Staff Profile:Professor Roger Matthews
- Name:
- Professor Roger Matthews
- Job Title:
- Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology
- Responsibilities:
- Leader of the Social Archaeology Research Group
- Archaeology Research Committee
- Research Staff career development and monitoring
- Special Needs Tutor
- Forward strategy for field training
- Areas of Interest:
- Prehistory and early history of Iran, Mesopotamia, and Anatolia
- Early development of sedentism and farming in the Near East, especially in Iran
- Early complex societies and empires of the Near East
- Urbanisation and the development of bureaucracy and trade in Mesopotamia and Iran
- Techniques and approaches to archaeological excavation and survey
- History and philosophy of the discipline of archaeology in the Near East
Postgraduate supervision:
Roger has extensive experience in supervising students through to PhD completion. He is happy to discuss doctoral research proposals covering any of his areas of interest. He is especially keen to hear from prospective students in Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.
- Research groups / Centres:
Social Archaeology Research Group
Key facts:
Roger joined the Department of Archaeology at the University of Reading in January 2011, after ten years at UCL Institute of Archaeology. From 1988 - 1995 he was Director of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq, and from 1996 - 2001 he was Director of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara.
His research interests have always been intertwined with extensive field activity. He served as Field Director at major projects including Çatalhöyük in Turkey (Neolithic project), Abu Salabikh in Iraq (Sumerian city) and Tell Brak in Syria (multi-period site). He has directed his own field projects at Jemdet Nasr in Iraq (proto-literate period) and a multi-period survey in north-central Turkey, Project Paphlagonia. All his field projects have been published. He has also published widely on many aspects of the ancient Near East.
Roger is currently Chairman of the British Institute for the Study of Iraq, a self-funding organisation which has been instrumental in multiple initiatives regarding the archaeology and cultural heritage of Iraq. He is a member of the Board for Academy Sponsored Institutes and Societies (BASIS), a member of the British Academy Middle East and North Africa Panel, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and a Peer Review College member of both the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council.
Roger is Academic Editor for the distinguished journal Anatolian Studies, and welcomes enquiries about potential submissions to the journal.
Current research projects:
- Central Zagros Archaeological Project. A collaborative UK-Iran project investigating the Early Neolithic of western Iran through excavation of two mound sites, Sheikh-e Abad and Jani, in the Zagros mountains. This project is funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council for four years from January 2011.
- ARCHIRAN - Ancient Iran: A Social Archaeology. Writing of a thematic diachronic study of the past of Iran, co-authored with Dr Hassan Fazeli Nashli from the University of Tehran.
- RADII: Recording Archaeological Data from Iraq and Iran
- Publications:
-
YNumber of items: 20.
2013
- Matthews, R. and Fazeli, H., eds. (2013) The Neolithisation of Iran: the formation of new societies. British Association for Near Eastern Archaeology and Oxbow Books, Oxford. (In Press)
- Matthews, R., Mohamadifar , Y. and Matthews, W., eds. (2013) The earliest Neolithic of Iran: the Central Zagros archaeological project 2008 excavations at Sheikh-e Abad and Jani. British Institute of Persian Studies and Oxbow Books, Oxford. (In Press)
- Matthews, R. (2013) The power of writing: administrative activity at Godin Tepe, central Zagros, in the later 4th millennium BC. In: Petrie, C. (ed.) Ancient Iran and its Neighbours. Oxbow and British Institute of Persian Studies, Oxford. (In Press)
2011
- Matthews, R. (2011) A history of the pre-classical archaeology of Turkey. In: Steadman, S. R. and McMahon, G. (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia. Oxford Handbooks in Archaeology . Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 34-55. ISBN 9780195376142
- Matthews, R. (2011) About the archaeological house: themes and directions. In: Parker, B. J. and Foster, C. (eds.) House and Household. University of Utah, Utah. (In Press)
