Staff profile

Dr Phillip Edwards

Senior Lecturer, MA Archaeology (coursework) coordinator

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

School of Historical and European Studies

Martin Building 161, Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

BSc (Monash), BA (Hons-Sydney), PhD (Sydney).

Area of study

Archaeology

Brief profile

Dr Phillip Edwards is a Senior Lecturer in the Archaeology Program at La Trobe University. Dr Edwards' research interests include developments in the Levant during the Pleistocene and in the origins of farming and sedentary life. Dr Edwards has specialised in the East Jordan Valley (in Jordan) for the past thirty years, working on a series of Lower, Middle, Upper and Epipalaeolithic, and Neolithic sites. He has recently finalised the publication of an important Ice Age village site: Wadi Hammeh 27: an Early Natufian settlement at Pella in Jordan.

Postgraduate opportunities Ph.D. topics are available on the lithic analysis of Lower Palaeolithic site Mashari’a 1,  and residue and use-wear analysis topics on Epipalaeolithic Jordanian sites (Wad Hammeh 26 [Kebaran] and Wadi Hammeh 27 [Natufian]) for first-class Honours candidates. Co-supervised research topics (with Environmental Geoscience) on the sedimentology and site formation processes of Middle Palaeolithic open sites, the geomorphology of the Jordan Valley in the late Pleistocene, and the OSL dating of Pleistocene open sites in the Jordan Valley are also available to first-class Honours candidates with qualifications in earth sciences and geology.

 

Research interests

Archaeology of Europe, the Mediterranean and the Levant

- Middle Eastern Archaeology

- Origins of farming and village life

- Prehistoric archaeology of the East Jordan Valley

Teaching units

  • ARC1AAC - The Archaeology of Civilisations.
  • ARC3AAR – Approaches to Archaeological Research
  • ARC4ICA - Issues in Contemporary Archaeology.

Recent publications

  • Edwards, P (ed.) 2013, Wadi Hammeh 27: an Early Natufian settlement at Pella in Jordan. Culture and History of the Ancient Near East, Volume 59, Brill, Leiden.
  • Edwards, P  2010, ‘Early agriculture and ditch irrigation.’ Neo-Lithics, 2/10: 43-46.
  • Edwards, P 2008, ‘The symbolic dimensions of material culture at Wadi Hammeh 27’, In J. M. Córdoba, M. Molist, M.C. Pérez, I. Rubio and S. Martínez (eds), Proceedings of the 5th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Vol. III, pp. 507-520.  Madrid: Centro Superior de Estudios sobre el Oriente Próximo y Egipto.
  • Edwards, P 2007, ‘A 14 000 year-old hunter-gatherer’s toolkit.’ Antiquity 81: 865-876.
  • Edwards, P 2007, ‘The context and production of incised Neolithic stones.’ Levant 39: 27-33.
  • Edwards, P, Meadows, J, Sayej,  G & Westaway, M 2004, ‘From the PPNA to the PPNB: new views from the southern Levant after excavations at Zahrat adh-Dhra‘ 2 in Jordan’, Paléorient, 30/ 2, 21-60.
  • Hardy-Smith, T & Edwards, P 2004, ‘The Garbage Crisis in Prehistory: artefact discard patterns at the Early Natufian site of Wadi Hammeh 27 and the origins of household refuse disposal strategies’, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 23,  235-289.
  • Edwards, P 2004, ‘The Formation of Middle Palaeolithic landscapes in Wadi al-Hammeh’, in F. Khraysheh (ed.), Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan VIII: archaeological and historical perspectives on society, culture and Identity, pp. 119-127, Department of Antiquities of Jordan,  Amman.
  • Edwards, P, Head, M and Macumber P, 1999, ‘An Epipalaeolithic Sequence from Wadi Hisban in the East Jordan Valley.’ Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 43: 27-48.
  • Edwards, P, Head, M and Macumber P, 1996, ‘The Early Epipalaeolithic of Wadi al Hammeh.’ Levant 28: 115-130.
  • Edwards, P, 1989, ‘Problems of Recognizing Earliest Sedentism: The Natufian example.’ Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 2/1: 5-48.
  • Edwards, P 1989, ‘Revising the Broad Spectrum Revolution: and its role in the origins of Southwest Asian food production.’ Antiquity 63: 225-46.

Awards

  • La Trobe University Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning - Implementing research-led approaches to learning and teaching 2011;
  • Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning 2009 - Implementing research-led approaches to learning and teaching

Media participation

  • Resident archaeologist, ‘Dr Phil’, on The Party Show with Headley Gritter, Triple-R FM, Melbourne;
  • Stories from the Stone Age (2003); television documentary series, Beyond Productions in association with S4C and S4C International. (http://www.abc.net.au/programsales/s1194101.htm)
  • Discovery News Channel (http://dsc.discovery.com/) Ancient toolkit gives glimpse of prehistoric life’.

Research projects

Research Collaborations

  • Department of Archaeology, University of Jordan: collaboration with Dr Maysoon an-Nahar on the spatial analysis of Zahrat adh-Dhra‘ 2 artefacts;
  • National Museum Jordan: collaboration with on a display of artefacts from Wadi Hammeh 27;
  • Institute of Archaeology, University College, London, UK: collaborations with Dr Louise Martin and Dr Yvonne Edwards on analysis of Wadi Hammeh 27 faunal remains; collaboration with Dr Susan Colledge on the publication of Wadi Hammeh 27 botanical remains;
  • Institut de Préhistoire Orientale, CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), Jalès, France: collaboration with Dr Daniel Helmer on the analysis of Zahrat adh-Dhra‘ 2 (Pre-Pottery Neolithic A site) faunal remains;
  • Maison Rene-Ginouves, Archaeologie and Ethnologie, Université de Paris (Paris X): collaboration with Dr Fanny Bocquentin on the human skeletal remains from Zahrat adh-Dhra‘ 2 (Pre-Pottery Neolithic A site)

Research projects

  • Archaeology and Environment of the Dead Sea Plain’ project: ZAD 2;
  • excavations at Wadi Hammeh 27, near Pella in Jordan;
  • Epipalaeolithic sites in Wadi Hisban, Jordan;
  • Early geology and archaeology in the East Jordan Valley: Mashari’a 1