About
Current research interests:
My research interests focus on the process of site destruction in the Eastern Mediterranean and how these destruction events are used to fuel various theories of societal collapse. I am also interested in defining the language which archeologists use to describe destruction events as the words used to describe the destruction often create a picture far worse than what has actually been found in the archaeological record.
Current projects:
My current project aims to find out how much destruction actually took place at the end of the Late Bronze Age in the Eastern Mediterranean ca. 1200 BC. I am critically examining the archeological evidence from all commonly cited destruction events to see if the site was actually destroyed ca. 1200 BC, how much of the site was affected by destruction, and what might have been the possible cause. My project is funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft).
My dissertation: Collapse and Transitions in Society as a Consequence of Economic Change? Interregional Exchange as a Resource during the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age in the Southern Levant was recently published as a book titled: Exchange, Destruction, and a Transitioning Society: Interregional Exchange in the Southern Levant from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron I by Tübingen University Press.
I am now preparing to write my second book which will summarize the results of my research on destruction at the end of the Late Bronze Age.
Teaching interests:
Archaeology of Israel and Jordan. Archaeology and the Bible. Archaeology of destruction. Archaeological methodology and theory. Collapse of complex societies. Ethnicity and identity in archaeology.
