Staff Profile
Kelekian Curatorial Fellow in Ancient Art
penny_coombe@harvard.edu / 617-496-1475
D.Phil., University of Oxford
M.A., University College London
B.A., University of Oxford
Penny Coombe is a specialist in ancient art and archaeology, especially from the north-west of the Roman Empire. Her research interests include constructions of regionality and localism, particularly witnessed in transmission of objects, materials, techniques, and form between Roman Britain and Germany. At the Harvard Art Museums, she is assisting with the development of a 2026 exhibition on Celtic art, as well as working on a range of cataloguing, research, and gallery projects across the ancient collection. Hailing from the United Kingdom, Coombe has previously worked at the Ashmolean Museum, the Getty Research Institute, and the Museum of London and has taught classical archaeology at the University of Oxford, University of Sheffield, and Royal Holloway, University of London.
Recent Publications
“Review: Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani. Great Britain. Vol. 1, Fasc. 11. The Hinterland of Hadrian’s Wall and Derbyshire. By Lindsay Allason-Jones.” Britannia (2024): 1–2.
Coombe, Penny, and Ying Tung Fung, eds. Approaches to Disruptions and Interactions in Archaeology. Proceedings of the Graduate Archaeology at Oxford Annual Conferences in 2017–2019. Oxford: Archaeopress Access Archaeology, 2022.
“Iconography of Water Gods in Roman Britain.” In Aspects of Water in the Roman World, ed. Jason Lundock and Martin Henig. Oxford: Archaeopress Publishing, 2022.
Coombe, Penny, Martin Henig, and Kevin Hayward. “The Sculpted and Architectural Stonework from Stanwick Roman Villa, Northamptonshire.” Britannia 52 (2021): 227–75.
Barker, Simon J., Penny Coombe, and Kevin Hayward. “Londinium’s Landward Wall: Material Acquisition, Supply and Construction.” Britannia 52 (2021): 277–326.