Postdoctoral Fellow in Archaeology and the Ancient World (2011-2012)

Biography

I completed an MA in Nautical Archaeology from Texas A&M University in 2003, jointly with the Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory at the University of Texas. My interests in ancient seafaring and Aegean Prehistory converge on the Late Bronze Age Uluburun shipwreck, which was the focus of my Master’s research. I have been field-active in maritime archaeology for the past decade, including participation on several underwater shipwreck excavations and surveys in both Turkey and the United States.  

I was introduced to the Bronze Age archaeology of Anatolia through research on the Uluburun shipwreck, when I recognized how Bronze Age Anatolia remains a frontier in the Anglo-American mainstream of Aegean Prehistory/Eastern Mediterranean archaeology. I explored this frontier at the University of Oxford, where I gained a doctorate (DPhil) in Archaeology in 2008.  My doctoral research laid a foundation for a synthetic and interpretive monograph on the Early Bronze Age in Anatolia that will be published in 2012 (Equinox, Monographs in Mediterranean Archaeology). I undertook much of the research for this book as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the British Institute at Ankara. My current fieldwork focuses on the Early Bronze Age citadel at Zincirli (ancient Sam’al) in southeastern Turkey, as part of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago Neubauer Expedition to Zincirli.

Interests

My interests in Bronze Age seafaring and the Bronze Age in Anatolia are not as disparate as they might appear.  I have explored a number of interpretive concerns shared by both fields, to include the archaeology of regional interfaces and long distance interaction, the production, exchange and consumption of metal, the materiality of ancient finance and commerce, and the value of studying the material culture of ancient elites with textual sources. 

Degrees

Doctor of Philosophy in Archaeology
St. John’s College, University of Oxford, 2008
Dissertation Title: Sumptuary Behaviour in Early Bronze Age Anatolia: The Royal Tombs of Alacahöyük and the Treasure Deposits of Troy

Publications

Monograph

  • (forthcoming, 2013). The Early Bronze Age in Anatolia: citadels, cemeteries and their interpretation. Monographs in Mediterranean Archaeology 15. London: Equinox

Edited volume

  • 2009.  C. Bachhuber and R.G. Roberts (eds.) Forces of Transformation: The End of the Bronze Age in the Mediterranean, Proceedings of an International Symposium held at St. John’s College, Oxford on the 25-6th March 2006. Themes from the Ancient Near East BANEA Publication Series, Vol. 1. Oxford: Oxbow

Articles

  • 2009. ‘The Treasure Deposits of Troy: Rethinking Crisis and Agency on the Early Bronze Age Citadel,’ Anatolian Studies 59: 1-18
  • 2006. ‘Aegean Interest on the Uluburun Ship,’ American Journal of Archaeology  110: 345-63

Invited contributions

  • 2011. ‘Negotiation Metal and the Metal Form in the Royal Tombs of Alacahöyük in North-Central Anatolia’, in T. Wilkinson,S. Sherratt, and J. Bennet (eds.) Interweaving Worlds: systemic interactions in Eurasia, 7th to 1st millennia BC, 158-74. Oxford: Oxbow
  • 2011. ‘Cape Gelidonya Shipwreck’, ‘Keftiu’, ‘Sea Peoples’, ‘Troad’, ‘Troy’ and ‘Uluburun Shipwreck’, in R. Bagnall, K. Brodersen, C. Champion, A. Erskine and S. Hübner (eds.) Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Ancient History. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell; https://www.encyclopediaancienthistory.com/
  • in press (2012). ‘Bronze Age Cities on the Anatolian Plateau’ (length 8500 words) in D. Potts (ed.) Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell
  • in press (2012). ‘The Anatolian Context of Philia Material Culture on Cyprus’ (length 9000 words) in A.B. Knapp and P. van Dommelen (eds.) The Cambridge Prehistory of the Bronze-Iron Age Mediterranean. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  • submitted (2012). ‘Sumer, Ebla, Akkad and Anatolia’ (length 8000 words) in H. Crawford (ed.) The Sumerian World. London: Routledge
  • submitted (2012). ‘The Industry and Display of Textiles in Early Bronze Age Anatolia’, (length 8000 words) in E. Pernicka, S. Ünlüsoy and S. Blum (eds.) Early Bronze Age Troy: Chronology, Cultural Developments and Interregional Contacts. Heidelberg: Springer
  • in preparation (2013). ‘A Prehistory of Indo-European Languages in Anatolia’, (length 8000 words) in A. Mouton, I. Rutherford, and I. Yakubovich (eds.) Luwian Identities: culture, language and religion between Anatolia and the Aegean. Leiden: Brill
  • in preparation (2013). ‘Returning to Forget: problematizing Bronze Age citadels in Anatolia’ (length 8000 words) in J. Osborne (ed.) Approaching Monumentality in the Archaeological Record. Albany: SUNY Press
  • in preparation with E. Pernicka (2013). ‘Metal Objects and Metallurgy of Anatolia’ in H. Erkanal and V. Şahoğlu (eds.) ARCANE: Associated Regional Chronologies of the Ancient Near East and Eastern Mediterranean. IIIrd Millennium: Western Anatolia. Brepols: Turnhout
  • in preparation (2013) ‘Small Finds and Figurines of Anatolia’ in H. Erkanal and V. Şahoğlu (eds.) ARCANE: Associated Regional Chronologies of the Ancient Near East and Eastern Mediterranean. IIIrd Millennium: Western Anatolia. Brepols: Turnhout
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