Staff profile

Dr Jessie Birkett-Rees

Lecturer

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

169 Martin Building, Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

BASc (Melbourne) , BA Hons (Melbourne), PhD (Melbourne)

Membership of professional associations

Aerial Archaeology Research Group

Area of study

Anthropology
Archaeology

Brief profile

I am interested in the relationships between people and landscape and in the archaeology of conflict and commemoration. Methodologically, I specialise in spatial analyses, in non-invasive investigation techniques and in the application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and geospatial science to model landscapes and address archaeological questions. I have carried out fieldwork in Australia, Canada, England, and primarily in Anatolia (Turkey) and the Caucasus. I currently investigate the archaeological landscapes of the Caucasus and of the Gallipoli Peninsula.

My research in the Caucasus concentrates on the dynamic strategies of past communities inhabiting the river valleys and highlands of Georgia and also explores the interface between modern urbanisation and heritage preservation in this region. My particualr interest is in tracing the interactions and adaptations which have taken place in the highlands. For several years I researched the area of the modern capital of Georgia, Tbilisi, and the ancient Iberian capital of Mtskheta. Now, in collaboration with the Georgian National Museum and the University of Melbourne, I work in the southern Samtskhe-Javakheti highlands. This province shares modern borders with Turkey and Armenia and has long been a region of cultural interaction. My research interests here are diachronic, ranging from late prehistory to the early modern period, and include the investigation of mobility and pathways within the highlands, the use of economic and political strategies to modify the landscape, and the role of the landscape in constructing frameworks of meaning.

I am also involved in the developing field of conflict archaeology and work on the Joint Historical and Archaeological survey of the ANZAC battlefields at Gallipoli. Places of conflict and commemoration have powerful spatial characteristics and I research the relationships between people, objects and landscape at these sites. The Gallipoli Peninsula and the Dardanelles have been defined by conflict since antiquity and study of this region integrates elements of historical archaeology, industrial archaeology and anthropological archaeology.

Research interests

Archaeology of Europe, the Mediterranean and the Levant

- Archaeology of Anatolia, the Caucasus and Near East

- Highland adaptations

- Landscape archaeology

- Spatial analysis

Historical Archaeology

- Conflict archaeology

- Heritage management and tourism

- Historical GIS

Teaching units

  • ARC1MAP: Mapping the World
  • ARC2/3GIS: Geographic Information Systems  

Consulting

On the Joint Historical and Archaeological Survey of the ANZAC/Arıburnu battlefield: Australian Government Department of Veterans’ Affairs; New Zealand’s Ministry for Culture and Heritage; the U

Recent publications

  • Birkett-Rees, J. (2012), ‘Geospatial science and the archaeology of the First World War: context for conflict’, Geospatial Research 2, RMIT University, Melbourne, 14 pages.
  • Birkett-Rees, J. (forthcoming, accepted December 5, 2011), ‘The state of the art: spatial technologies and the archaeology of the First World War’, in The Gallipoli Campaign: History, Legend and Memory, 20 pages.
  • Birkett-Rees, J . (2012), ‘Power and presence: landscape and tenure in Middle Bronze Age central Transcaucasia’, Ancient Near Eastern Studies 49, 61–94.
  • Sagona, A., Atabay, M., Reid, R., McGibbon, I., Mackie, C., Erat, M. and Birkett-Rees, J. (2011) ‘The ANZAC (Arıburnu) Battlefield: new perspectives and methodologies in history and archaeology’, Australian Historical Studies 42: 313–37.
  • Birkett-Rees, J . (2010) ‘Archaeological landscapes of central Transcaucasia: an investigation of the Tbilisi-Mtskheta region’, Journal of Archaeology of the Turkish Academy of Sciences/Türkiye Bilimler Akademisi Arkeoloji Dergisi 13: 293–312.
  • Birkett-Rees, J . (2008) ‘Seeing is believing: image and imagination in digital archaeologies’, Archaeological Review Cambridge 23(1): 126–42.

Research projects

  • Joint Historical and Archaeological Survey (JHAS) of the ANZAC/Arıburnu battlefields, Gallipoli Peninsula (survey and analysis, since 2010). This project integrates archaeological survey with historical inquiry to record and analyse the remains of the Gallipoli battlefields within the context of the pre-war archaeological landscape and the post-war commemorative features.
  • Landscape Archaeology of Georgia research project, highlands of Samtskhe-Javakheti in the southwest of the Republic of Georgia (survey and analysis, since 2012). This project is an archaeological survey concentrating on the southwestern highlands of Georgia, investigating cultural interaction, movement and adaptation in this border region.
  • Georgian-Australian Investigations in Archaeology at the multi-period burial ground and settlement of Samtavro in Mtskheta, Republic of Georgia (survey, excavation and analysis, 2005–2009). A collaborative effort between the Georgian National Museum and the University of Melbourne. The site is located on the northern outskirts of Mtskheta, once the capital of the Iberian kingdom, and its record dates from the mid third millennium BCE to the tenth century CE.