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Joshua Wright

University of Aberdeen, Archaeology, Faculty Member

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Joshua Wright is a member of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Aberdeen. Previously affiliated with the East Asia Studies Program and the Department of Anthropology at Oberlin College. Currently he carries out research in Mongolia and was one of the directors of the Egiin Gol Survey (1997-2002) and the Baga Gazaryn Chuluu Project (2004-2006) and currently of the Dornod Mongol Survey in Mongolia. He holds his Ph.D. from Harvard University (Anthropology 2006), and an M.Phil. from Cambridge University (East Asia Archaeology 1995). His research focuses on landscape archaeology, cultural landscapes in transition, the impact of mobility, pastoralism, and monumental landscapes. In addition to Mongolia, he has carried out fieldwork in Greece,Turkey, China, Egypt, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Greece, Belize, Mexico, Pakistan and Jordan.

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Papers by Joshua Wright

Prehistoric Mongolian Archaeology in the Early 21st Century: Developments in the Steppe and Beyond

Journal of Archaeological Research, 2021

There has been a great increase in archaeological research in Mongolia since 2000. Increasingly p... more There has been a great increase in archaeological research in Mongolia since 2000. Increasingly precise chronologies, regional studies, and the growth of developmentdriven archaeology are transforming our knowledge of this key region of northeastern Asia. This review summarizes recent work and provides a narrative of the prehistoric and medieval cultural sequences as presently understood. I focus on long-standing key topics: early human habitation, the adoption of food-producing economies, Bronze Age social transformations, and the emergence of central places and large polities. I argue that, on the one hand, Mongolia has unique data and new examples to offer the archaeological community and, on the other, that the prehistory of Mongolia and the steppe are not so different from the rest of the world in its history of research and key questions. This review provides general overviews covering the Upper Paleolithic, Epipaleolithic or Neolithic, and Bronze Age to the Xiongnu period; specific data related to each period provide jumping-off points for comparative analysis and further examination.

Proto-Urban Establishments in Inner Asia: Surveys of an Iron Age Walled Site in Eastern Mongolia

Journal of Field Archaeology, 2019

Walled sites attributed to the Xiongnu steppe empire (2nd century B.C.-1st century A.D.) constitu... more Walled sites attributed to the Xiongnu steppe empire (2nd century B.C.-1st century A.D.) constitute the earliest investments in explicitly non-mortuary built environments among pastoralists of the Mongolian Steppe. These permanent constructions are important precedents to the medieval towns of subsequent steppe empires, yet very little of the complete layouts and surrounding remains of the large enclosures are understood. Our investigations of the walled site at Kherlen-Bars in eastern Mongolia are among the first surveys to fully document all aspects above and below ground across an entire Iron Age walled site area. In addition to detailed documentation of the large structures, our geomagnetic prospections and digital elevation modeling brought to light numerous small sub-surface and subtle-surface features that show such early walled sites, often deemed virtually empty, to be far more complex and diachronic in their formation processes and possible functions.

The earliest Bronze Age culture of the south-eastern Gobi Desert, Mongolia

Antiquity, 2019

Household Archaeology in East Asia: Introduction to the Special Issue

Journal of Anthropological Research, 2016

This special issue of the Journal of Anthropological Research brings together papers highlighting... more This special issue of the Journal of Anthropological Research brings together papers highlighting archaeological research on households from East Asia. Contributing authors examine this ubiquitous social unit as a "topic of " central inquiry, treating the household as an important subject in itself as well as the locus of various human interactions that crosscut all categories and levels of society. This collection provides comparable case studies from a vast and diverse region encompassing China, Mongolia, Korea, and Japan.

The sanctuary at Keros in the Aegean Early Bronze Age: from centre of congregation to centre of power

Journal of Greek Archaeology

This article aims to summarise the results of three periods of fieldwork carried out since 2006. ... more This article aims to summarise the results of three periods of fieldwork carried out since 2006. These are the Cambridge Keros Project of 2006–2008, the Keros Island Survey of 2012–2013, and the Keros-Naxos Seaways Project of 2015–2018. Taken together, these form a coherent, large-scale project that aimed to study a maritime landscape in some depth, putting the Kavos and Dhaskalio sites in a broader context, while through excavation understanding in great detail the formation, use and abandonment of the sanctuary site on Kavos and the large built-up area on Dhaskalio.

