Michael Brown

Dr. Michael Brown is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Principal Investigator (PI) at Heidelberg University, leading the DFG-funded 'Parthian Imperial Control and Local Agency in the Central Zagros Highlands' project since 2019. His research focuses on archaeological landscapes of Southwest Asia, integrating archaeological fieldwork with paleoenvironmental and textual data to study imperial geographies. He is based at the Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte und Vorderasiatische Archäologie and the Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies (HCTS).

Education:

• PhD in Archaeology (University of Edinburgh, 2012)
• MSc in Archaeology (University of Edinburgh, 2005)
• MSc in Brewing and Distilling (Heriot-Watt University, 2016)
• BA in Leisure and Tourism Resource Management (Prifysgol Bangor University, 2001)

Research Interests:

• Parthian-era settlements in the Zagros Mountains
• Imperial geographies and local agency
• Cypro-Anatolian Bronze Age landscapes
• Historical GIS and landscape archaeology

His work emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches, combining field archaeology with environmental and textual analysis.

Grant Projects:

• Eigene Stelle DFG Project (2019–2026)
• Gerda Henkel Stiftung-funded 'Rock-Reliefs of Iraqi Kurdistan' (2016–2019)
• 'Land of Carchemish' Project (British Academy, 2013–2014)

Fieldwork Focus: Rabana-Merquly settlement cluster in Iraqi Kurdistan, Carchemish (Syria), and Cyprus salt lake systems.