Dr Mark Newell, Maritime Archaeologist
A British archaeologist resident in he US, Mark Newell has spent a career travelling through the Caribbean, South America and North America. In the Caribbean he explored shipwrecks and pirate havens. He traced his way through the islands to Panama into Colombia and Peru. He documented grave robbers and antiquities hunters, and followed illicit gem mining in the Matto Grosso. He explored Inca ruins in Peru, tracing the route of Hiram Bingham in the Andes, and other early American explorers to the plains south of Lima. He brought his family to the United States in the early 1970s and began a twenty-year search for the Confederate Submarine H. L. Hunley. With funding for a two-week field project from author Clive Cussler, Newell found the wreck in the Fall of 1994. In the 1980s Newell created a project designed to feed large timbers for the preservation of the U.S.S.Constitution. He received a letter of commendation from the Secretary of the Navy for this work. In 2000 Newell discovered important African influence stoneware pottery sites in South Carolina and lectured at major US institutions, include the Met and the Smithsonian staff on the finds. His You Tube channel is Archaeonaut Channel. Newell has made numerous short documentaries and has appeared in several national and international television programs and documentaries.