Jonathan Thomas
Background:
I am an archaeologist interested in how the organization of production of material culture reflects social practices, and the relationship between personal and group styles. My work is focused on different strategies of craft production in the Southwestern Iberian Peninsula during the Late Neolithic, a region which provides an excellent opportunity to monitor nascent specialization and social complexity in Western Europe at this time, and more broadly in terms of prehistory. My fieldwork has been based in the Portuguese Estramadura and Alentejo.
I am particularly interested in the production of Late Neolithic Iberian slate plaques.
(http://research2.its.uiowa.edu/iberian/index.php). Morphometric analysis of experimental replica plaques has shed some light on the variables which help to distinguish the work of different individuals.
This research will hopefully be useful in understanding plaque production, standardization, and the scale of specialization in Iberia at this time, and suggest ways to approach the relationship between individual skill and formal styles in the archaeological record.
My wife Heather and I had our first child, Sina Kay Thomas, on August 1st.
