Graduate Student

Anthropology Department

Rice University

INTERESTS

African complex societies and their diverse manifestations.  His major interest is in reconstructing the social milieu surrounding the traveling royal courts of highland Ethiopia from the end of the thirteenth to the beginning of the seventeenth centuries.  Specifically, he is interested in the origins of the traveling court system and their social, political and economic roles in Ethiopian society after the apparent decline of urbanism throughout the empire.  Further interests include the post-Aksumite period of the Zagwe Dynasty which represents a poorly understood part of Ethiopian history significant to later historical developments.    

Previous to his focus on African archaeology and history, he specialized in Mesoamerican archaeology while an undergraduate at Pennsylvania State University.  He has participated in archaeological field and lab work in Pennsylvania, Texas, Guatemala, and Senegal.  His specialties and areas of interest include lithic crafts and analysis, theories of social complexity, and the archaeological applications of GIS and remote sensing techniques.  

Currently, he is planning two trips to Ethiopia in preparation for his own research.  One will involve surveying areas of Tigray and an analysis of artifacts from a pre-Aksumite village site.  The second will involve more extensive surveying using non-invasive techniques around Lalibela and the identification of possible royal court camp sites for his dissertation research.  

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