Peter G. Stone, (born 1957) is a British heritage professional and academic, who is the current UNESCO Chair in Cultural Property Protection and Peace at Newcastle University. He was the vice-president of Blue Shield International from 2017 to 2020, and was elected its president at the 2020 General Assembly. He is also a founding member and the chair of the UK Committee of that organisation.
Education and early career
Peter G. Stone was born in 1957, in Manchester, England. He gained a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Stirling, followed by a Diploma of Education in 1979. He initially worked as a teacher, teaching history in England and English in Greece.
Career
During the summer school holidays of 1978, 1979 and 1980, Stone joined as a volunteer archaeological excavations in the Anglo-Scandinavian site of Coppergate in York, and in the Saxon site of Hamwic in Southampton. In 1980, he worked as a paid archaeologist at Hambledon Hill in Dorset and later in 1982 in Jewbury. After completing his master's degree (MA) in archaeological method and theory at the University of Southampton in 1983, he started carrying out his PhD research on a part-time basis. His thesis, supervised by Professor Peter Ucko, titled Teaching the Past, with Special Reference to Prehistory, in English Primary Education.
Whilst researching, Peter worked as a Project Manager and Coordinator at the University of Southampton for the Archaeology and Education Project set up with Ucko and then in various posts at English Heritage. The latter posts included his direct involvement with the controversies surrounding the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge in the 1990s. He became an expert on the World Heritage site of Stonehenge, Avebury, and Associated Sites and went on to publish widely on it In 1997, the Council for British Archaeology (CBA) appointed him as their Special Advisor on Stonehenge. From 1997 to 2003, he was also appointed the Chair of the CBA Education committee, and from the mid-80s, he was a member of their Schools Committee and Education Board. They later also appointed him CBA representative for the World Heritage site of Hadrian's Wall. Other appointments have included chairing the Hadrian's Wall World Heritage Site Management Plan Committee and sitting on the National Trust's Archaeology Advisory Panel.
He was the Executive Series Editor for the One World Archaeology (OWA) Series (1999–2003). As part of the OWA Series, he produced several publications on education and interpretation of archaeological and cultural heritage.
In 1997, Peter joined Newcastle University as a lecturer in Heritage studies at the Department of Archaeology and was promoted to Professor in 2005. He became Director of the International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies (ICCHS) in the School of Arts and Cultures in 2001–2005 and was Head of the School from 2006 until December 2015.
In 2016, Peter was appointed the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Property Protection and Peace, the first of its kind.
Stone and the World Archaeological Congress
Together with Peter Ucko, Stone was instrumental in founding the World Archaeological Congress, established in 1986. The World Archaeological Congress (WAC) "is a not-for-profit organization and forum for discussion for anyone who is concerned with the study of the past. WAC seeks to promote interest in the past in all countries, to encourage the development of regionally based histories and to foster international academic interaction. Its aims are based on the need to make archaeological studies relevant to the wider community". He was part of the steering committee, a member of the voluntary WAC Secretariat, and from 1998, the WACs Chief Executive Officer until 2008. (The Executive is the main governing body of WAC between meetings of Council). He assisted in the organisation of the WAC congress every four years from WAC 1 to WAC 6.