logo
Department of Archaeology
   
   
  

If you wish to get in touch with our administrative staff, please see the admin staff contact page.

Image of Lloyd Weeks

Lloyd Weeks

Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts

Contact

Research Summary

My current research has two main strands:

1) The Mamasani Archaeological Project: This strand of my research is focused upon Iran, and involves participation in a collaborative field project in the Mamasani District of highland Fars Province. This project incorporates field survey, excavation, materials analysis, and palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, and our aim is to understand the development of complex societies in the region from the Neolithic period through to the first millennium BC.

2) Ancient Metal Production and Exchange Systems: I am using scientific and archaeological analyses to investigate the development of copper-working and exchange systems in Iran in the period from roughly 6000-3000 BC. Iran was one of the heartlands of early metal technology, and this period witnessed the rise of the first complex societies in the region and the transition from native copper exploitation to the smelting of copper ores. I have also been studying Chalcolithic and Bronze Age metal artefacts from Jordan, and a Late Bronze Age metal hoard from Al-Midamman in Yemen.

Selected Publications

  • WEEKS, L., PETRIE, C.A. and POTTS, D.T., 2010. Ubaid-related-related? The ‘black-on-buff’ ceramic traditions of highland southwest Iran. In: CARTER R.A. and PHILIP, G., eds., The Ubaid and Beyond: Exploring the transmission of culture in the developed prehistoric societies of the Middle East Chicago: University of Chicago Oriental Institute Publications. 245-276 (In Press.)
  • WEEKS, L., ed., 2010. Death and Burial in Arabia and Beyond: Multidisciplinary Perspectives Oxford, Archaeopress. (In Press.)
  • WEEKS, L.R., KEALL, E., PASHLEY, V., EVANS, J. and STOCK, S., 2009. Lead isotope analyses of Bronze Age copper-base artefacts from Al-Midamman, Yemen: towards the identification of an indigenous metal production and exchange system in the southern Red Sea region Archaeometry. 51(4), 576-597

Past Research

My current research has two main strands:

1) The Mamasani Archaeological Project: This strand of my research is focused upon Iran, and involves participation in a collaborative field project in the Mamasani District of Fars Province, in the midst of the Zagros Mountains. This project incorporates field survey, excavation, materials analysis, and palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, and our aim is to understand the development of complex societies in the region from the Neolithic period through to the first millennium BC.

2) Ancient Metal Production and Exchange Systems: I am using scientific and archaeological analyses to investigate the development of copper-working and exchange systems in Iran in the period from roughly 6000-3000 BC. Iran was one of the heartlands of early metal technology, and this period witnessed the rise of the first complex societies in the region and the transition from native copper exploitation to the smelting of copper ores. I have also been studying Chalcolithic and Bronze Age metal artefacts from Jordan, and a Late Bronze Age metal hoard from Al-Midamman in Yemen.

My recent research has focused upon Arabia, including a conference on the burial archaeology of the Arabian Peninsula held at the British Museum, and a volume on metal production and exchange systems in the Persian Gulf region. The proceedings of the Death and Burial in Arabia conference have just been published in the Society for Arabian Studies Monograph Series (Weeks, ed., 2010) and incorporate 37 papers ranging from the Neolithic to the Islamic period. My metallurgical research incorporated compositional and lead isotope analyses of Bronze Age and Iron Age material from the southern shores of the Persian Gulf (including Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates), demonstrating the long-distance exchange of raw copper, tin, and alloyed copper-base artefacts throughout the region by the third millennium BC, and was published by Brill (Weeks 2003).

