Research

Ancient Methone Project

The Ancient Methone Archaeological Project explores the dynamics of landscape and landscape change, with a focus on sea level changes and related shoreline shifts. Integrated geophysical and geomorphological investigations are aimed at reconstructing the palaeoshoreline that defines the location and extent of the port of ancient Methone, crucial information that will help guide and focus plans for the broader study of the Haliakmon Delta – a unique environment linking riverine and coastline transport-communication routes to regional models of landscape evolution.

The Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project

The Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project is a multidisciplinary research project addressing the archaeology and history of Jaffa, which is located on the coast of Israel on the south side of Tel Aviv. Particular aspects of Jaffa as an archaeological site offer an opportunity to address archaeological and historical problems by means of ongoing excavations and the management of cultural heritage. Among these unique aspects are: (1) Jaffa’s status as the most important port of the southern Levantine coast; (2) its nearly continuous occupation from the Middle Bronze Age until modern times; (3) substantial, yet mostly unpublished, exploration prior to the establishment of the JCHP; and (4) the central importance of preserving its remaining monuments as well as its archaeological remains.

The Fayum Project 

The Fayum Project is a diachronical study of land and water use in the Fayum, in relation to the development of agriculture over time. Based on the reconstruction of the ancient landscape along the lake shore and climatic variation, the project maps human interventions and activities. The study concentrates on two major periods:prehistory, specifically the Neolithic adoption of agriculture, and the Greco-Roman Period when agricultural yield from the Fayum was an important asset in political power play of the Ptolemies and the Roman Emperor.

Karanis, Egypt Roman Bathouse 

Since 2005, an expedition of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in cooperation with the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (The Netherlands) and Auckland University (New Zealand) has been working in Karanis, directed by Prof. Willeke Wendrich. This is part of the URU Fayum Project, a broader study of land and water use in the Fayum in relation to the development of agriculture over time. Under the auspices of the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities the project is also involved in preservation and presentation of the cultural heritage of its research area.

The Turin Museum of Egyptology

The collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts in the Museo Egizio in Turin (Italy) is among the most important in the world. It includes the Old Kingdom Tomb of the Unknown, the New Kingdom Tomb of Kha and Merit, the Nubian Temple of Ellesiya, and the Turin Papyrus Map. This project aims to contribute to the analysis and publication of selected ceramic artifacts and ancient textiles, with a special focus on production techniques and communities of practice. Students will have opportunities to be actively involved in all aspects of the preservation, study and presentation of museum objects.

The Two Buddhist Towers of Preah Khan

The Two Buddhist Towers Project was established to study the transition from Mahāyāna to Theravāda Buddhism within Cambodia’s rich past through a rigorous, multidisciplinary investigation of three distinct yet interrelated aspects of Khmer society at Preah Khan of Kompong Svay (Preah Khan): temples and iconography, settlement, and history.

The project began in 2015 as part of a two-year initiative funded by the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Buddhist Collaborative Research Fellowship co-sponsored by the American Council of Learned Societies.