Mark Driessen graduated at Wageningen University (tropical forestry and agriculture) and worked for many years in Africa and South America. After returning to The Netherlands he started working as a field archaeologist and studied Provincial Roman Archaeology at the University of Amsterdam and obtained his PhD on the topography, settlement continuity and monumentality of Roman Nijmegen at the same university. He excavated and worked on the Roman harbour of Voorburg-Arentsburg (Forum Hadriani). Since 2011 he is Assistant Professor in Provincial Roman Archaeology at Leiden University. In a joint venture operation with the al-Hussein bin Talal University (Petra-Jordan) Mark Driessen and Fawzi Abudanah are the directors of the Udhruh Archaeological Project, and together with David Breeze of the Qasr Bshir Conservation Project (both in Jordan).