About
I have published four books and over 80 academic articles, curated several major museum exhibitions, and given over 100 international research presentations.
My main field of research is the Classical Archaeology of settlements and landscapes in Western Anatolia. So far my work on this research theme has produced 30+ articles, 3 books, 3 PhDs, and a major conference at the British Museum. The unifying theme of my research has been that Anatolia is not a passive “bridge” between East and West, but a dynamic actor in a millennia-long cultural dialogue. As an example of this process, I have examined how Phrygian, Lydian, Luwian and other Anatolian cultures merged with that of the Greeks of Ionia, and influenced their cult practices in particular, to form a coherent and stable regional identity that was unique to that region. The Ionians settled colonies across the Black Sea and the Western Mediterranean, where they encountered Skythians, Celts, Iberians and other cultures and the study of this Greek colonization movement has been another central theme in my teaching.
I have led a number of successful fieldwork projects in Turkey. I worked as Field Director for the Temple of Athena excavations at Miletos for six years. I have completed two major landscape survey projects in Turkey. The first project was a survey of the Classical settlements Kilis province on the border with Syria, north of Aleppo, and formed the economic hinterland and territorium of ancient Roman city of Cyrrhus. The second was a ten-year multi-disciplinary study of settlement dynamics in the summer uplands (Turkish: ‘yayla’) at the site of Caltilar Hoyuk. This project combined archaeological sampling with geomorphology and ethnography to understand seasonal transhumance between the yayla and the coast and the role of cultural tradition, economic opportunity, and environmental constraints - such as the seasonal presence of malaria. I have also run field projects at Aphrodisias, Oylum Höyük and Fethiye (Telmessos).
My other major research theme is digital heritage conservation in Turkey and the Near East. Prompted by the war in Syria, I developed a nation-wide training program in Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) for academics and museum staff across Turkey. RTI can be used to record rock-cut monuments at risk from vandalism and theft and produces new readings of eroded or illegible inscriptions. My team successfully trained 50+ Turkish academics, recorded 100+ vulnerable inscriptions, and developed an original new recording technique Virtual-RTI - a rapid and user-friendly technique that combines RTI, 3D photogrammetry, and Virtual Reality.
With a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund I established the department's Imaging Suite to digitize and catalog the photographic archives of John Garstang's travels and excavations in Turkey, Egypt, Sudan and the Near East. The Imaging Suite is now used by other researchers in the department and the Garstang Museum of Archaeology.
PhD Students Supervised:
Charlotte Bell - Woman in Iron Age and Roman Britain (current)
Eloise Jones - Female Imagery in Lycian Tombs (current)
Philip Hurworth - Post-traumatic Stress in Ancient Greece (current)
George Downs - Heritage Tourism in Turkey, Catalonia and the UK (current)
Ethan Coulson-Haggins - Hoplite Warfare in Ionia and Lycia (AHRC NWCDTP current)
John Baker - Post-Earthquake Heritage Management in Turkey (current)
J. Brendan Knight - Milesian Colonisation in the Black Sea (graduated 2022)
Dan Socaciu - A critical interdisciplinary assessment of the Urartian Kingdom (graduated 2022)
Helen Murphy-Smith - Population of vicus communities in Roman Britain (graduated 2017)
Kanokporn Nasomtrug - Self-Documentation of Thai Communities (Thai Government, graduated 2017)
Megan Thomas - Geomagnetism Secular variation curve for Turkey (NERC, graduated 2014)
Françoise Rutland - John Garstang & Turkey: A Postcolonial Reading (AHRC, graduated 2013)
Ali Çifçi - Between East and West: A Socio-Economic History of Urartu (graduated 2013)
Kostas Georgopoulos - Mycenaeans and Hittites in Western Anatolia (IKY Greece, graduated 2009)
Postdoctoral Staff Supervised:
Dr Alessandra Salvin
Dr Sarah Duffy
Dr Françoise Rutland
ERAMUS+ Interns Supervised:
Arda Akduman (Akdeniz University, Turkey)
Umay Oguzhanoglu (Pamukkale University, Turkey)
Visiting Researchers:
Dr Gonca Dardeniz-Arikan (Istanbul University, Turkey)
Dr Gokhan Tiryaki (Akdeniz University, Turkey)
Dr Davut Yigitpasa (Samsun University, Turkey)
Dr Nilgun Oz-Woods (METU, Turkey)
Prizes or Honours
- Teacher of the Year (Liverpool Guild of Students, 2024)
- Principal Fellow of Higher Education Academy (Advance HE, 2017)
- National Teaching Fellowship Award (Higher Education Academy, 2005)
- Sir Alastair Pilkington Award (University of Liverpool, 2005)
Funded Fellowships
- Getty Visiting Fellow (2025)
- ANAMED Senior Visiting Fellowship (2014)
- Holgate Visiting Fellowship (University of Durham, 2005)