Lisa Maher

Lisa Maher is a faculty member in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, since 2012. She directs the Geoarchaeology and Southwest Asia Prehistory Laboratory, serves as Curator of Lithic Collections at the Hearst Museum of Anthropology, and is affiliated with the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Center for European Studies, and the University of Toronto’s Archaeology Center.

• Education: PhD in Anthropology from the University of Toronto (2005)
• Postdoctoral: Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellow (2005-2007), Arts and Humanities Research Council of Britain-funded Research Associate (2007-2011)

Her research investigates Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherer societies in the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa, focusing on human-environment interactions, transitions to food production, and landscape archaeology. She explores how climate change, technological innovation, and social networks influenced sedentism, population aggregation, and mortuary practices through material culture analysis.

Lisa’s recent publications address meat preservation techniques (2019), hut structures in Southwest Asia and Europe (2019), phytolith evidence for Neolithization (2016), and environmental dynamics in the Levant (2016). These works highlight her expertise in geoarchaeology, lithic analysis, and climate-society linkages over 20,000+ years.

Scientific Awards:

• Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellow (2005-2007)
• Arts and Humanities Research Council of Britain-funded Research Associate (2007-2011)

Lisa collaborates with institutions like the University of Toronto, University of Tulsa, and UNLV on projects in Jordan, Cyprus, and Hawaii. She contributes geoarchaeological expertise to regional studies in the Levant, Iran, and Kurdistan, emphasizing interdisciplinary methods and long-term landscape change.