The Work of Monuments: Reflections on Spatial, Temporal and Social Orientations in Mongolia and the Maya Lowlands

Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 2014

In this article, we look at two very different contexts of monument use – Bronze Age Inner Asia a... more In this article, we look at two very different contexts of monument use – Bronze Age Inner Asia and the Classic period Maya lowlands – in order to explore the function and meanings of monuments and the variety of ways in which they worked to mark and differentiate ancient landscapes. Our goal in uniting such disparate contexts is to examine how power and social organization in these settings were translated into monumental material forms, and how such materializations were experienced by those who viewed and re-interpreted the monuments. In particular, we explore how monuments acted as orientational markers within specific cultural contexts. Our discussion finds common ground between the disparate settings through several common interpretive frameworks focused on spatial, temporal and social orientational work accomplished by active, agentive monuments through their relationships with humans, which we frame as a ‘technology of the monument’. Monuments are instrumental in situating g...

Countermapping the Past: Reenvisioning Ancient Maya Spaces at Say Kah, Belize

Norwegian Archaeological Review

This paper explores possibilities for recognizing and analytically using culturallyspecific under... more This paper explores possibilities for recognizing and analytically using culturallyspecific understandings of artefacts and spaces at an ancient Maya archaeological site. In the case study that we present, we use Classic Maya material categoriesderived from hieroglyphic texts-to reenvision our representations of artefactual distributions and accompanying interpretations. We take inspiration from countermapping as an approach that recognizes the positionality of spatial representations and makes space for multiple/alternative spatial perspectives. We present spatial analyses based on our work at the Classic Maya archaeological site of Say Kah, Belize, juxtaposing modern modes of visualizing the results of multiple seasons of excavations with visualizations that instead draw upon reconstructed elements of ancient inhabitants' perspectives on the site, its spaces, and usages (based on information drawn from Classic Maya textual "property qualifiers"). We argue that even incomplete information, such as that available for archaeological contexts, allows us to reimagine past spatial perspectives and experiences. Furthermore, doing so represents a move towards inclusion that changes our understanding of sites in terms of ancient experience and usage. The outcome is a shifted perspective on the spaces of the site that decenters the modern, archaeological vision, accompanied by a more reflexive awareness of the processes we use to construct our interpretations. We end with larger reflections useful for archaeologists curious about translating these ideas to other cultural settings.

Radiocarbon dating and cultural dynamics across Mongolia’s early pastoral transition

PLOS ONE

The emergence of mobile herding lifeways in Mongolia and eastern Eurasia was one of the most cruc... more The emergence of mobile herding lifeways in Mongolia and eastern Eurasia was one of the most crucial economic and cultural transitions in human prehistory. Understanding the process by which this played out, however, has been impeded by the absence of a precise chronological framework for the prehistoric era in Mongolia. One rare source of empirically dateable material useful for understanding eastern Eurasia's pastoral tradition comes from the stone burial mounds and monumental constructions that began to appear across the landscape of Mongolia and adjacent regions during the Bronze Age (ca. 3000-700 BCE). Here, along with presenting 28 new radiocarbon dates from Mongolia's earliest pastoral monumental burials, we synthesise, critically analyse, and model existing dates to present the first precision Bayesian radiocarbon model for the emergence and geographic spread of Bronze Age monument and burial forms. Model results demonstrate a cultural succession between ambiguously dated Afanasievo, Chemurchek, and Munkhkhairkhan traditions. Geographic patterning reveals the existence of important cultural frontiers during the second millennium BCE. This work demonstrates the utility of a Bayesian approach for investigating prehistoric cultural dynamics during the emergence of pastoral economies.

Archaeology of Asia

Asian Perspectives the Journal of Archaeology For Asia and the Pacific, Mar 22, 2013

The Xiongnu settlements of Egiin Gol, Mongolia

Antiquity, 2009

The Xiongnu people have long been considered an archetypical nomadic group, characterised archaeo... more The Xiongnu people have long been considered an archetypical nomadic group, characterised archaeologically mainly from their tombs – which have reinforced the stereotype. Thanks to a sophisticated survey project, the authors are able to reveal the Xiongnu&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s economic complexity. Although primarily pastorialists they practiced cultivation and their ceramics reveal a settlement hierarchy which chimes with the broader social and settlement system of the region.

