Center for the Study of the Early Modern World

I am an archaeologist and philologist as well as an architect by training. My main research deals with the archaeology and history of the eastern Mediterranean between the Iron Age and Late Antiquity, and with the comparative history of archaeology and antiquarianism worldwide. Within these expansive fields I have specific long-standing interests in the archaeology of memory and of the senses, the archaeology and history of the scripts and languages of the Eastern Mediterranean, and the history and theory of fakes and forgeries.

My work is interdisciplinary by design. I collaborate closely and have published with colleagues in various other disciplines especially anthropologists, art historians, and architects. I am convinced that intense collaboration is fundamental to the intellectual vitality as well as the public relevance of archaeology and philology in particular, and also of the humanities more generally. My concern for generative dialogue and exchange extends beyond academia. I have made a sustained effort to engage creatively in the joint production of knowledge about the human past with multiple non-academic interlocutors. As part of this engagement, I am committed to long-term international collaborations: I currently direct archaeological fieldwork projects in both Turkey and Jordan and conduct curatorial work in Colombia.