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Prof David Wengrow
Professor of Comparative Archaeology
Institute of Archaeology Gordon Square
Institute of Archaeology
- Joined UCL
- 1st Dec 2002
Research summary
Research Interests
- Comparative archaeology of the Middle East, North-East Africa, and Eastern Mediterranean
- Early state formation
- Cognitive and evolutionary approaches to culture
- Prehistoric art and aesthetics
- Intellectual and social history of archaeology and anthropology
Research Projects and Networks
- The Archaeology of Human Evolution
- Archaeology of Egypt and Sudan
- Archaeology, Heritage and Civilisation in Iraqi Kurdistan
- Cultures of Commodity Branding
- Shahrizor Research Project
- Mellon Research Initiative in Archaeology, Art History, and Conservation (New York University, Institute of Fine Arts)
Research Student Supervision
Current Students
- Elizabeth Farebrother From domestication to State Formation: Zooarchaeological approaches to Human-animal relationships in the Eastern Fertile Crescent c.10,000 - 3,000 BC (joint supervision with Louise Martin)
- Ikram Ghabriel The Cult of Ptah at Thebes (principal supervisor Stephen Quirke)
- Xose Hermoso-Buxan Neolithic to the Iron Age: Insights from Spatial and Network Analysis (joint supervision with Mark Altaweel)
- Gwendoline Maurer Diaspora subsistence strategies: Tracing 3rd millennium migrants in the Levant (joint supervision with Louise Martin)
- Nell Preston The Ubaid in the Arabian Gulf: chemical and petrographic analysis of potsherds from Iraq to the Straits of Hormuz (joint supervision with Robert Carter, UCL-Qatar)
- Hanna Sosnowska The Socio-Economic Implications of Lithic Technologies in the Late Prehistory of Iraqi Kurdistan (joint supervision with Dorian Fuller)
- Dr Jill Goulder Social and economic impacts of early use of working donkeys and cattle in the Ancient Near East: insights from modern working-animal studies (joint supervision with Louise Martin) PhD awarded 2018
- Dr Matilda Duncker Egyptianising funerary monuments in Victorian Britain: a social analysis (joint supervision with Jeremy Tanner) PhD awarded 2016
- Dr Carl Walsh Techniques of the body and the transmission of courtly lifestyles in the Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean (joint supervision with Andrew Bevan) PhD awarded 2016
- Dr Anna Panagiotou A comparative approach to the decorated pottery of the Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean (joint supervision with Cyprian Broodbank) PhD awarded 2015
- Dr Simon Martin The ancient Maya State: An epigraphic approach to reconstructing a Pre-Hispanic political system (principal supervisor Elizabeth Graham) PhD awarded 2014
- Dr Mary Shepperson The use and meaning of light in ancient Mespotamian cities (second supervisor Harriet Crawford) PhD awarded 2012
- Dr Gareth Brereton The social life of human remains: Burial rites and the accumulation of capital during the transition from Neolithic to urban societies in the Near East (second supervisor Stephen Shennan) PhD awarded 2011
- Dr Sada Mire Somali heritage and archaeology (second supervisor, with Andrew Reid) PhD awarded 2009
- Dr Wendy Monkhouse Transmission of knowledge from Pharaonic to Islamic Egypt (joint supervision with John Tait) PhD awarded 2008
Teaching summary
- Degree Programme Co-ordinator: MA in the Archaeology and Heritage of Egypt and the Middle East
- Degree Programme Co-ordinator (with Haidy Geismar): BA in Archaeology and Anthropology
- Course Co-ordinator: ARCL0067 Understanding Complex Societies: Egypt and Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC
- Course Co-ordinator: ARCL0321 Tutorials in Archaeology and Anthropology
- Course Co-ordinator: ARCL0157 Archaeology of Egypt and the Near East: A Comparative Approach
Education
- University of Oxford
- Other higher degree, Master of Studies | 1998
- University of Oxford
- First Degree, Bachelor of Arts | 1996
Biography
- BA, MSt., DPhil
- Professor of Comparative Archaeology
- Section Co-ordinator: World Archaeology
- Executive Committee: UCL Centre for Research into Dynamics of Civilisation (CREDOC)
- Honorary Research Associate: Department of Anthropology
Academic Background and Professional History
- 1996 BA Honours in Archaeology and Anthropology, Oxford University
- 1998 M.St. in World Archaeology, Oxford University
- 2001 D.Phil., Oxford University
- 2002 Frankfort Fellow in Near Eastern Art and Archaeology, Warburg Institute
- 2001-4 Junior Research Fellow, Christ Church, Oxford University