- Lithic Raw Material Sourcing, Early Neolithic pottery technology, Neolithic flint procurement, portable XRF (PXRF) in Archaeology and Museum Science, archaeology in Iraq, Obsidian Sourcing, and 23 morePrehistory of Kurdistan, pXRF Applications in Archaeology, Mediterranean prehistory, Italian Iron Age Archaeology, South Italian Archaeology, Neolithisation, Archaeology, Ancient History, Gender Studies, Identity (Culture), Neolithic Archaeology, Dress and Personal Adornment (Archaeology), Archaeology of Personal Adornment, Archaic Italy, Fibulae, Clay Technology (Archaeology), Samnites, Samnium, Central Zagros Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Ancient Near East, Obsidian, and Neolithicedit
- My research examines prehistoric networks of exchange across Southwest Asia, through the analysis of clay and stone a... moreMy research examines prehistoric networks of exchange across Southwest Asia, through the analysis of clay and stone artefacts. As the Senior Researcher on the ERC-funded Mentica project (The Middle East Neolithic Transition: Integrated Community Approaches), I am conducting network analysis of inter and intra-community interactions.
I am Co-Investigator in collaboration with Prof Roger Matthews, Prof Barbara Helwing, Dr Helen Gries and Dr Heike Dohman on 'States of Clay', an AHRC-DFG co-funded project, examining the evidence for emerging bureacratic approaches in Mesopotamia.edit
The advent of clay usage for portable material culture in the Central Zagros is first evidenced by small, unfired tokens from the 10th millennium BC. Over the course of the next three millennia, the production of clay objects... more
The advent of clay usage for portable material culture in the Central Zagros is first evidenced by small, unfired tokens from the 10th millennium BC. Over the course of the next three millennia, the production of clay objects proliferated, permeating symbolic and functional realms. The malleability of clay, the ready availability of the resource and its relative durability opened up the possibility for utilisation by all, with little skill or training, to craft functional and symbolic objects with minimal investment. This paper examines the role of clay usage through case studies in the Central Zagros and outlines potential future directions for the study of clay in the Neolithic.
Research Interests: History and Malleability
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Tools made of chipped stone (mainly cherts, flints and obsidians) are one of the commonest items of material culture recovered from early prehistoric sites. Much study has been devoted to their classification, typology and technology of... more
Tools made of chipped stone (mainly cherts, flints and obsidians) are one of the commonest items of material culture recovered from early prehistoric sites. Much study has been devoted to their classification, typology and technology of manufacture, but what might stone tools tell us about the peoples who made and used them? In this short study we use the rich lithic evidence from Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) sites of the eastern Fertile Crescent (western Iran and eastern Iraq) to address some large-scale issues of Neolithic human activities and societies.
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Uruk and Ur were two of the most important centres in the early development of the world’s first urban settlement in Lower Mesopotamia in the later fourth and early third millennia BC. And yet our knowledge of their socio-political... more
Uruk and Ur were two of the most important centres in the early development of the world’s first urban settlement in Lower Mesopotamia in the later fourth and early third millennia BC. And yet our knowledge of their socio-political structures and inter-city interactions during these earliest centuries of urban development is highly restricted. For Uruk, the earliest levels underlying the extensive Uruk IV and III precincts are known only from limited soundings and without extensive architectural contextualisation, while the Uruk IV-III buildings themselves were rebuilt and eventually severely truncated in a programme of planned rebuilding at ca. 3100 BC. For Ur, while recent studies have significantly augmented our understanding of the city’s early development, we are nevertheless limited to glimpses of Ur’s early urban phases through small soundings at the base of Woolley’s major trenches within the sacred precincts. Any new information and insights into the socio-political landscapes within which Uruk and Ur operated at the turn of the fourth-third millennia BC are therefore greatly to be welcomed, especially as it is likely to be a long time before modern scientific excavations at either of these key sites investigates levels of this period.