Inequality on the Surface: Horses, Power, and Community in the Mongolian Bronze Age

Animals and Inequality in the Ancient World, 2014

The Archaeology of Power and Politics in Eurasia, Regimes and Revolutions, edited by Hartley Charles W., Bike Yazicioğlu G. and Smith Adam T., 2012. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; ISBN 978-1-107-01652-1 hardback £65 & $9; xviii + 470 pp. 62 figs., 12 tables

Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 2014

Archaeology of Asia ed. by Miriam T. Stark

Asian Perspectives, 2013

Asia, Central and North, Steppes, Deserts, and Forests

Encyclopedia of Archaeology, 2008

Re-writing Monumental Landscapes as Inner Asian Political Process

Monuments, Metals and Mobility, 2009

A Nested Approach to Survey in the Egiin Gol Valley, Mongolia

Journal of Field Archaeology, 2007

Defining an appropriate and adequate survey area isusually thefirst and most difficult step in su... more

‘All those Rocks….were Talking to Each Other’: Three Scenes of Archaeologists at Work

Norwegian Archaeological Review

‘All those Rocks….were Talking to Each Other’: Three Scenes of Archaeologists at Work

Norwegian Archaeological Review

Bronze Age population dynamics and the rise of dairy pastoralism on the eastern Eurasian steppe

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Recent paleogenomic studies have shown that migrations of Western steppe herders (WSH) beginning ... more Recent paleogenomic studies have shown that migrations of Western steppe herders (WSH) beginning in the Eneolithic (ca. 3300–2700 BCE) profoundly transformed the genes and cultures of Europe and central Asia. Compared with Europe, however, the eastern extent of this WSH expansion is not well defined. Here we present genomic and proteomic data from 22 directly dated Late Bronze Age burials putatively associated with early pastoralism in northern Mongolia (ca. 1380–975 BCE). Genome-wide analysis reveals that they are largely descended from a population represented by Early Bronze Age hunter-gatherers in the Baikal region, with only a limited contribution (∼7%) of WSH ancestry. At the same time, however, mass spectrometry analysis of dental calculus provides direct protein evidence of bovine, sheep, and goat milk consumption in seven of nine individuals. No individuals showed molecular evidence of lactase persistence, and only one individual exhibited evidence of >10% WSH ancestry, ...

Prehistoric Mongolian Archaeology in the Early 21st Century: Developments in the Steppe and Beyond

Journal of Archaeological Research, 2021

There has been a great increase in archaeological research in Mongolia since 2000. Increasingly p... more There has been a great increase in archaeological research in Mongolia since 2000. Increasingly precise chronologies, regional studies, and the growth of development-driven archaeology are transforming our knowledge of this key region of northeastern Asia. This review summarizes recent work and provides a narrative of the prehistoric and early medieval cultural sequences as presently understood. I focus on long-standing key topics: early human habitation, the adoption of food-producing economies, Bronze Age social transformations, and the emergence of central places and large polities. I argue that, on the one hand, Mongolia has unique data and new examples to offer the archaeological community and, on the other, that the prehistory of Mongolia and the steppe are not so different from the rest of the world in its history of research and key questions. This review provides general overviews covering the Upper Paleolithic, Epipaleolithic or Neolithic, and Bronze Age to the Xiongnu period; specific data related to each period provide jumping-off points for comparative analysis and further examination.

Prehistoric Mongolian Archaeology in the Early 21st Century: Developments in the Steppe and Beyond

Journal of Archaeological Research, 2021

There has been a great increase in archaeological research in Mongolia since 2000. Increasingly p... more There has been a great increase in archaeological research in Mongolia since 2000. Increasingly precise chronologies, regional studies, and the growth of developmentdriven archaeology are transforming our knowledge of this key region of northeastern Asia. This review summarizes recent work and provides a narrative of the prehistoric and medieval cultural sequences as presently understood. I focus on long-standing key topics: early human habitation, the adoption of food-producing economies, Bronze Age social transformations, and the emergence of central places and large polities. I argue that, on the one hand, Mongolia has unique data and new examples to offer the archaeological community and, on the other, that the prehistory of Mongolia and the steppe are not so different from the rest of the world in its history of research and key questions. This review provides general overviews covering the Upper Paleolithic, Epipaleolithic or Neolithic, and Bronze Age to the Xiongnu period; specific data related to each period provide jumping-off points for comparative analysis and further examination.