  • WEEKS, L., PETRIE, C.A. and POTTS, D.T., 2010. Ubaid-related-related? The ‘black-on-buff’ ceramic traditions of highland southwest Iran. In: CARTER R.A. and PHILIP, G., eds., The Ubaid and Beyond: Exploring the transmission of culture in the developed prehistoric societies of the Middle East Chicago: University of Chicago Oriental Institute Publications. 245-276 (In Press.)
  • ASGARI CHAVERDI, A., KHOSROWZADEH, A., MCCALL, B., PETRIE, C.A., SEYEDIN, M., WEEKS, L.R. and ZEIDI, M., 2010. Archaeological Evidence for Achaemenid Settlement within the Mamasani Valleys, Western Fars, Iran. In: CURTIS, J. and SIMPSON, ST.J., eds., The World of Achaemenid Persia I.B Tauris.
  • WEEKS, L., ed., 2010. Death and Burial in Arabia and Beyond: Multidisciplinary Perspectives Oxford, Archaeopress. (In Press.)
  • POTTS, D.T., ROUSTAEI, K., PETRIE, C.A. and WEEKS, L.R., eds., 2009. The Mamasani Archaeological Project Stage 1: A report on the first two seasons of the ICAR - University of Sydney expedition to the Mamasani Region, Fars Province, Iran Oxford: Archaeopress.
  • POTTS. D.T., ROUSTAEI, K., PETRIE, C.A. and WEEKS, L.R., 2009. The Mamasani district and the archaeology of southwestern Iran. In: POTTS. D.T., ROUSTAEI, K., PETRIE, C.A. and WEEKS, L.R., eds., The Mamasani Archaeological Project Stage One: A report on the first two seasons of the ICAR- University of Sydney expedition to the Mamasani District, Fars Province, Iran Oxford: Archaeopress. 1-16
  • WEEKS, L.R., KEALL, E., PASHLEY, V., EVANS, J. and STOCK, S., 2009. Lead isotope analyses of Bronze Age copper-base artefacts from Al-Midamman, Yemen: towards the identification of an indigenous metal production and exchange system in the southern Red Sea region Archaeometry. 51(4), 576-597
  • PETRIE, C.A., WEEKS, L.R., POTTS, D.T. and ROUSTAEI, K., 2009. Perspectives on the cultural sequence of Mamasani. In: POTTS, D.T., ROUSTAEI, K., PETRIE, C.A. and WEEKS, L.R., eds., The Mamasani Archaeological Project Stage 1: A report on the first two seasons of the ICAR- University of Sydney expedition to the Mamasani District, Fars Province, Iran Oxford: Archaeopress. 169-196
  • WEEKS, L., 2008. The 2007 early Iranian metallurgy workshop at the University of Nottingham Iran. 46, 335-345
  • WEEKS, L.R., 2007. Coals to Newcastle, Copper to Magan? Isotopic analyses and the Persian Gulf metals trade In: Metals and mines: studies in Archaeometallurgy: selected papers from the conference Metallurgy: A touchstone for Cross-cultural interaction held at the British Museum 28-30 April 2005 to celebrate the career of Paul Craddock during his 40 years at the British Museum. 89-96
  • WEEKS, L.R., ALIZADEH, K., NIAKAN, L., ALAMDARI, K., ZEIDI, M., KHOSROWZADEH, A. and MCCALL, B., 2006. The Neolithic settlement of highland SW Iran: new evidence from the Mamasani District Iran. 44, 1-31
  • WEEKS, L.R., ALIZADEH, K.S.., NIAKAN, L., ALAMDARI, K., KHOSROWZADEH, A. and ZEIDI, M., 2006. Excavations at Tol-e Nurabad. In: POTTS, D.T. and ROUSTAEI, K., eds., The Mamasani Archaeological Project Stage 1: A Report on the first two seasons of the ICAR-University of Sydney expedition to the Mamasani District, Fars Province, Iran Tehran: Iranian Center for Archaeological Research. 31-88
  • WEEKS, L.R. and COLLERSON, K.D., 2005. Archaeometallurgical Studies. In: The Early Dilmun Settlement at Saar 309-324
  • WEEKS, L.R., 2004. An analysis of Late Pre-Islamic copper-base artefacts from Ed Dur, U.A.E. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy. VOL 15(NUMBER 2), 240-252
  • WEEKS, L.R., 2003. Early metallurgy of the Persian Gulf: technology, trade, and the Bronze Age World. Boston: Brill..
  • WEEKS, L.R., 2003. Prehistoric Metallurgy in the U.A.E.: Bronze Age-Iron Age Transitions. In: Proceedings of the First Archaeological Conference on the U.A.E.: 115-21 London, Trident Press..
  • WEEKS, L.R., 2002. A recent archaeological survey on Soqotra. A report on the preliminary expedition season, Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy. 13, 95-125
  • MAGEE, P, THOMPSON, E, MACKAY, A and KOTTARAS, P. AND WEEKS, L.R., 2002. Further evidence of desert settlement complexity: report on the 2001 excavations at the Iron Age site of Muweilah, Emirate of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy. 13, 133-56
  • WEEKS, L.R., 2001. Index of Dates from Archaeological Sites in Queensland by Ulm, S. and Read, J Australian Archaeology. ISSU 53, 56
  • WEEKS, L.R., 2000. Copper, Bronze and Iron Objects in the Sharm Tomb Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy. 11(2), 180-98
  • WEEKS, L.R., 1999. Lead isotope analyses from Tell Abraq, United Arab Emirates: new data regarding the 'tin problem' in Western Asia Antiquity. VOL 73(NUMBER 279), 49-64
  • POTTS, D.T. AND WEEKS, L.R., 1999. An AMS Radiocarbon Chronology for the Late Umm an-Nar-Type Tomb at Tell Abraq Tribulus. 9(1), 9-10
  • WEEKS, L.R., 1997. Prehistoric Metallurgy at Tell Abraq, United Arab Emirates Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy. 8, 11-85
  • POTTS, D.T, WEEKS, L.R, MAGEE, P and THOMPSON, E. AND SMART, P., 1996. Husn Awhala: A Late Prehistoric settlement in southern Fujairah Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy. 7, 214-239

Department of Archaeology

University of Nottingham
University Park
Nottingham, NG7 2RD

Contact details