University College London

Faculty Member, UCL Qatar

Senior Lecturer

UCL Qatar

About

I specialise in the history and prehistory of Arabia and the Persian Gulf, with particular interests in ceramics, early maritime trade, Christianity in the Gulf, and Islamic archaeology. My chief topic of research at the moment concerns pearl fishing and its formative influence on Gulf societies over the last 7000 years.

I am also working on medieval settlement and trade (based on excavations at Julfar, Ras al-Khaimah, UAE), urbanism and state formation in the Gulf between the 18th and 20th centuries AD, Neolithic maritime exchange networks in the Gulf, and late pre-Islamic/Early Islamic maritime trade in the Indian Ocean.

I am now part of UCL's new campus in Doha, Qatar (UCL Qatar), where we are setting up a centre for teaching and research in the archaeology and heritage of the Arab and Islamic World, as well as Museum Studies and Conservation.

Since 1993 I have conducted fieldwork, artefact studies and consultancy in most countries of the Gulf, including Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ras al-Khaimah, Fujairah and Iran.