Proto-Urban Establishments in Inner Asia: Surveys of an Iron Age Walled Site in Eastern Mongolia

Journal of Field Archaeology, 2019

Walled sites attributed to the Xiongnu steppe empire (2nd century B.C.-1st century A.D.) constitu... more Walled sites attributed to the Xiongnu steppe empire (2nd century B.C.-1st century A.D.) constitute the earliest investments in explicitly non-mortuary built environments among pastoralists of the Mongolian Steppe. These permanent constructions are important precedents to the medieval towns of subsequent steppe empires, yet very little of the complete layouts and surrounding remains of the large enclosures are understood. Our investigations of the walled site at Kherlen-Bars in eastern Mongolia are among the first surveys to fully document all aspects above and below ground across an entire Iron Age walled site area. In addition to detailed documentation of the large structures, our geomagnetic prospections and digital elevation modeling brought to light numerous small sub-surface and subtle-surface features that show such early walled sites, often deemed virtually empty, to be far more complex and diachronic in their formation processes and possible functions.

The earliest Bronze Age culture of the south-eastern Gobi Desert, Mongolia

Antiquity, 2019

Household Archaeology in East Asia: Introduction to the Special Issue

Journal of Anthropological Research, 2016

This special issue of the Journal of Anthropological Research brings together papers highlighting... more This special issue of the Journal of Anthropological Research brings together papers highlighting archaeological research on households from East Asia. Contributing authors examine this ubiquitous social unit as a "topic of " central inquiry, treating the household as an important subject in itself as well as the locus of various human interactions that crosscut all categories and levels of society. This collection provides comparable case studies from a vast and diverse region encompassing China, Mongolia, Korea, and Japan.

The sanctuary at Keros in the Aegean Early Bronze Age: from centre of congregation to centre of power

Journal of Greek Archaeology

This article aims to summarise the results of three periods of fieldwork carried out since 2006. ... more This article aims to summarise the results of three periods of fieldwork carried out since 2006. These are the Cambridge Keros Project of 2006–2008, the Keros Island Survey of 2012–2013, and the Keros-Naxos Seaways Project of 2015–2018. Taken together, these form a coherent, large-scale project that aimed to study a maritime landscape in some depth, putting the Kavos and Dhaskalio sites in a broader context, while through excavation understanding in great detail the formation, use and abandonment of the sanctuary site on Kavos and the large built-up area on Dhaskalio.

The Work of Monuments: Reflections on Spatial, Temporal and Social Orientations in Mongolia and the Maya Lowlands

Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 2014

In this article, we look at two very different contexts of monument use – Bronze Age Inner Asia a... more In this article, we look at two very different contexts of monument use – Bronze Age Inner Asia and the Classic period Maya lowlands – in order to explore the function and meanings of monuments and the variety of ways in which they worked to mark and differentiate ancient landscapes. Our goal in uniting such disparate contexts is to examine how power and social organization in these settings were translated into monumental material forms, and how such materializations were experienced by those who viewed and re-interpreted the monuments. In particular, we explore how monuments acted as orientational markers within specific cultural contexts. Our discussion finds common ground between the disparate settings through several common interpretive frameworks focused on spatial, temporal and social orientational work accomplished by active, agentive monuments through their relationships with humans, which we frame as a ‘technology of the monument’. Monuments are instrumental in situating g...

Countermapping the Past: Reenvisioning Ancient Maya Spaces at Say Kah, Belize

Norwegian Archaeological Review

This paper explores possibilities for recognizing and analytically using culturallyspecific under... more This paper explores possibilities for recognizing and analytically using culturallyspecific understandings of artefacts and spaces at an ancient Maya archaeological site. In the case study that we present, we use Classic Maya material categoriesderived from hieroglyphic texts-to reenvision our representations of artefactual distributions and accompanying interpretations. We take inspiration from countermapping as an approach that recognizes the positionality of spatial representations and makes space for multiple/alternative spatial perspectives. We present spatial analyses based on our work at the Classic Maya archaeological site of Say Kah, Belize, juxtaposing modern modes of visualizing the results of multiple seasons of excavations with visualizations that instead draw upon reconstructed elements of ancient inhabitants' perspectives on the site, its spaces, and usages (based on information drawn from Classic Maya textual "property qualifiers"). We argue that even incomplete information, such as that available for archaeological contexts, allows us to reimagine past spatial perspectives and experiences. Furthermore, doing so represents a move towards inclusion that changes our understanding of sites in terms of ancient experience and usage. The outcome is a shifted perspective on the spaces of the site that decenters the modern, archaeological vision, accompanied by a more reflexive awareness of the processes we use to construct our interpretations. We end with larger reflections useful for archaeologists curious about translating these ideas to other cultural settings.

