Research Projects in the Department of Archaeology

Archaeometallurgical contributions to various research areas such as the provenance of Shang bronzes, ingenious adaptations of metallurgical technologies to different ecological and socioeconomic constraints, and regional developments of metallurgical traditions.

The metalwork of Pre-Columbian America has long fascinated scholars and the public alike. In addition to the sheer allure of gold, this attraction is exacerbated by the extraordinary technical skill that underpins many of these artefacts, as well as their mesmerising iconography, which evokes a rich symbolic world and an appreciation of metals that goes beyond their material worth. Most of these objects were made for ritual use.

Analysis and evaluation of bronze axe hoards during the Late Bronze Age - Iron Age transition. The project investigates provenance, chronology, technological and cultural aspects of bronze deposition of the European Atlantic region.

Excavation and survey in southern Aspromonte.

Introduction to the CRIC Project.

Study of the sustainability and subsequent radical change amongst the Maltese Temple Building populations of prehistoric Malta in the 4th and 3rd millennia BC.

Studying the diversity of political frontiers in Etruria.

The last decades have witnessed marked achievements of STEM in understanding the remains of humans, animals, and plants from the past by analyzing different materials, both inorganic and organic. These developments have opened-up the great potential for increasing our understanding of cultural heritage, and hence for developing better strategies for its protection and management.

Long-distance exchange networks played key roles in the socio-political history of Central Africa before the 20th century, but they are poorly known prior to the 19th century owing to a scarcity of written sources covering the earlier centuries. Archaeological data, however, suggest that major 19th-century trade routes were well established several centuries before.

Investigating ancient Pushkalavati: Excavations at Balar Hisar, Charsadda, North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan.

The excavation of a WWII forced labour camp in order to explore the daily life of internment under German occupation. 

Environmental constraints and human responses in northwest India between 2000 and 300 BC: Investigating the cultural and geographical transformations from the collapse of Harappan urbanism to the rise the great Early Historic cities.

Taking as its starting point the radically new perspective offered by recent archaeological discoveries at Rendlesham in SE Suffolk, and with the East Anglian kingdom as the primary case study, this interdisciplinary project (running 2017-2020) aims to establish a new understanding of pathways to territorial lordship and regional kingship in early post-Roman eastern England through analysis of the development and role of central-places in society, economy, politics and ideology, and the networks of which they were a part.

A project investigating the Mamasani district in the highlands of Fars in southwest Iran.

The analysis of a fuzzy frontier between the Etruscans and the Umbrians.

A project investigating Modern human dispersal into Eurasia and its relation to Neanderthal extinction during the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition.

Excavations and survey work at the ancient town of Nepi carried out during the early 1990s under the umbrella of the Tiber valley project of the British School at Rome.

Human evolution is a central research area in biology and anthropology and has a history of research going back more than 150 years. For most of that time, evidence has come from digging up fossils and archaeological remains. Research in human evolution has been transformed by the impact of genomics and the development of ancient DNA methodologies, producing new insights into past demography, dispersal and admixture patterns, social behaviour, selection, disease history, and more.

An educational, oral-history research initiative.

As part of the international campaign to salvage sites threatened by construction of the second Aswan High Dam in southern Egypt, coordinated by UNESCO, researchers from Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland collaborated on a series of archaeological campaigns between 1960 and 1964. Known as the Scandinavian Joint Expedition to Nubia, or SJE, this work generated a wealth of data and prompt publication of nine major excavation reports.

Investigating the development of historic environments along the longest river drainage system in Japan.

A series of inter-related projects are enhancing knowledge of the South (east) Etruria area north of Rome.

Understanding power relations and social practice in the Calchaqui Valley, Argentina during the period before the Inka conquest (AD 1000-1450).

Cambridge is home to world-leading researchers across archaeological science, technical art history and heritage science, based at Department of Archaeology, the Fitzwilliam Museum, and the Hamilton Kerr Institute, among others. There are multiple synergies across these institutions in terms of research methodologies, goals and ambitions in the field of technical and scientific investigation of works of art and archaeological objects.

Investigating unsolved problems of the fourth and third millennium BC in Malta.

The project aims to contribute to the understanding of weaving by focusing on the identification of plants used for the earliest textiles (ca 28,000 to 20,000 years ago).

Mapping the lower and middle Tiber catchment: Archaeological site recovery, erosion, water management (artificial channels), land use, DEM precision, and demographic reconstruction.

Collapse and transformation in the Mediterranean 1200-500 BC.