Biography
David Soren's career in the entertainment business began when he was age 8. By age 9, he was the youngest cast member of CBS television's The Horn and Hardart Children's Hour. Later on, Soren performed in vaudeville and road shows with members of the Philadelphia Eagles football team, the actor Pete Boyle (father of actor Peter Boyle) and he also frequently performed with local children's program hosts Sally Starr and Chief Halftown. He is included in the Encyclopedia of Vaudeville.
In his late teens, Soren went on to pursue his education at Dartmouth College, where he received a B.A. in Greek and Roman Studies. He then continued his education at Harvard University, where he received an M.A. in Fine Arts and a Ph.D. in Classical Archaeology. During this period he also directed archaeological investigations at Utica, Thuburbo Majus and El Djem in Tunisia for the Smithsonian Institute. Soren began teaching at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri in 1973. During his ten years at the University he became department head in the Art History Department and directed excavations in Mirobriga, Portugal. In Mirobriga he also co-designed, with star wars production designer Harry Lange, a large room of the Santiago do Cacem Museum. Additionally, from 1980-1988, Soren was Guest Curator at the American Museum of Natural History. In 1983, he moved to the University of Arizona, where he was appointed Regents Professor of Classics and Anthropology after serving first as the department head in Classical Studies. There are three main archaeological discoveries for which Soren in primarily known. His excavations at Kourion, Cyprus were designed to ascertain the epicenter of the famous earthquake of July 21, 365 A.D. in the Mediterranean. He discovered the epicenter of the disaster, placing it offshore 25 miles southwest of the town of Kourion. Brian Fagan called this discovery one of the most significant in word archaeology.
Soren's second major finding was the contribution of Plasmodium falciparum malaria to the downfall of the Roman Empire. Between the years of 1987 and 1991, Soren and his team analyzed DNA taken from infant bones discovered in a cemetery at the site of his excavation in Lugnano in Teverina in Umbria, Italy. This also marks the first time that such evidence was used on an archaeological site.
The third major discovery made by Soren was the site of the famous Roman fontes Clusini, English Springs of Chiusi in the town of Chianciano Terme, near the town of Chiusi, in the Italian region of Tuscany. The fontes Clusini were a healing sanctuary noted by the poet Horace to have cured the emperor Augustus in the year 23 B.C. from his debilitating stomach pains. This was the largest ancient cold water spring and sanctuary discovered in Italy.
Soren's written work includes numerous books on the subject of film. Among these are the biographies of Dorothy Arzner, the dancer Vera-Ellen, and the Belgian filmmaker Harry Kumel.
Soren has appeared on television in various countries as the subject of television specials by the BBC, RAI-1 in Italy, National Geographic, the Discovery Channel and The Learning Channel. He has acted as creative consultant on various programs, including NBC's Lost Civilizations and History International's show Where Did it Come From?. Furthermore he directed parts of Arts and Entertainment's Human Sacrifice, hosted by Leonard Nimoy. Soren won a Cine Golden Eagle award in 1979, along with director David McAllister, for his work on Search for Apollo.
Soren is the director of the institute he founded in Orvieto, Italy for the University of Arizona.
Soren's wife, Noelle Soren, is a former archaeologist and writer.
