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Dr David Thomas, MJAP Co-Director
My PhD, entitled The ebb and flow of an empire: the Ghūrid polity of central Afghanistan in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was completed at La Trobe University, Australia, in 2012. Prior to this, I was working as a Research Associate for Prof. Nicholas Postgate. Two co-edited volumes based on five seasons of fieldwork at Kilise Tepe, in Turkey appeared in 2007. I was also helping to prepare the 5th and 6th volumes of material from Nicholas' excavations at the site of Abu Salabikh in Iraq.
The other major projects I have worked on in a research capacity are Prof. David Mattingly's Fazzan Project in Libya (The Archaeology of Fazzan, Vol. 4: Excavations at Old Jarma, edited by D.J. Mattingly and published in 2013), and Dr Stephen Bourke's excavations at Pella and Teleilat Ghassul, in Jordan. I was also Field Director of Dr Jaimie Lovell's Wadi Rayyan Archaeological Project in Jordan in 2005 and joint Field Director in 2004.
In addition to Jam, my main research interest is in water in the ancient Near East. This stems from having excavated several wells in Jarma, Libya and Tell Brak in Syria, and realising that, over time, access to wells oscillated between 'public' and 'private'. They are also often associated with 'ritual' buildings. The 'archaeo-politics of water' is a complex and often overlooked subject, which continues to be highly relevant today in arid regions.
I am also interested in mud-brick architecture, fieldwork methodology, computing in archaeology and changes in the use of space through time. I believe that archaeology needs to commit resources to the long-term excavation of large, complex sites, rather than rely on the small-scale 'scratch' excavations which are common today.
© DCT 2007: This website was last updated on 02/06/07. Any problems, e-mail me: D.C. Thomas.
