Professor Cameron Petrie

Trinity College
  • Partner - Cambridge Heritage Research Centre
  • Head of Department - Archaeology
  • Director of Studies - Trinity College
Professor Cameron Petrie

About

I conduct research on the archaeology of India, Pakistan and Iran. I have been with the Department of Archaeology in Cambridge since 2005, when I became the Research Councils UK Fellow in South Asian and Iranian Archaeology, and was appointed as a lecturer in 2010, senior lecturer in 2014 and reader in 2016. Prior to coming to Cambridge I was the Katherine and Leonard Woolley Junior Research Fellow at Somerville College Oxford (2003-2006), and was appointed to that position after finishing my PhD at the University of Sydney (1998-2002).

Research

  • Archaeology of South Asia (India and Pakistan)
  • Archaeology of Iran
  • Analysis of ceramic production and distribution
  • Analysis of human and environment relationships

My research primarily focuses on the investigation of complex societies. I am particularly interested in the rise of complexity, the social and economic aspects of state formation, the impact that the growth of states and empires has on subjugated regions, and the relationships between humans and the environment. I have extensive field and research experience at archaeological sites dating from the Neolithic up to the medieval period in India, Pakistan and Iran, and co-direct projects in each of these countries.

I am presently involved in the following research projects in India, Iran and Pakistan:

  1. 2020-2023: Mapping Archaeological Heritage of South Asia
  2. 2018-2022: TIGR2ESS - India
  3. 2015-2021: TwoRains (ERC funded) - NW India
  4. 2007–2014: Land, Water and Settlement project - NW India
  5. 2006–2010: PAK-UK Pushkalavati archaeological research project—Bala Hisar at Charsadda
  6. 2002–present: Mamasani archaeological project, Mamasani district, Fars, Iran
  7. 1998–present: Bannu archaeological project, Bannu Basin, NWFP, Pakistan