The Department | News and Events | People | Programs | Courses | Field Schools | Links | Apply
David L. Peterson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
- Background
- Research Interests
- Ongoing Research
- Selected Publications
- Courses Taught
- Awards
- Curriculum Vita
B.A., University of Minnesota (1987); M.A., University of Minnesota (1993); Ph.D., University of Chicago (2007).
I have conducted archaeological and geoarchaeological field work and archaeometric research in the Republic of Armenia, Samara oblast' (Russia), the Republic of Daghestan (Russian Federation), Bavaria (Germany), Minnesota, South Dakota, Iowa, Oklahoma, and West Virginia. I joined the faculty at Idaho State University in 2008 as an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and as a Research Scientist with the Center for Archaeology, Materials and Applied Spectroscopy (CAMAS).
My research includes Old World archaeology (the Caucasus Mountains region and the Eurasian Steppes), material culture, technology, geoarchaeology, archaeometry, archaeometallurgy, nomads and pastoralists, archaeological theory and contemporary social theory.
As director of the South Caucasus Archaeometallurgy Project, together with my collaborators in the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, I am invovled in ongoing field and laboratory research on ancient mining, copper and bronze production, and early sociopolitical developments on the Armenian plateau. As a scientist with CAMAS, I conduct laboratory investigations of the sources, materials, and techniques utlized in ancient copper and bronze production, and its biological effects on ancient producers.
in prep. The Metal Finds from Krasnosamarskoe and Peschanyi Dol: Implications for the Late Bronze Age Economy in the Samara Region. For The Samara Valley Project: Bronze Age Pastoralism in the Middle Volga Steppes. Vol. 2: Late Bronze Age Pastoral Economy, Settlement, and Seasonal Rituals in the Samara River Valley, edited by D. Anthony, D. Brown, A. Khokhlov, P. Kuznetsov, and O. Mochalov.
in prep. Synchrotron X-ray Fluorescence and Diffraction, WDS, and Metallography of Early Copper and Bronze Ornaments from Velikent, Daghestan (Northeastern Caucasus): Comparison of Destructive and Non-Destructive Analyses.
forthcoming Forging Networks of Authority: Early Metal Production in the Middle Volga and the Caucasus. For Regimes and Revolutions: Proceedings of the 2008 University of Chicago Conference on Eurasian Archaeology.
2009 Production and Social Complexity: Bronze Age Metalworking in the Middle Volga. In Monuments, Metal, and Mobility: Trajectories of Social Complexity in the Late Prehistoric Eurasian Steppe, edited by Bryan Hanks and Kathryn Linduff, pp. 222-261. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
2009 The Making of Bronze Age Eurasia, by Philip L. Kohl. Book Review: Cambridge Archaeological Journal 19(1).
2006 Beyond the Steppe and the Sown: Proceedings of the 2002 University of Chicago Conference on Eurasian Archaeology (co-edited with Laura Popova and Adam T. Smith). Colloquia Pontica 13, Brill, Leiden. (lead editor)
2006 The Samara Bronze Age Metals Project: Investigating Changing Technologies and Transformations of Value in the Western Eurasian Steppes (with Pavel F. Kuznetsov and Oleg D. Mochalov). In Beyond the Steppe and the Sown: Proceedings of the 2002 University of Chicago Conference on Eurasian Archaeology, edited by David Peterson, Laura Popova and Adam T. Smith, pp. 326-346. Colloquia Pontica 13, Brill, Leiden.
2006 Introduction (with Laura Popova and Adam T. Smith). In Beyond the Steppe and the Sown: Proceedings of the 2002 University of Chicago Conference on Eurasian Archaeology, edited by David Peterson, Laura Popova and Adam T. Smith, pp. xiii-xiv. Colloquia Pontica 13, Brill, Leiden.
2005 Poisk sledov gornorudnogo delo epokhi pozdnei bronzy v srednem Povol'zhe (arkeologicheskie raboty v neissledovanykh raionakh Samarkskoi oblasti) (with Pavel F. Kuznetsov, Oleg D. Mochalov, Laura Popova, Ala P. Semenova, and Dmitri Kormilitsin). Izvestia Samarskogo nauchnogo tsentra Rossiiskoi akademii nauk 2 (July-December): 332-343.
2004 Looking Sharp: Knives and Ancient Metal Technology. Natural History 113(1): 68-71.
2003 Ancient Metallurgy in the Mountain Kingdom: The Technology and Value of Early Bronze Age Metalwork from Velikent, Dagestan. In Archaeology in the Borderlands :Investigations in Caucasia and Beyond, edited by Karen S. Rubinson and Adam T. Smith, Chapter 2, pp. 22-37. The Cotsen Institute for Archaeology Publications, UCLA, Los Angeles.
2003 Arkheologicheskie razvedki rudnykh proyavlenii v lesostepnom Zavolzh'e (with Pavel F. Kuznetsov, Oleg D. Mochalov, and Dmitri Kormilitsin). In Arkheologicheskie otkrytiya 2002 g., pp. 284-286. Institute for Archeology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow.
ANTH 413/513 - Early Complex Societies of the Caucasus
ANTH 403 - Method and Theory in Archaeology
ANTH 237 - Ancient Civilizations of Asia: States and Empires
ANTH 237 - Nomads in Anthropology
ANTH 237 - Ancient Civilizations of the Near East and Central Asia
2009 National Endowment for the Humanities Collaborative Research Fellowship in Eurasian and East European Research: Collaborative Investigations of Early Mining and Metal Production on the Armenian Plateau, ca. 7000-800 BC
2009 Idaho State University Faculty Research Council Grant: Geoarchaeological Research of Ancient Copper Production and Sources in the Republic of Armenia
2005 University of Chicago Board of Governors Grant for Archaeometric Research at Argonne National Laboratory (Graduate Fellow); renewed 2006
2004 NSF Dissertation Improvement Grant 0431940
2001 Wenner-Gren Foundation Individual Research Grant 6760 for Doctoral Dissertation Research
2001 Norman Wait Harris Memorial Foundation Fund Grant (Center for International Studies, University of Chicago), for the First University of Chicago Eurasian Archaeology Conference, May 3-4, 2002
The Department | News and Events | People | Programs | Courses | Field Schools | Links | Apply
Department of Anthropology • College of Arts and Sciences • Idaho State University
921 S. 8th Avenue, Stop 8005, Pocatello, ID 83209-8005
Tel: (208) 282-2629 • Fax: (208) 282-4944 • e-mail: clovrebe@isu.edu