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During the Late Epipalaeolithic and Early Neolithic, societies across the Levant transformed their social, cultural and economic organisation, with new forms of food production, architecture and material culture. But to what extent were... more
During the Late Epipalaeolithic and Early Neolithic, societies across the Levant transformed their social, cultural and economic organisation, with new forms of food production, architecture and material culture. But to what extent were regional developments connected and how, in particular, did ideas and objects flow between the most southern and northern reaches of Southwest Asia? Finds from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic site of WF16 in southern Jordan resonate with those from Göbekli Tepe and other sites hundreds of kilometres to the north. Emphasising shared symbolism and ideology, the authors explore how connections may have arisen and how they were maintained, revealing expansive social networks spanning Southwest Asia that underpinned the emergence of farming.
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Literary and archaeological sources have preserved a rich history of Southern Europe and West Asia since the Bronze Age that can be complemented by genetics. Mycenaean period elites in Greece did not differ from the general population and... more
Literary and archaeological sources have preserved a rich history of Southern Europe and West Asia since the Bronze Age that can be complemented by genetics. Mycenaean period elites in Greece did not differ from the general population and included both people with some steppe ancestry and others, like the Griffin Warrior, without it. Similarly, people in the central area of the Urartian Kingdom around Lake Van lacked the steppe ancestry characteristic of the kingdom’s northern provinces. Anatolia exhibited extraordinary continuity down to the Roman and Byzantine periods, with its people serving as the demographic core of much of the Roman Empire, including the city of Rome itself. During medieval times, migrations associated with Slavic and Turkic speakers profoundly affected the region.
Research Interests: Ancient History, Geography, Archaeology, Southern Europe, Slavic Languages, and 15 moreAnatolian History, Science, Byzantine Architecture, Ancient DNA Research, Multidisciplinary, Ancient and Medieval History, Bronze Age, Population, Human Population Genetics, West Asian Studies, Archaeology of the Southern Levant, Ancient Studies, Steppe, Ancient DNA of Human Populations, and Geogenetics
We present the first ancient DNA data from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of Mesopotamia (Southeastern Turkey and Northern Iraq), Cyprus, and the Northwestern Zagros, along with the first data from Neolithic Armenia. We show that these and... more
We present the first ancient DNA data from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of Mesopotamia (Southeastern Turkey and Northern Iraq), Cyprus, and the Northwestern Zagros, along with the first data from Neolithic Armenia. We show that these and neighboring populations were formed through admixture of pre-Neolithic sources related to Anatolian, Caucasus, and Levantine hunter-gatherers, forming a Neolithic continuum of ancestry mirroring the geography of West Asia. By analyzing Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic populations of Anatolia, we show that the former were derived from admixture between Mesopotamian-related and local Epipaleolithic-related sources, but the latter experienced additional Levantine-related gene flow, thus documenting at least two pulses of migration from the Fertile Crescent heartland to the early farmers of Anatolia.
Research Interests: Genetics, Geography, Archaeology, Mesopotamian Archaeology, Anatolian History, and 15 moreScience, Neolithic Archaeology, Ancient DNA Research, Multidisciplinary, Mesopotamian history, Neolithic, Pottery, Bronze Age, Mesopotamia, Archaeogenetic, Ancient DNA, Ancient Mesopotamia, DNA genealogy, Ancient DNA of Human Populations, and Geogenetics
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By sequencing 727 ancient individuals from the Southern Arc (Anatolia and its neighbors in Southeastern Europe and West Asia) over 10,000 years, we contextualize its Chalcolithic period and Bronze Age (about 5000 to 1000 BCE), when... more
By sequencing 727 ancient individuals from the Southern Arc (Anatolia and its neighbors in Southeastern Europe and West Asia) over 10,000 years, we contextualize its Chalcolithic period and Bronze Age (about 5000 to 1000 BCE), when extensive gene flow entangled it with the Eurasian steppe. Two streams of migration transmitted Caucasus and Anatolian/Levantine ancestry northward, and the Yamnaya pastoralists, formed on the steppe, then spread southward into the Balkans and across the Caucasus into Armenia, where they left numerous patrilineal descendants. Anatolia was transformed by intra–West Asian gene flow, with negligible impact of the later Yamnaya migrations. This contrasts with all other regions where Indo-European languages were spoken, suggesting that the homeland of the Indo-Anatolian language family was in West Asia, with only secondary dispersals of non-Anatolian Indo-Europeans from the steppe.
