Tobias Richter

Assistant professor

Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies
Snorresgade 17-19
2300 København S

Office: 779
Phone: +45 51 30 28 59
Phone (Reception desk): +45 353-28900
E-mail: richter@hum.ku.dk

My primary field of interest is - broadly speaking - the prehistoric archaeology of western Asia, especially the Levant. In the last couple of years I have focused on the study of Epipalaeolithic hunter-gatherer communities in Jordan. Here, I have led and co-directed excavations at a number of early and middle Epipalaeolithic sites starting in 2005.

I am particularly interested in the processes that led to the adoption of agriculture by human groups in the region. As such, I examine current hypothesis and frameworks that have sought to explain this shift in subsistence practices. Other, related interests include lithic technology and the anthropology of technology, landscape archaeology and archaeological theory.

I direct the Frie Forsningsråd Kultur og Kummunikation funded project The Younger Dryas and the Origins of Agriculture (http://shubeika.ccrs.ku.dk), which is part of a wider collaborative research initiative the Epipalaeolithic Foragers in Azraq Project. This new project will focus on excavations at the Late Epipalaeolithic site of Shubayqa 1 starting in October 2012.

I was previously a research scholar at the British Institute in Amman from 2002-2004. From 2009-2012 I was Deputy Director for Archaeology of the Qatar Islamic Archaeology and Heritage Project. I have been involved in fieldwork projects in Germany, Wales, England, Turkey, Jordan, Syria and Qatar.

Primary research areas

- Final Pleistocene Hunter-Gatherers and early Farmers in western Asia

- Lithic Technology

- Agency and Practice Theory Approaches in Archaeology

- Situated learning and socialization processes in archaeology

- Landscape Archaeology

- Social Anthropology of Technology

- History & Politics of Archaeology