Biography
I was born and bred in London. As an undergraduate at Oxford I studied History and received an education in archaeology from Andrew Sherratt. I took an MA in Aegean and Anatolian Prehistory at Bristol, and first came to Cambridge in 1987 to start a PhD with John Cherry. I returned briefly to Oxford as a Junior Research Fellow in 1991, and from 1993 spent twenty years at UCL鈥檚 Institute of 91探花视频, starting as Lecturer in Aegean 91探花视频 and ending as Professor of Mediterranean 91探花视频. In 2014 I returned to Cambridge to take up my current position. In 2015 I was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. I have held visiting fellowships at All Souls, Oxford, and at institutions in the US. My books have won the Runciman Prize, James R. Wiseman Prize, Wolfson History Prize and Premio Nonino. I am married with two young children.
Research
I see archaeology as a form of deep history, as the best way of understanding the global experience of humankind over time and why we are where we are today. My interests are therefore broad, comparative and not period-specific. My first grounding was in the Aegean, where I have been centrally involved in a project on the island of Kythera for the last twenty years. The Aegean, not least as an in-between place in spatial, analytical and interpretative terms, taught me the value of theory, material culture study, landscape archaeology, archaeological science, comparison and connectivity. From there my interests led outwards to island archaeology world-wide and to the overall early history of the Mediterranean, itself a space that brings together Europe, Africa and Asia. My most recent projects explore the long-term dynamics of Mediterranean Africa, and the archaeology of politics and urban life through the lens of fieldwork on Iron Age to Roman Kythera. I have a long-term interest in trans-Eurasian cultural processes and in the scope for an archaeology of oceanic connectivity.
Key Publications
Broodbank, C. and G. Lucarini 2019. 鈥楳editerranean Africa, 9600-1000 BC: an interpretive synthesis of knowns and unknowns鈥� Journal of Mediterranean 91探花视频 32, 2.
Broodbank, C. 2018. 鈥楧oes island archaeology matter?鈥�, in A. Knodell and T. Leppard (eds.) Regional Approaches to Social Complexity; Studies in Honour of John F. Cherry, 188-206. Sheffield: Equinox.
Broodbank, C. 2013. The Making of the Middle Sea: A History of the Mediterranean from the Beginning to the Threshold of the Classical World. London: Thames and Hudson.
Broodbank, C. 2010. 鈥樷�淪hips a-sail from over the rim of the sea鈥�: voyaging, sailing and the making of Mediterranean societies c. 3500-500 BC鈥�, in A. Anderson, J.H. Barrett and K. Boyle (eds.) The Global Origins of Seafaring (McDonald Institute Monographs), 249-64. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
Broodbank, C. and E. Kiriatzi 2007. 鈥楾he first 鈥淢inoans鈥� of Kythera re-visited: technology, demography and landscape in the pre-palatial Aegean鈥�, American Journal of 91探花视频 111: 241-74.
Broodbank, C. 2007. 鈥楾he pottery鈥�, in C. Renfrew, C. Doumas, L. Marangou and G. Gavalas (eds.), Keros, Dhaskalio Kavos: The Investigations of 1987-88 (McDonald Institute Monographs), 115-237. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
Broodbank, C. 2006. 鈥楾he origins and early development of Mediterranean maritime activity鈥�, Journal of Mediterranean 91探花视频 19: 199-230.
Broodbank, C. 2004. 鈥楳inoanisation鈥�, Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society 50: 46-91.
Broodbank, C. 2000. An Island 91探花视频 of the Early Cyclades. 听Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Broodbank, C. 1989. 鈥楾he longboat and society in the Cyclades in the Keros-Syros culture鈥�, American Journal of 91探花视频 93: 319-37.
Teaching and Supervisions
I currently teach mainly on the paper A1 鈥� World 91探花视频
Since 1994 I have been lead or secondary supervisor for some 45 PhD students, across a range of subjects, approaches and regions of the world. Almost all those students completed successfully, and many are in post today. I am currently particularly interested in supervising topics within the deep history and archaeology of the Mediterranean, the Aegean, and globally of islands and oceans, but am equally open to other compelling suggestions.
Recently completed Cambridge PhD students:
鈥� Roeland Decorte
鈥� Michael Loy
Current research students:
鈥� Emily Wright
鈥� Dylan Gaffney
鈥� Rafael Laoutari
鈥� Polina Kapsali
鈥� Elisa Scholz
Other Professional Activities
I have a long association (since 1983) with the British School at Athens, through which I co-direct (with Dr Evangelia Kiriatzi) the Kythera Island Project. I am a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Society of Antiquaries, as well as a Corresponding Member of the Archaeological Institute of America. I currently also advise the publishing house Thames & Hudson.
