Bio

For the past two decades my work has focused on studying the transition from the Epipalaeolithic to the Neolithic in southwest Asia, with a particular focus on Jordan and Iran. I studied archaeology at the University of Wales Lampeter from where I obtained my Bachelor’s in 2002 and my MPhil in 2005. During my master’s studies I was based at the British Institute in Amman as a junior research scholar between 2002-2004. Thereafter, I undertook PhD research at the Institute of Archaeology at University College London under the supervision of Andrew Garrard, Louise Martin and Andrew Gardner, graduating in 2009. I moved to Copenhagen in the same year to take up a role as deputy director of the Qatar Islamic Archaeology and Heritage project. I was appointed Assistant Professor in 2010 and promoted to Associate Professoe in 2014.

I am involved in a number of ongoing research projects:

I direct the Shubayqa Archaeological Project, which has been investigating the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture and long-term human settlement in the northeastern badiya of Jordan since 2012.

I am a co-PI of the Ancient Environmental Genomics Initiative for Sustainability (AEGIS), directed by Eske Willerslev, as part of which I lead the archaeology component.

I am also co-director of the Tracking Cultural and Environmental Change project, together with Hojjat Darabi (Razi University), which has investigated a number of previously excavated Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic sites in the high central Zagros of western Iran.

Finally, together with Shatha Mubaideen (CBRL Amman), David Petts (Durham University), John Winterburn, and Ali al-Manaser, I am studying the colonial and industrial heritage of oil installations in eastern Jordan.

Research Interests

• emergence of agriculture in southwest Asia
• prehistory of southwest Asia (mostly Epipalaeolithic/Neolithic)
• landscape archaeology
• social and cultural interaction
• lithic technology
• human-environmental interactions
• archaeology, heritage and politics 

Teaching

I am involved in a wide range of courses in the Near Eastern Archaeology program at ToRS. I teach the early prehistory of SW-Asia in Themes and Topics in Near Eastern Archaeology 1, and contribute to Practical Archaeology 1 & 2, Approaches to Archaeology, Theory & Method, History of Science, and the Berlin Copenhagen Seminar.  

Current PhD Students

Asta Salicath Halvorsen (with Lisa Yeomans)

Alice Cao (jointly with Aimee Little & Nathan Wales, University of York)

Former Students

Anne Jörgensen-Lindahl

Patrick Pedersen

Joanne McCafferty

Agnieszka Bystron