Radiocarbon dating and cultural dynamics across Mongolia’s early pastoral transition

PLOS ONE

The emergence of mobile herding lifeways in Mongolia and eastern Eurasia was one of the most cruc... more The emergence of mobile herding lifeways in Mongolia and eastern Eurasia was one of the most crucial economic and cultural transitions in human prehistory. Understanding the process by which this played out, however, has been impeded by the absence of a precise chronological framework for the prehistoric era in Mongolia. One rare source of empirically dateable material useful for understanding eastern Eurasia's pastoral tradition comes from the stone burial mounds and monumental constructions that began to appear across the landscape of Mongolia and adjacent regions during the Bronze Age (ca. 3000-700 BCE). Here, along with presenting 28 new radiocarbon dates from Mongolia's earliest pastoral monumental burials, we synthesise, critically analyse, and model existing dates to present the first precision Bayesian radiocarbon model for the emergence and geographic spread of Bronze Age monument and burial forms. Model results demonstrate a cultural succession between ambiguously dated Afanasievo, Chemurchek, and Munkhkhairkhan traditions. Geographic patterning reveals the existence of important cultural frontiers during the second millennium BCE. This work demonstrates the utility of a Bayesian approach for investigating prehistoric cultural dynamics during the emergence of pastoral economies.

Archaeology of Asia

Asian Perspectives the Journal of Archaeology For Asia and the Pacific, Mar 22, 2013

The Xiongnu settlements of Egiin Gol, Mongolia

Antiquity, 2009

The Xiongnu people have long been considered an archetypical nomadic group, characterised archaeo... more The Xiongnu people have long been considered an archetypical nomadic group, characterised archaeologically mainly from their tombs – which have reinforced the stereotype. Thanks to a sophisticated survey project, the authors are able to reveal the Xiongnu&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s economic complexity. Although primarily pastorialists they practiced cultivation and their ceramics reveal a settlement hierarchy which chimes with the broader social and settlement system of the region.

Inequality on the Surface: Horses, Power, and Community in the Mongolian Bronze Age

Animals and Inequality in the Ancient World, 2014

The Archaeology of Power and Politics in Eurasia, Regimes and Revolutions, edited by Hartley Charles W., Bike Yazicioğlu G. and Smith Adam T., 2012. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; ISBN 978-1-107-01652-1 hardback £65 & $9; xviii + 470 pp. 62 figs., 12 tables

Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 2014

Archaeology of Asia ed. by Miriam T. Stark

Asian Perspectives, 2013

Asia, Central and North, Steppes, Deserts, and Forests

Encyclopedia of Archaeology, 2008

Re-writing Monumental Landscapes as Inner Asian Political Process

Monuments, Metals and Mobility, 2009

A Nested Approach to Survey in the Egiin Gol Valley, Mongolia

Journal of Field Archaeology, 2007

Defining an appropriate and adequate survey area isusually thefirst and most difficult step in su... more

‘All those Rocks….were Talking to Each Other’: Three Scenes of Archaeologists at Work

Norwegian Archaeological Review

‘All those Rocks….were Talking to Each Other’: Three Scenes of Archaeologists at Work

Norwegian Archaeological Review

Bronze Age population dynamics and the rise of dairy pastoralism on the eastern Eurasian steppe

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Recent paleogenomic studies have shown that migrations of Western steppe herders (WSH) beginning ... more Recent paleogenomic studies have shown that migrations of Western steppe herders (WSH) beginning in the Eneolithic (ca. 3300–2700 BCE) profoundly transformed the genes and cultures of Europe and central Asia. Compared with Europe, however, the eastern extent of this WSH expansion is not well defined. Here we present genomic and proteomic data from 22 directly dated Late Bronze Age burials putatively associated with early pastoralism in northern Mongolia (ca. 1380–975 BCE). Genome-wide analysis reveals that they are largely descended from a population represented by Early Bronze Age hunter-gatherers in the Baikal region, with only a limited contribution (∼7%) of WSH ancestry. At the same time, however, mass spectrometry analysis of dental calculus provides direct protein evidence of bovine, sheep, and goat milk consumption in seven of nine individuals. No individuals showed molecular evidence of lactase persistence, and only one individual exhibited evidence of >10% WSH ancestry, ...

