Area of research: Archaeology of the Levant and Mediterranean, (also Archaeological Economics, and Material Science).

My coursework was predominantly in the Eastern Mediterranean, but I developed a fascination for the Phoenician colonies in the Western Mediterranean during a tutorial on that topic with my adviser Lawrence Stager.  At that time I was also taking a course in archaeological economics through the Anthropology department, which helped me to notice a gap in scholarship concerning the economy of these Western Phoenicians.  This led me to take a course in Material Science at MIT, which gave me the skills to address that gap using ceramic analysis. The fact that I had spent several excellent vacations in Southern Spain, previously, only served to sweeten the deal.

Thesis title: The Potters of El Castillo de Doña Blanca (Spain): Ceramic analysis and socioeconomic change in colonial contexts

Philip's web site