My area of specialization is anthropological archaeology. My research focuses on the integration of anthropological theory, ethnographic research, and archaeological practice in exploring the process of urbanization (or perhaps more accurately proto-urbanism) in the southern Levant (encompassing modern southern Syria, southern Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and Jordan) during the Early Bronze Age (c.3,600-2,000 BCE). I am particularly interested in the articulation of social, political and economic structures, and the negotiation and assertion of group and individual social identities in the early walled communities of this region. In pursuing these themes, I have directed excavations at Tell el-Handaquq South, el-Lejjun, and Khirbet el-Minsahlat, all located in Jordan. Currently, I am actively working with R. Thomas Schaub (Emeritus, Indiana University of Pennsylvania) to edit the final publications for excavations at the settlement sites of Numeira and Ras en-Numeira, and the cemeteries of Beb edh-Dhra`, Feifa, and Khirbet Khanazir. These excavations were conducted in the 1970's and 1980's by the Expedition to the Dead Sea Plain.
I am keenly interested in learning about the daily lives of the people living in these early EBA communities, and with reconstructing a sense of the connections between households and governance structures in these settlements. In my research, I have concentrated on the analysis of the relationships between households, administrative, and ritual spaces in these early walled towns, as well as EBA mortuary practices. From a methodological and theoretical perspective, I am very interested in issues of difference, practice theory, mortuary practices, household archaeology, social memory and identity, and feminism and archaeological practice.
Recently, I have joined the Bova Marina Archaeological Project (BMAP) as a co-director, and begun research on the later Bronze Age in southern Calabria, Italy. Over the last decade the BMAP team, directed by Drs. John Robb (Senior Lecturer, Cambridge University), Lin Foxhall (Professor, Leicester University), David Yoon (Medieval and Roman freelance archaeologist) and most recently me, has conducted multidisciplinary research in the Bova Marina region, incorporating archaeological survey, documentary analysis of historical archives, GIS, geomorphology, ethnoarchaeology, and archaeological excavations to assess the nature of settlement, land use, social complexity, trade, and technology from the Neolithic to modern periods. Our research project involves an international team of scholars from the UK, Canada, and the US with ongoing survey and excavation projects running simultaneously (please see http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/~jer39/BMAP/index.html for a full list of researchers and projects). BMAP's research agendas fit very well with an increased scholarly interest in understanding the networks of connectivity, regional and local identities, and what it meant to be part of the greater Mediterranean world in prehistoric and historic periods.
In 2008, under the direction of the Robb, Yoon, and myself, the BMAP team excavated for a short season at the site of Sant’Aniceto, located 2 kilometers from the sea on a low (180 m) but steep hill overlooking the coastal plain. Sant'Aniceto offers the opportunity for us to utilized the most up-to-date methods in household archaeology, including micromorphology, soil chemistry, and detailed spatial analysis of space, for investigating the social and economic organization of space in a well-preserved Late/Final Bronze Age house.
Appointments
- University of Notre Dame: Associate Professor, Dept. of Anthropology (2006-present)
- University of Notre Dame: Assistant Professor, Dept. of Anthropology (2000-2006)
- Univ. of Lethbridge (Alberta, Canada): Adjunct Professor, Dept. of Geography (1999-2000)
- Brandeis University: Lecturer, Dept. of Anthropology (1998-1999)
- Harvard University, Extension School: Lecturer, Dept. of Anthropology (1998-1999)
- Harvard University: Teaching Assistant and Assistant Wing Tutor, Dept. of Anthropology (1997-1999)
Education
Ph.D.: Dept. of Anthropology, Harvard University (1997) Thesis: "Urban Households in Early Bronze Age Communities of Syro-Palestine"
Exchange Scholar (Anthropology): University of California, Berkeley, CA (1995-1997)
M.A.: Harvard University (Anthropology) 5/93
B.A. with Honors, Dept. of Classics, Brown University (1989)