Research Interests: Ancient History, Geography, Prehistoric Archaeology, Historical Archaeology, Population Genetics, and 15 moreScience, Southeastern Europe, Multidisciplinary, Bronze Age, Ancient DNA, Pastoralism, Archaeology of the Eurasian steppe belt, Western and Central Asia, Homeland, Archaeology of the southern Levant in the Bronze Age, Steppe Pastoralism, Steppe, Ancient DNA of Human Populations, Geogenetics, and Yamna Culture
The Eastern Fertile Crescent region of western Iran and eastern Iraq hosted major developments in the transition from hunting and gathering to more sedentary agricultural lifestyles through the Early Neolithic period, 10,000-7000 BC.... more
The Eastern Fertile Crescent region of western Iran and eastern Iraq hosted major developments in the transition from hunting and gathering to more sedentary agricultural lifestyles through the Early Neolithic period, 10,000-7000 BC. Within the scope of the Central Zagros Archaeological Project, excavations have been conducted at two Early Neolithic sites in the Kurdistan region of Iraq: Bestansur and Shimshara, as well as survey in the region of the Epipalaeolithic site of Zarzi since 2012. Bestansur represents an early stage in the transition to sedentary, agricultural life, where the inhabitants pursued a biodiverse strategy of hunting, gathering, herding and cultivating, maximising the new opportunities afforded by the warmer climate of the Early Holocene. They also constructed a substantial settlement of mudbrick, including a major building with a minimum of 78 human individuals buried under its floor in association with hundreds of beads. These buildings and human remains p...
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Human communities made the transition from hunter-foraging to more sedentary agriculture and herding at multiple locations across Southwest Asia through the Early Neolithic period (ca. 10,000-7000 cal. BC). Societies explored strategies... more
Human communities made the transition from hunter-foraging to more sedentary agriculture and herding at multiple locations across Southwest Asia through the Early Neolithic period (ca. 10,000-7000 cal. BC). Societies explored strategies involving increasing management and development of plants, animals, materials, technologies, and ideologies specific to each region whilst sharing some common attributes. Current research in the Eastern Fertile Crescent is contributing new insights into the Early Neolithic transition and the critical role that this region played. The Central Zagros Archaeological Project (CZAP) is investigating this transition in Iraqi Kurdistan, including at the earliest Neolithic settlement so far excavated in the region. In this article, we focus on results from ongoing excavations at the Early Neolithic site of Bestansur on the Shahrizor Plain (Sulaimaniyah province), in order to address key themes in the Neolithic transition.
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The origins and spread of Neolithic life-ways represent a pivotal change in human ecology and society. Communities transformed their relationships with the world around them, shifting away from reliance upon hunted and collected wild... more
The origins and spread of Neolithic life-ways represent a pivotal change in human ecology and society. Communities transformed their relationships with the world around them, shifting away from reliance upon hunted and collected wild resources, to the management and domestication of plants and animals, alongside a pattern of increasing sedentism. These processes were played out at differing temporal and spatial scales; from the life-cycle of a single organism of a population on the path to domestication, to the dissemination of ‘new’ farming economies around the world. The varied fields within environmental archaeology are providing an increasingly detailed understanding of the agencies, processes and pathways in these transformations. These include work in the established fields of geoarchaeology, zooarchaeology and archaeobotany (Bendrey et al. 2013). In recent
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Research Interests: Geography and Archaeology
Within the context of early urbanism, elite groups developed the world’s earliestwriting in Mesopotamia, 3200–2750 BC, comprising administrative documents in the form of inscribed clay tablets. How did these proto-literate urban... more
Within the context of early urbanism, elite groups developed the world’s earliestwriting in Mesopotamia, 3200–2750 BC, comprising administrative documents in the form of inscribed clay tablets. How did these proto-literate urban communities engage with each other and what strategies did they employ to address major challenges to their survival? The ‘city seal’ evidence survives as seal impressions on
clay bureaucratic artefacts, both inscribed tablets and impressed sealings. These impressions feature signs representing the names ofMesopotamian cities, many ofthem identifiable with known sites. The documents stand at the threshold of history, as the earliest evidence for inter-city engagement. Using an innovative methodology and interpretive framework of cultic resilience, the authors integrate
archaeometric, iconographic and functional analyses of the earliest stages of writing and sealing, to argue that the city seal evidence provides unique insights into inter-city cooperation byMesopotamian cities during a critical episode of early urban development.