- Matthews, R. and Curtis, J., eds. (2011) Proceedings of the seventh international congress on the archaeology of the ancient Near East. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden. (In Press)
- Matthews, R. (2011) Writing (and reading) as material practice: the world of cuneiform culture as an arena for investigation. In: Piquette, K. E. and Whitehouse, R. (eds.) Writing as Material Practice: Substance, Surface and Medium. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek. (In Press)
2010
- Matthews, R. (2010) Dumanli Kale: a politicised landscape in late Bronze Age Anatolia. In: Singer, I. (ed.) ipamati kistamati pari tumatimis. Luwian and Hittite studies. Presented to J. David Hawkins on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Emery and Claire Yass Publications in Archaeology, Tel Aviv, Isreal, pp. 140-146. ISBN 9789652660268
2009
- Matthews, R. and Glatz, C., eds. (2009) At Empires' edge: Project Paphlagonia regional survey in north-Central turkey. British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, London, UK. ISBN 9781898249238
- Marsh, B., Roberts, N., Toprak, V., Matthews, R., Eastwood, W., Carolan, J., Arcasoy, A. and Lütfi Süzen , M. (2009) Contexts of human interaction: geology, geography, geomorphology and environment. In: Matthews, R. and Glatz, C. (eds.) At Empires' edge. Project Paphlagonia regional survey in north-central Turkey. British Institute at Ankara, London, pp. 27-73. ISBN 9781898249238
- Matthews, R., Metcalfe, M. and Cottica, D. (2009) Landscapes with figures: Paphlagonia through the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods, 330 BC-AD 1453. In: Matthews, R. and Glatz, C. (eds.) At Empires' edge. Project Paphlagonia regional survey in north-central Turkey. British Institute at Ankara, London, pp. 173-226. ISBN 9781898249238
- Matthews, R. and Glatz, C. (2009) People and place in Paphlagonia: trends and patterns in settlement through time. In: Matthews, R. and Glatz, C. (eds.) At Empires' edge. Project Paphlagonia regional survey in north-central Turkey. British Institute at Ankara, London, pp. 239-249. ISBN 9781898249238
- Matthews, R. (2009) Project Paphlagonia: research issues, approaches and methods. In: Matthews, R. and Glatz, C. (eds.) At Empires' edge. Project Paphlagonia regional survey in north-central Turkey. British Institute at Ankara, London, pp. 1-25. ISBN 9781898249238
- Matthews, R. (2009) Silent centuries: Paphlagonia from the Palaeolithic to the Early Bronze Age, 200,000-2000 BC. In: Matthews, R. and Glatz, C. (eds.) At Empires' edge. Project Paphlagonia regional survey in north-central Turkey. British Institute at Ankara, London, pp. 75-105. ISBN 9781898249238
- Matthews, R. (2009) A dark age, grey ware and elusive empires: Paphlagonia through the Iron Age, 1200-330 BC. In: Matthews, R. and Glatz, C. (eds.) At Empires' edge. Project Paphlagonia regional survey in north-central Turkey. British Institute at Ankara, London, pp. 149-171. ISBN 9781898249238
- Matthews, R. and Glatz, C. (2009) The historical geography of north-central Anatolia in the Hittite period: texts and archaeology in concert. Anatolian Studies, 59. pp. 51-72. ISSN 0066-1546
- Glatz, C., Matthews, R. and Schachner, A. (2009) A landscape of conflict and control: Paphlagonia during the second millennium BC. In: Matthews, R. and Glatz, C. (eds.) At Empires' edge. Project Paphlagonia regional survey in north-central Turkey. British Institute at Ankara, London, pp. 107-147. ISBN 9781898249238
2008
- Matthews, R. (2008) Seals and sealing practices in Upper Mesopotamia and Iran in the Ubaid period. In: Bonatz, D., Czichon, R. M. and Kreppner, F. J. (eds.) Fundstellen. Gesammelte Schriften zur Archäologie und Geschichte Altvorderasiens ad honorem Hartmut Kühne. Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, pp. 277-282. ISBN 9783447057707
- Matthews, R. (2008) Social and cultural transformation: the archaeology of transitional periods and dark ages. In: Kühne, H., Czichon, R. M. and Kreppner, F. J. (eds.) Proceedings of the 4th International Congress of the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, pp. 3-8. ISBN 9783447057578
- Al-Hussainy, A. and Matthews, R. (2008) The archaeological heritage of Iraq in historical perspective. Public Archaeology, 7 (2). pp. 91-100. ISSN 1465-5187 doi: 10.1179/175355308X329973
