Durham, from which he was awarded his Doctor of Philosophy degree (PhD) in 1970.

His thesis was titled The immunes and principales of the Roman army.

He was one of the founders of the Hadrianic Society in 1971, and is now a patron of its successor, the Roman Army School held in Durham each Easter.

Breeze has served as president of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (1987–90), the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne (2008–11), the Royal Archaeological Institute (2009–12) and the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society (2011–14).

He succeeded Iain MacIvor as Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments for Historic Scotland in 1989, serving in this role until 2005.

He is an honorary professor at the University of Durham, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and the University of Stirling.

Breeze has chaired the organising committee for the 1989, 1999, 2009 and 2019 Pilgrimages of Hadrian's Wall, probably the oldest archaeological tour in the UK, and edited the 14th edition of the Handbook to the Roman Wall, the oldest archaeological guide-book in the UK to have been continuously in print and up-dated.

He is a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute.

He was Chairman of the British Archaeological Awards from 1993 to 2009 and of the International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies from 2000 to 2015, and the Senhouse Museum Trust, Maryport, from 2013 to 2018; he is now a patron of the trust.

He chaired the Culture 2000 project Frontiers of the Roman Empire (2005–08).

He edited, with Sonja Jilek, a multi-language series of books on the frontiers of the Roman Empire.

He led the team which resulted in the Antonine Wall being ascribed as a World Heritage Site in 2008, and formed part of the group which created the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site, of which this is the first multi-national example.

Published so far are volumes on the Roman limes in Hungary (2008), the lower Danube limes in Bulgaria (2008), Slovakia (2008), The Danube Limes: A Roman River Frontier (2009), the Antonine Wall (2009), Hadrian's Wall (2011), the Danube limes in Austria (2011), North Africa (2013), Serbia (2017), The Lower German Limes (2019), Egypt (2021), Dacia (2021), Upper Germanic Limes (2022), The Eastern Frontier (2022), The Saxon Shore (2022) and Wales (2022) all available online.

Breeze was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by the University of Glasgow in 2008.

He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2009.

He was awarded Current Archaeology Archaeologist of the Year award at the Archaeology Awards 2009, and the European Archaeological Heritage Prize in 2010.

Breeze was presented with a Festschrift in 2009: The Army and Frontiers of Rome edited by William S. Hanson and published by the Journal of Roman Archaeology.

In 2021, Breeze was awarded the Kenyon Medal by the British Academy "for his outstanding contribution to the archaeology of the Roman Empire and to ensuring the inscription of the Antonine Wall as a World Heritage Site".

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The report on his excavations at the Roman fort at Bearsden on the Antonine Wall was published in 2016, with a separate 'popular' account shortly afterwards.