clay bureaucratic artefacts, both inscribed tablets and impressed sealings. These impressions feature signs representing the names ofMesopotamian cities, many ofthem identifiable with known sites. The documents stand at the threshold of history, as the earliest evidence for inter-city engagement. Using an innovative methodology and interpretive framework of cultic resilience, the authors integrate
archaeometric, iconographic and functional analyses of the earliest stages of writing and sealing, to argue that the city seal evidence provides unique insights into inter-city cooperation byMesopotamian cities during a critical episode of early urban development.
Against the backdrop of the destruction of Iraqi heritage over the past quarter of a century, this article critically reviews key aspects of the current state of Iraq’s cultural heritage, including damage to heritage buildings caused by... more
Against the backdrop of the destruction of Iraqi heritage over the past
quarter of a century, this article critically reviews key aspects of the
current state of Iraq’s cultural heritage, including damage to heritage
buildings caused by Daesh in Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul. We bring
together Iraqi and non-Iraqi expertise in heritage, archaeology, and
human rights law to frame our approach, building on the movement
to link cultural diversity, heritage, and cultural rights. We emphasise the
need for planning to enhance protection of Iraq’s heritage, in particular
through the preparation of inventories, the provision of resources for
heritage education in schools and the development of Iraq’s museum
sector. Iraq’s presence on the UNESCO World Heritage Lists needs to be
enhanced, and the issues of illicit site looting and traffic in looted
antiquities must be addressed within international contexts. Iraq’s future
accession as State Party to the 1999 Second Protocol to the 1954 Hague Convention is a priority in achieving these goals. The paper stresses the need for co-creation of heritage knowledge and a gender-sensitive human rights approach for the future of Iraq’s globally significant cultural heritage.
quarter of a century, this article critically reviews key aspects of the
current state of Iraq’s cultural heritage, including damage to heritage
buildings caused by Daesh in Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul. We bring
together Iraqi and non-Iraqi expertise in heritage, archaeology, and
human rights law to frame our approach, building on the movement
to link cultural diversity, heritage, and cultural rights. We emphasise the
need for planning to enhance protection of Iraq’s heritage, in particular
through the preparation of inventories, the provision of resources for
heritage education in schools and the development of Iraq’s museum
sector. Iraq’s presence on the UNESCO World Heritage Lists needs to be
enhanced, and the issues of illicit site looting and traffic in looted
antiquities must be addressed within international contexts. Iraq’s future
accession as State Party to the 1999 Second Protocol to the 1954 Hague Convention is a priority in achieving these goals. The paper stresses the need for co-creation of heritage knowledge and a gender-sensitive human rights approach for the future of Iraq’s globally significant cultural heritage.
Neolithic material engagements transformed the ways in which communities interacted with the physical world and one another. Based on evidence from the flanks of the Zagros Mountains, in western Iran and northeastern Iraq, Robert... more
Neolithic material engagements transformed the ways in which communities interacted with the physical world and one another. Based on evidence from the flanks of the Zagros Mountains, in western Iran and northeastern Iraq, Robert Braidwood initially proposed his ‘Hilly Flanks’ hypothesis for the origins of agriculture and sedentism. The evidence for multi-centred developments in domestication has demonstrated that elements of these practices spanned south-west Asia in the Early Neolithic. The Zagros Mountains (and the eastern branch of the Fertile Crescent as a whole) constituted an area of vibrant engagement with new ideas, materials, experimentation and innovation, participating in the networks of interaction and exchange that facilitated the spread of alternative lifeways. This research examines how engagements with clay influenced the development and spread of new ways of thinking about the physical world, highlighting the role of clay as a transformational material through sites in the Central Zagros.
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Throughout the Neolithic, people, things, skills and technologies moved between settlements, weaving together cultural meshworks that connected widely spread communities. Across the Eastern Fertile Crescent, exotic materials were... more
Throughout the Neolithic, people, things, skills and technologies moved between settlements, weaving together cultural meshworks that connected widely spread communities. Across the Eastern Fertile Crescent, exotic materials were transported hundreds of kilometres by the inhabitants of the Zagros Mountains of Iraq and Iran. Investigations into the sites of the region have revealed early settlements connected through shared materials and practices, but inhabited by people who engaged with raw materials in diverse ways. This study examines the ways in which Neolithic communities of the Zagros foothills used and displayed local and exotic materials through the personal adornment assemblages of new and well-known sites.
