Helen Farr

Career Farr's research centres on the growth of early seafaring and the maritime industry in connection with prehistoric island colonisation.

Farr was a member of the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project (MAP) team, sponsored by the Southampton's Centre for Maritime Archaeology. The purpose of the five-year project (2014–2019), was to survey submerged ancient landscapes in the Black Sea. The international team of scientists uncovered and analysed more than sixty shipwrecks, including possibly the world's oldest intact shipwreck found in Bulgarian waters at a depth of more than . The ship, most likely ancient Greek in origin, was discovered with its mast, rudders and rowing benches in place.

In 2017, Farr was awarded a European Research Council Horizon grant (2018–2022), Australasian Colonization Research: Origins of Seafaring to Sahul, for a multidisciplinary study on the earliest evidence of seafaring and the colonisation of Australasia. Farr's current research focuses on the continental shelf off northwest Australia.

Awards and honours 2009 Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellowship at Southampton University (2009–2012). 2019 Society of Antiquaries of London, Elected as Fellow on 17 October 2019. 2017 European Research Council (ERC) Horizon 2020 award and research grant (2018–2022).

Select publications Farr, R. H., Clapham, A., Reinhardt, E. G., Boyce, J. I., Collins, S., & Robb, J. (2020). Using marine deposits to understand terrestrial human environments: 6000-year old hyperpycnal flash-flood events and their implications. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 30, 1–16. . Dickson, T., Farr, R., Sear, D., & Blake, J. 2019. "Uncertainty in marine weather routing". Applied Ocean Research 88, 138–146. Farr, R. 2014. "Neolithic Seafaring in the Adriatic: La navigazione dell'Adriatico nel Neolitico". In P. Pellegatti, & S. Roma (Eds.), Adriatico senza confini: Via di comunicazione e crocevia do popoli nel 6000 a.c..35-43. Farr, H. R. 2006. "Seafaring as social action", Journal of Maritime Archaeology 1(1), 85–99.