Prehistoric Mongolian Archaeology in the Early 21st Century: Developments in the Steppe and Beyond

Journal of Archaeological Research, 2021

There has been a great increase in archaeological research in Mongolia since 2000. Increasingly p... more There has been a great increase in archaeological research in Mongolia since 2000. Increasingly precise chronologies, regional studies, and the growth of development-driven archaeology are transforming our knowledge of this key region of northeastern Asia. This review summarizes recent work and provides a narrative of the prehistoric and early medieval cultural sequences as presently understood. I focus on long-standing key topics: early human habitation, the adoption of food-producing economies, Bronze Age social transformations, and the emergence of central places and large polities. I argue that, on the one hand, Mongolia has unique data and new examples to offer the archaeological community and, on the other, that the prehistory of Mongolia and the steppe are not so different from the rest of the world in its history of research and key questions. This review provides general overviews covering the Upper Paleolithic, Epipaleolithic or Neolithic, and Bronze Age to the Xiongnu period; specific data related to each period provide jumping-off points for comparative analysis and further examination.

The Methodology and Ceramic Study of the Keros Island Survey 2012-13

by Jill Hilditch, Michael Boyd, and Joshua Wright

Jan 2015 - AIA Annual Meeting, New Orleans, US

The Keros Island Survey

by Michael Boyd and Joshua Wright

The Trials of a Fodder Lord: Political Authority in the Bronze Age of the Eastern Steppe

During the Early and Middle Bronze Age settlement zones and central places in North Gobi develope... more During the Early and Middle Bronze Age settlement zones and central places in North Gobi developed in a selective pattern along an ecotonal border. This heterogenous pattern is a break from preceding homogenous Epi-paleothic land use. Explanations for this pattern suggest the emergence of a charismatic nomadic pastoralist elite strong enough to act locally but perhaps not strong enough to extend their authority completely throughout the region in the face of the resistance from established populations.

Landscapes of Communication: Authority and Organization in the Politics of Ancient Mobile Communities

Overview of Mongolian Archaeology

Nested Survey Designs and Approaches to Unknown Archaeological Landscapes

Models for the Adoption and Spread of Nomadic Pastoralism in Eurasia

Temporal Perspective and Monumental Constellations in Inner Asia

Inner Asian Transhumance in Context

The Archaeology of Power and Politics in Eurasia, Regimes and Revolutions

Settlement Patterns in the Chifeng Region.

The most important part of this book is the modestly named "Appendix B, Electronic Access to Colo... more The most important part of this book is the modestly named "Appendix B, Electronic Access to Color Illustrations and the Full Dataset" It is here that the reader comes face-to-face with the future of archaeology. One of our greatest concerns as we design research and manage data in the 21st century is how to deal with massive data sets and aggregate them into wieldy interpretable units. The authors of this work present one systematic, extensible and clearly detailed set of approaches to this problem while making their data available to the reader to actively critique their methods or attempt an analysis of their own. Their argument is that

Jobs! Two Permanent Lectureships in Archaeology

We are offering two lectureships in archaeology, one in Cultural Heritage and one in Ancient Biom... more

Continuity and Authority on the Mongolian Steppe The Egiin Gol Survey 1997–2002

This is the first complete intensive regional archaeological survey report for Mongolia to be pub... more This is the first complete intensive regional archaeological survey report for Mongolia to be published. It presents the experiences and results of groundbreaking fieldwork that detected ephemeral steppe settlement sites, extensive monumental constructions, and changing land use that span the last 30,000 years, from the late Upper Paleolithic to the nineteenth century. Extensive illustrations of monuments and ceramics provide comparative data and local detail in an integrated landscape- and settlement-based approach to the prehistory and history of eastern Eurasia.

Call for Papers: Society for East Asian Archaeology 10th Worldwide Conference

SEAA10 will be held in Aberdeen, Scotland, UK, 19-23 August, 2025. visit: https://seaa-web.org/c... more