Timothy William Potter (6 July 1944 – 11 January 2000) was aarchaeologist of ancientItaly, as well as ofRoman Britain, best known for his focus onlandscape archaeology.

Potter was educated atMarch Grammar School inMarch, Cambridgeshire, where his father Cedric Potter was headmaster. He followed his brother Christopher toTrinity College, Cambridge, where he read anthropology and archaeology, graduating with a 2:1 in 1966 and obtained his Ph.D. in 1974; his Ph.D. thesis was entitledArchaeological Topography of the Central and Southern Ager Faliscus.^[1] In the 1980s Potter excavated atStonea, a Roman settlement in the fens ofCambridgeshire.^[2]

Potter was a student ofJohn Bryan Ward-Perkins and a member of theSouth Etruria Survey conducted by theBritish School at Rome. As part of the survey Potter worked on theAger Faliscus leading to two influential books,A Faliscan Town in South Etruria: Excavations at Narce 1966-71 (1976) andThe changing landscape of South Etruria (1979). The survey also led to his important excavations atMonte Gelato (1986-1990)^[3] andNarce (1966-1971).^[4] Potter also authored a popular course textbook entitledRoman Italy (1987) as part of the Exploring Roman World series published by British Museum Publishing.^[5] Together with Catherine Johns, he also wrote the Roman Britain title in the series.

Potter taught at theUniversity of Lancaster (1973-1978) where he instituted a new archaeology program. In 1978 he moved to theBritish Museum and their department of Prehistoric and Romano-British Antiquities, serving as assistant keeper from 1978 to 1995 and keeper from 1995 until his death.

• "Excavations in the Medieval Centre of Mazzano Romano", inPapers of the British School at Rome 40, p. 135-45 (1972).^[6]
• A Faliscan Town in South Etruria: Excavations at Narce 1966-71 (1976).
• Romans in north-west England: excavations at the Roman forts of Ravenglass, Watercrook and Bownes (1979).
• The Changing Landscapes of South Etruria (1979).
• Una stipe votiva da Ponte di Nona (1989).https://www.worldcat.org/title/22727273
• Towns in late antiquity (1995).
• Jackson Ralph and T. W Potter. 1996. Excavations at Stonea Cambridgeshire 1980–85. London: Published for the Trustees of the British Museum by British Museum Press.
• and A. King.Excavation of the mola di Monte Gelato: a Roman and Medieval settlement in South Etruria (1997).
• and Catherine Johns.Roman Britain (2002).

• Necrology by Stephen L. Dyson inAmerican Journal of Archaeology 104.3 (July 2000) 589–90.^[7]
• Necrology by Federico Marazzi inArcheologia Medievale 27 (2000) 435–8.
• Obituary - Timothy William Potter, MA, PhD -Society of Antiquaries of London