Trevor Watkins
Trevor Watkins is an Emeritus Professor of Near Eastern Prehistory at the University of Edinburgh, UK, where he taught the prehistory of southwest Asia and the ancient history and archaeology of early civilizations of the region for many years. Watkins directed excavations and surveys in Cyprus, central Turkey, northeast Syria, and north Iraq. has investigated the transition that introduced radically new features of the Early Bronze Age to Cyprus. Since retiring from teaching and fieldwork, he has focused his research on developing an account of the Epipalaeolthic-Neolithic transformation in the context of cultural niche construction and cultural evolutionary theory.
Relevant publications:
- Watkins, T. (2024). Becoming Neolithic: the pivot of human history. Routledge.
- Watkins, T. (2023). Settling down in Southwest Asia: the Epipalaeolithic-Neolithic transformation. Frontiers in Human Dynamics, 5, Article 1250167. https://doi.org/10.3389/fhumd.2023.1250167
- Watkins, T. (2017). Architecture and imagery in the early Neolithic of southwest Asia: framing rituals, stabilizing meanings. In C. Renfrew, I. Morley, & M. Boyd (Eds.), Ritual, Play and Belief in Early Human Societies (pp. 129-142). Cambridge University Press.
Primary Areas of Expertise:
Archaeology, Cultural Anthropology, Ethnoarchaeology, Evolutionary Anthropology, Heritage Studies, History
