David C. Thomas is a freelance field archaeologist and researcher. He has worked on projects from North Africa through the Near East to Central Asia and is currently co-director of an archaeological project at the Minaret of Jam, Afghanistan. He's also worked at Pella, Jordan, Tell Brak in Syria and Jarma in Libya.
David's research interests include wells and the 'archaeo-politics' of water, mud-brick architecture and the use of space. In 2006, he was awarded a three-year scholarship to write a PhD on 'The ebb and flow of empires - Afghanistan and neighbouring lands in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries' in La Trobe University in Melbourne. The Archaeological Sites of Afghanistan in Google Earth (ASAGE) project has developed out of this research.
When not in a hole he's dug himself into, he enjoys travel (deserts and mountains, and places without McDonalds), thought-provoking films and alternative music, although recently becoming a father has somewhat curtailed his overseas adventures.
User gallery
Afghanistan
Jam: Minaret and Qasr Zarafshan
Jam from Koh-e Khara
Jam: Minaret decoration
Jam: Minaret staircase
Jam: Baked-brick paving and wall
Qasr Zarafshan
Misc Photos
The medieval casbah at Jarma, Libya
The Bronze / Iron Age Migdol (Fortress) temple at Pella, Jordan
Pahlavan Mahmoud Tomb, Khiva, Uzbekistan
External links
Publications
2008 – Thomas, D.C., Kidd, F.J., Nikolovski and C. Zipfel: The Archaeological Sites of Afghanistan in Google Earth. Aerial Archaeology Research Group News 37
2007 – ‘Old Men of the Mountains’: a comparative study of the Ghūrids and the Ismā‘īlīs of Alamūt. Journal of Historical and European Studies, 1, 7-21.
2007 – Kilise Tepe Surface Collection, in J.N. Postgate, & D.C. Thomas (eds.), Excavations at Kilise Tepe, 1994-98: From Bronze Age to Byzantine in western Cilicia. Cambridge / London: MIAR / BIAA, 45-62.
2007 – Postgate, J.N. & D.C. Thomas. Level II: the end of the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, in J.N. Postgate, & D.C. Thomas (eds.), Excavations at Kilise Tepe, 1994-98: From Bronze Age to Byzantine in western Cilicia. Cambridge / London: MIAR / BIAA, 121-164.
2007 – J.N. Postgate, & D.C. Thomas (eds.), Excavations at Kilise Tepe, 1994-98: From Bronze Age to Byzantine in western Cilicia. Cambridge / London: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research / British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara.
2007 – Lovell, J.L., D.C. Thomas, H. Miller, K. Wesselingh, A. Kurzawska, I.K. McRae, C. Elias, E. Obeidat and A. Abu Shmeis (with a contribution by L. Weeks). The third preliminary report of the Wādī Rayyān Archaeological Project: the second season of excavations at el Khawārij. Annual of the Department of Antiquities, Jordan 51, 103-140.
2007 – Fīrūzkūh: the summer capital of the Ghurids, in A.K. Bennison and A.L. Gascoigne (eds.) Cities in the pre-modern Islamic world: the urban impact of religion, state and society. London: SOAS / Routledge Studies on the Middle East, 115-144.
2007 – Mattingly, D.J., D.C. Thomas, J. Meadows, R. Pelling, J.N. Dore and D. Edwards, AMS and Radiometric Radiocarbon Dates from the CMD Work and FP, in D.J. Mattingly (ed.) The Archaeology of Fazzan, Volume 2, 294-302.
2006 – Thomas, D.C., K. Deckers, M.M. Hald, M. Holmes, M. Madella and K. White. Environmental Evidence from the Minaret of Jam Archaeological Project, Afghanistan. Iran 44, 253-76.
2006 – Thomas, D.C. & A. Gascoigne. Recent Archaeological Investigations of Looting around the Minaret of Jam, Ghur Province, in J. van Krieken-Pieters (ed.) Art and Archaeology of Afghanistan: its Fall and Survival. A Multi-disciplinary Approach. Leiden: E.J. Brill. 155-67.
2006 – Lovell, J.L., J. Meadows, T.J. Adams, D.C. Thomas, T. Richter, H. Miller, C. Elias, I.K. McRae and M. al Balwaneh (with a contribution from L. Weeks) 2006. The second preliminary report of the Wadi Rayyan Archaeological Project: the first season of excavations at el Khawarij. Annual of the Department of Antiquities, Jordan 50: 33-59.
