Civilization, Inequality and Political Organisation

The UCL Institute of Archaeology has a long history of research leadership on the comparative study of past cities, states and empires.

Institute researchers study the emergence, rise, persistence and collapse of complex societies, exploring how inequality emerged and how shifts in political organisation are reflected in the material record.

Work is concentrated on early Empires, including Assyria, the Roman Empire, the Inca empire,and the post-classic Maya as well as research on the archaeology of slavery in colonial America with dynamic models of interaction and integration at larger geographical scales being developed.

Projects

Current projects

• Ancient Merv Project
• Becoming Muslim: Cultural Change, Everyday Life and State Formation in early Islamic North Africa (600-1000) (EVERYDAYISLAM)
• Bulla Regia Archaeological Project
• Caerleon Roman Fortress
• Cane River African Diaspora Archaeological Project
• Commensality, Cooking, Dining and the Politics of Gastronomy in the Near East
• Conquest, Ecology and Economy in Islamic North Africa: The Example of the Central Medjerda Valley (ISLAMAFR)
• Cotúa Island-Orinoco Reflexive Archaeology Project
• Creating Ethnicities and Identities in the Roman World
• Early Medieval Atlas
• Human Mobility and long-term social change in the west Mediterranean: Vera Region, Almeria, Spain
• The Knossos Urban Landscape Project
• Image of the Black in Western Art
• Indus Geomorphology
• Inka Ceramics
• Landscapes of Governance
• Macorix de Arriba Archaeological Project
• Making Oasis Civilisation in the Moroccan Sahara (OASCIV)
• Modern implications of past resource use, disposal, abandonment and decay
• Monumentality and Landscape: Linear Earthworks in Britain
• The Myth of Human Sacrifice
• Radical Death and Early State Formation in the Ancient Near East
• Ramtek Survey
• Raqchi
• Re-thinking the Green Revolution in the Medieval Western Mediterranean (6th - 16th centuries) (MEDGREENREV)
• Rethinking the Islamic State
• Sanchi Survey Project
• The Medieval Volubilis Archaeological Project
• Transition in Maya culture and history
• Upper Esino Valley Survey

Recent projects 

• Beyond the Burghal Hidage
• Changing London: Town Planning from a Human Evolutionary Perspective
• The Early Medieval Maritime Landscape of Mersea Island
• Egypt Object Subject: 'treasuring things' as knowledge-histories
• Lordship and Landscape in East Anglia CE 400-800
• Noviodunum Archaeological Project
• Projet Segou (Mali)
• SHULGI: A Geospatial Tool for Modelling Human Movement and Interaction
• Travel and communication in Anglo-Saxon England