Ur- und Frühgeschichte und Archäologie des Mittelalters

Dr. Helen Dawson

Fields of Interest

I am the scientific coordinator of the “Islands of Transformation: An Interdisciplinary Study of Adaptation, Sustainability, and Resilience” project. As a prehistoric archaeologist specialising in the study of the Mediterranean islands, I seek to understand processes that are still relevant to island communities today through the study of their cultural and natural heritage. This entails an exploration of material culture and landscape to understand settlement and abandonment processes, cultural interaction, networks and mobility, identities and sense of place. My archaeological research and fieldwork focus on the smaller islands surrounding Sicily (Ustica, Pantelleria, Lipari) and more recently the UK Channel Islands.

Education

2022

National Scientific Habilitation (Associate Professor) in Archaeology – Ministry of University and Education, Italy

2005

PhD Archaeology, University College London

2000

MPhil Later European Prehistory, University of Cambridge

1999

BA Hons Archaeology, University College London

Academic and Professional Career

2024-present

Chair of the Small Island Cultures Research Initiative

2020-present

Adjunct Professor, Department of History and Culture, University of Bologna

2020-present

Research Fellow – Jersey International Centre of Advanced Studies, Channel Islands

2015-2019

Gerda Henkel Research Scholar, Topoi Excellence Cluster, Freie Universität Berlin

2013-2015

Marie Curie - COFUND Research Fellow, Topoi Excellence Cluster, Freie Universität Berlin

2007-present

Member of the Editorial Board of Shima

2006-2013

Adjunct Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Kent

2005-2011

Senior Archaeologist, Museum of London Archaeology

Publications

BOOKS

Terrell, J.E., Golitko, M., Dawson, H. and Kissel, M. 2023. Modeling the Past. Archaeology, History and Dynamic Relational Analysis. Berghahn Books. 

Dawson, H. and Iacono, F. (eds) 2021. Bridging Social and Geographical Space Through Networks. Sidestone Press.

Dawson H. 2014. Mediterranean Voyages. The Archaeology of Island Colonisation and Abandonment. Institute of Archaeology Series. Left Coast Press/Routledge.

PAPERS

Dawson, H., Picornell-Gelabert, L., Calvo-Trias, M., Servera-Vives, G., and Valenzuela-Oliver, A. 2023. The “island laboratory” revisited: Integrating environmental and sociocultural approaches. The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, 18(4), 547–556 (co-authored with) 

Dawson, H. 2022. Comparative perspectives in ‘island archaeology’: a view from the Ionian Sea. Foreword in C. Souyoudzoglou-Haywood and C. Papoulia (eds) Archaeology of the Ionian Sea. Landscapes, Seascapes and the Circulation of People, Goods and Ideas from the Palaeolithic to the End of the Bronze Age. 3-8. Oxford: Oxbow Books

Martinelli, M.C., Dawson, H., Lo Cascio, P., Levi, S. and Fiorentino, G. 2021. Blowin’ in the wind. Settlement, Landscape and Network Dynamics in the prehistory of the Aeolian Islands (Italy). Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 34.1: 28-57.

Iacono, F., Borgna, E., Cattani, M., Cavazzuti, C., Dawson, H., et al. 2021. Establishing the Middle Sea: The Late Bronze Age of Mediterranean Europe (1700-900 BCE). Journal of Archaeological Research 29: 1-70.

Dawson, H. and Pugh, J. 2021. The Lure of Island Studies: A cross-disciplinary conversation. In Schön, F., Dierksmeier L., Kouremenos, A., Condit, A. and Palmowski, V. (eds) European Islands Between Isolated and Interconnected Life Worlds. 13-31. University of Tübingen Press.

Dawson, H. 2021. Towards an Island Archaeology of the Phoenician and Punic Mediterranean. In B. Costa and É. Guillon (eds) Insularidad, îléité e insularización en el Mediterráneo fenicio y púnico. 323-330. Treballs del Museu Arqueològic d’Eivissa i Formentera. 

Dawson, H. 2021. Caught in the current: Maritime connectivity, insularity, and the spread of the Neolithic. In J. Rowland, J. Tassie and G. Lucarini (eds) Revolutions: The Neolithisation of the Mediterranean Basin: The Transition to food Producing Economies in North Africa and Southern Europe. 85-100. Berlin: Edition Topoi

Dawson, H. 2021. At the heart of Mare Nostrum: Islands and “small world networks” in the central Mediterranean Bronze Age. In H. Dawson and F. Iacono (eds) Bridging Social and Geographical Space Through Networks. 71-88. Leiden: Sidestone Press 

Dawson, H. and Nikolakopoulou, I. 2020. East meets West. Aegean identities and interactions in the Late Bronze Age Mediterranean. eTopoi, Journal for Ancient Studies Special Volume 7: Political and Economic Interaction on the Edge of Early Empires, ed. by David A. Warburton, pp. 155–192. 

Dawson, H. 2020. Networks in Archaeology: An introduction. eTopoi, Journal for Ancient Studies Special Volume 7: 74-86.

Dawson, H. 2020. Network science and island archaeology: advancing the debate. The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 16(2–4): 213–230

Dawson, H. 2019. As good as it gets? “Optimal” marginality in the Longue Durée of the Mediterranean islands. Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies 7(4): 451-465

Dawson, H. 2019. “Island Archaeology”. In C. Smith (ed.) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_3280-1

Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte und Archäologie des Mittelalters
Abteilung für Jüngere Urgeschichte und Frühgeschichte
Schloß Hohentübingen
Burgsteige 11
D-72070 Tübingen