2006 – Archaeological Investigations at Jam, Afghanistan. al-‘Usur al-Wusta, 18/1, 1-6.
2005 – Nobody gets off scot-free – a review of Thieves of Baghdad. Culture Without Context 17 (Autumn 2005). Available from: http://www.mcdonald.cam.ac.uk/projects/iarc/culturewithoutcontext/issue17/thomas_bogdanos_review.htm
2005 – Thomas, D.C., G. Pastori & I. Cucco: The Minaret of Jam Archaeological Project. Antiquity 79/303 On-line Project Gallery - http://antiquity.ac.uk/ProjGall/thomas/index.html
2004 – Looting, heritage management and archaeological strategies at Jam, Afghanistan. Culture Without Context 14 (Spring 2004), 16-20. Available from http://www.mcdonald.cam.ac.uk/iarc/culturewithoutcontext/issue14/thomas.htm
2004 – Thomas, D.C., G. Pastori & I. Cucco Excavations at Jam, Afghanistan. East and West 54 (Nos 1-4) pp. 87-119.
2004 – Khozhaniyazov, G.Kh., S.W. Helms & D.C. Thomas. An investigation in Southern Karakalpakstan (in Russian: Khozhaniyazov, G., Helms, S. U., Kolin, T. D.: Issledovaniya v Yuzhnom Karakalpakstane, Arkheologicheskie issledovaniya v Uzbekistane 2003 godu), in Shirinov T.Sh. (ed.) Archaeological investigations in Uzbekistan – 2003. Tashkent, 112-114.
2003 – Wells as Signatures of Social Change in the Ancient Near East / North Africa. Assemblage 7 - http://www.shef.ac.uk/assem/issue7/thomas.html
2001 – Mattingly, D.J., Brooks, N., Cole, F., Dore, J., Drake, N., Leone, A., Hay, S., McLaren, S., Newson, P., Parton, H., Pelling, R., Preston, J., Reynolds, T., Scrüfer-Kolb, I., Thomas, D., Tindall, A., Townsend, A. & White, K.: The Fezzan Project 2001: Preliminary report on the fifth season of work. Libyan Studies 32 pp. 133-53
2000 – D.J. Mattingly, et al.: The Fezzan Project II: preliminary report on the 1998 season. Libya Antiqua ns 4 [2000] pp. 219-49.
1999 – Mattingly, D.J., al-Mashai, M., Balcombe, P., Drake, N., Knight, S., McLaren, S., Pelling, R., Reynolds, T., Thomas, D., Wilson, A.I. and White, K.: The Fezzan Project, 1999: preliminary report on the third season of work. Libyan Studies 30 pp. 129-145.
1998 – Mattingly, D.J., al-Mashai, M., Aburgheba, H., Balcombe, P., Eastaugh, E., Gillings, M., Leone, A., McLaren, S., Owen, P., Pelling, R., Reynolds, T., Stirling, L., Thomas, D., Watson, D., Wilson, A.I. and White, K.: The Fezzan Project, 1998: preliminary report on the second season of work. Libyan Studies 29 pp. 115-144.
1998 – Barker, G.W., Adams, R., Creighton, O.H., Gilbertson, D.D., Grattan, J.P., Hunt, C.O., Mattingly, D.J., McLaren, S.J., Mohamed, H.A., Newson, P., Reynolds, T.E.G., Thomas, D.C.: Environment and Land Use in the Wadi Faynan, Southern Jordan: the Second Season of Geoarchaeology and Landscape Archaeology (1997). Levant XXX pp. 5-26
1997 – Computing and Archaeology in Jordan. Assemblage 2 - http://www.shef.ac.uk/assem/2/2thomas.html
1997 – Barker, G.W., O.H. Creighton, D.D. Gilbertson, C.O. Hunt, D.J. Mattingly, S.J. McLaren and D.C. Thomas: The Wadi Faynan Project, Southern Jordan: a Preliminary Report on Geomorphology and Landscape Archaeology. Levant XXIX pp. 19-40.
1995 – Baker, H.D., D. Collon, J.D. Hawkins, T. Pollard, J.N. Postgate, D. Symington & D. Thomas, Kilise Tepe 1994, Anatolian Studies XLV pp. 137-92.
In press – Creating a Nimrud Database. Papers from the Nimrud Conference, 2002, in J.E. Curtis, H. McCall, D. Collon and L. Al-Gailani Werr (eds), New Light on Nimrud – proceedings of the Nimrud conference 11th-13th March 2002. London: BISI / British Museum.