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Cole, G., Matthews, R. & Richardson, A. 2013. ‘Material networks of the Neolithic at Sheikh-e Abad: objects of bone, stone and clay’. In R. Matthews, Y. Mohammadifar, & W. Matthews (eds). The Earliest Neolithic of Iran: 2008 Excavations... more
Cole, G., Matthews, R. & Richardson, A. 2013. ‘Material networks of the Neolithic at Sheikh-e Abad: objects of bone, stone and clay’. In R. Matthews, Y. Mohammadifar, & W. Matthews (eds). The Earliest Neolithic of Iran: 2008 Excavations at Sheikh-e Abad and Jani. CZAP Reports Vol. 1. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 135-45
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The Eastern Fertile Crescent region of western Iran and eastern Iraq hosted major developments in the transition from hunter-forager to farmer-herder lifestyles through the Early Neolithic period, 10,000-7000 BC. Within the scope of the... more
The Eastern Fertile Crescent region of western Iran and eastern Iraq hosted major developments in the
transition from hunter-forager to farmer-herder lifestyles through the Early Neolithic period, 10,000-7000
BC. Within the scope of the Central Zagros Archaeological Project, excavations have been conducted
since 2012 at two Early Neolithic sites in the Kurdistan region of Iraq: Bestansur and Shimshara. Bestansur
represents an early stage in the transition to sedentary, farming life, where the inhabitants pursued a mixed
strategy of hunting, foraging, herding and cultivating, maximising the new opportunities afforded by the
warmer, wetter climate of the Early Holocene. They also constructed substantial buildings of mudbrick,
including a major building with a minimum of 65 human individuals, mainly infants, buried under its
floor in association with hundreds of beads. These human remains provide new insights into mortuary
practices, demography, diet and disease during the early stages of sedentarisation. The material culture of
Bestansur and Shimshara is rich in imported items such as obsidian, carnelian and sea-shells, indicating
the extent to which Early Neolithic communities were networked across the Eastern Fertile Crescent and
beyond. This volume includes final reports by a large-scale interdisciplinary team on all aspects of the results
from excavations at Bestansur and Shimshara, through application of state-of-the-art scientific techniques,
methods and analyses. The net result is to re-emphasise the enormous significance of the Eastern Fertile
Crescent in one of the most important episodes in human history: the Neolithic transition.
transition from hunter-forager to farmer-herder lifestyles through the Early Neolithic period, 10,000-7000
BC. Within the scope of the Central Zagros Archaeological Project, excavations have been conducted
since 2012 at two Early Neolithic sites in the Kurdistan region of Iraq: Bestansur and Shimshara. Bestansur
represents an early stage in the transition to sedentary, farming life, where the inhabitants pursued a mixed
strategy of hunting, foraging, herding and cultivating, maximising the new opportunities afforded by the
warmer, wetter climate of the Early Holocene. They also constructed substantial buildings of mudbrick,
including a major building with a minimum of 65 human individuals, mainly infants, buried under its
floor in association with hundreds of beads. These human remains provide new insights into mortuary
practices, demography, diet and disease during the early stages of sedentarisation. The material culture of
Bestansur and Shimshara is rich in imported items such as obsidian, carnelian and sea-shells, indicating
the extent to which Early Neolithic communities were networked across the Eastern Fertile Crescent and
beyond. This volume includes final reports by a large-scale interdisciplinary team on all aspects of the results
from excavations at Bestansur and Shimshara, through application of state-of-the-art scientific techniques,
methods and analyses. The net result is to re-emphasise the enormous significance of the Eastern Fertile
Crescent in one of the most important episodes in human history: the Neolithic transition.
