About
Mary Shepperson is an archaeologist specialising in architecture and urbanism of the ancient Near East. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Cambridge and her PhD at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. Mary's research interests encompass the emergence of urbanism in Mesopotamia, climatic adaptation in early cities, sunlighting in the built environment and the spatial organisation of ancient architecture. She also has an interest in conflict archaeology and 'dark' heritage, and researches and publishes on the archaeology and heritage of the Iran-Iraq war. Mary is a specialist in mudbrick architecture and has excavated extensively at settlement sites across the Middle East and North Africa, including in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and Sudan. She also worked for several years as a UK commercial archaeologist in London, Staffordshire and Cheshire.