Research Interests:
The Eastern Fertile Crescent region of western Iran and eastern Iraq hosted major developments in the transition from hunter-forager to farmer-herder lifestyles through the Early Neolithic period, 10,000-7000 BC. Within the scope of the... more
The Eastern Fertile Crescent region of western Iran and eastern Iraq hosted major developments in the transition from hunter-forager to farmer-herder lifestyles through the Early Neolithic period, 10,000-7000 BC. Within the scope of the Central Zagros Archaeological Project, excavations have been conducted since 2012 at two Early Neolithic sites in the Kurdistan region of Iraq: Bestansur and Shimshara. Bestansur represents an early stage in the transition to sedentary, farming life, where the inhabitants pursued a mixed strategy of hunting, foraging, herding and cultivating, maximising the new opportunities afforded by the warmer, wetter climate of the Early Holocene. They also constructed substantial buildings of mudbrick, including a major building with a minimum of 78 human individuals, mainly infants, buried under its floor in association with hundreds of beads. These human remains provide new insights into mortuary practices, demography, diet and disease during the early stages of sedentarisation. The material culture of Bestansur and Shimshara is rich in imported items such as obsidian, carnelian and sea-shells, indicating the extent to which Early Neolithic communities were networked across the Eastern Fertile Crescent and beyond. This volume includes final reports by a large-scale interdisciplinary team on all aspects of the results from excavations at Bestansur and Shimshara, through application of state-of-the-art scientific techniques, methods and analyses. The net result is to re-emphasise the enormous significance of the Eastern Fertile Crescent in one of the most important episodes in human history: the Neolithic transition.
Research Interests:
The Samnites recur throughout Greek and Roman sources as formidable warriors and Rome’s greatest foes from the mid-fourth century B.C. This book examines the material culture for evidence of an emerging ‘proto-Samnite’ identity between... more
The Samnites recur throughout Greek and Roman sources as formidable warriors and Rome’s greatest foes from the mid-fourth century B.C. This book examines the material culture for evidence of an emerging ‘proto-Samnite’ identity between 750 and 350 B.C. The relationships between material culture, ethnicity, constructions of social identity, gender and the life-course are critically examined through the personal adornments recovered from necropolis sites in the central Apennines and surrounding regions. The online catalogue of fibulae, bracelets, pendants and necklaces forms the basis for analysis through distribution mapping, typological patterns and the use of metals and exotic materials.
Research Interests: Gender Studies, Identity (Culture), Dress and Personal Adornment (Archaeology), Archaic Italy, Samnites, and 3 moreEarly Iron Age, Late Iron Age, Roman period, Late Antiquity, typology, chronology, distribution, function, fibulae, weapons, tools, harness, metal vessels, writing equipment, balances and weights, small finds, Fibulae, and Samnium
Raw Materials Exploitation in Prehistory: Sourcing, Processing and Distribution, 2016, Universidade do Algarve.
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The Oscan Fringe Workshop, 2007, University of Exeter.
Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference, 2008, Amsterdam Archaeological Centre.
8th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, 2012, University of Warsaw.
Archaeology Research Seminar Series, 2015, University of Reading
Café Scientifique, 2015, Penryn.
Vibrant Materialisms Session, British Association of Near Eastern Archaeology Conference, 2016, University of Wales Trinity Saint David.
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Against the backdrop of the destruction of Iraqi heritage over the past quarter of a century, this article critically reviews key aspects of the current state of Iraq’s cultural heritage, including damage to heritage buildings caused by... more
Against the backdrop of the destruction of Iraqi heritage over the past quarter of a century, this article critically reviews key aspects of the current state of Iraq’s cultural heritage, including damage to heritage buildings caused by Daesh in Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul. We bring together Iraqi and non-Iraqi expertise in heritage, archaeology, and human rights law to frame our approach, building on the movement to link cultural diversity, heritage, and cultural rights. We emphasise the need for planning to enhance protection of Iraq’s heritage, in particular through the preparation of inventories, the provision of resources for heritage education in schools and the development of Iraq’s museum sector. Iraq’s presence on the UNESCO World Heritage Lists needs to be enhanced, and the issues of illicit site looting and traffic in looted antiquities must be addressed within international contexts. Iraq’s future accession as State Party to the 1999 Second Protocol to the 1954 Hague Convention is a priority in achieving these goals. The paper stresses the need for co-creation of heritage knowledge and a gender-sensitive human rights approach for the future of Iraq’s globally significant cultural heritage.