Faculty/Staff Detail
Sharon Steadman
My main research and fieldwork area has been the Middle East, where I have carried out significant archaeological and ethnographic fieldwork in Cyprus, Jordan, Israel, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Türkiye. I currently direct the Çadır Höyük archaeological project in central Türkiye. The site has 6000 years of continuous occupation spanning the period from the late 6th millennium BCE to the 14th century CE. Students regularly accompany me to carry out fieldwork at my site there. We are currently studying the impact of rapid climate change on ancient and present-day rural farmers. My other research areas include the investigation of ancient socioeconomic structures, the archaeology of architecture, and the archaeology of religion. I am also engaged in ethnographic research in India, and am the faculty mentor for our study abroad program there (at St. Aloysius University, Mangaluru).
Education
B.A.: University of California, Santa Barbara, dual majors in Classical Archaeology (Late Bronze Emphasis) and Comparative Literature (Ancient Greek and Ancient Hebrew)
M.A.: University of California, Berkeley, Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology (Departments of Anthropology and Near Eastern Studies)
Ph.D.: University of California, Berkeley, Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology (Departments of Anthropology and Near Eastern Studies)
Teaching
Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Anthropology of Gender
Introduction to Museum Studies
Archaeology of Religion
Peoples of the Middle East
Peoples of Central and South Asia
Anthropology of Power
Internships in the Brooks Museum and Archaeology Lab
Publications
Selected Books:
Candelora, D. and S.R. Steadman (eds.), Forthcoming 2024, A Cultural History of Gender Volume I: Early Global Civilizations (<800 BCE), Bloomsbury Press.
Steadman, S.R. 2024 The Archaeology of Religion: Cultures and their Beliefs in Worldwide Context. 2nd edition. Routledge.
Laneri, Nicola and S.R. Steadman (eds.), 2023, Material Religion in the Ancient Near East and Egypt. Bloomsbury Press.
Battini, L., A.B. Brody, and S.R. Steadman (eds.), 2022, Eastern Houses and Households. Archaeopress,
Ross, J.C. and S.R. Steadman, 2017, Ancient Complex Societies: An Archaeology of Civilization. Routledge.
Steadman, S.R. 2015, Archaeology of Architecture and the Human Use of Space. Routledge.
Steadman, S.R. and G. McMahon (eds.)2011, Handbook of Anatolian Studies (8,000-332 BCE), edited by Sharon R. Steadman and Gregory McMahon, Oxford University Press. (Second edition/paperback in 2015)
Selected Articles and Chapters:
Hackley, L.D., B. Yıldırım, and S.R. Steadman, 2021 “Not Seeing is Believing: Ritual Practice and Architecture at Chalcolithic Çadır Höyük, Anatolia.” Religions 12(8): https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12080665
Yıldırım, B. and S.R Steadman, 2021 “Chalcolithic Religion and Ritual on the Anatolian Plateau,” in The Archaeology of Anatolia Volume IV: Recent Discoveries (2018-2020). Edited by S.R. Steadman and G. McMahon. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 370-393.
Steadman, S.R., L.D. Hackley, S. Selover, B. Yıldırım, M. von Baeyer, B. Arbuckle, R. Robinson, A. Smith, 2019 “Early Lives: The Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age at Çadır Höyük.” Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies 7.3: 271-98.
Steadman, S.R., G. McMahon, B.S. Arbuckle, M. von Baeyer, A. Smith, B. Yıldırım, L.D. Hackley, S. Selover, S. Spagni, 2019 “Stability and Change at Çadır Höyük in Central Anatolia: A Case of Late Chalcolithic Globalisation?” Anatolian Studies 69: 21-57.
Yıldırım, B., L.D. Hackley, and S.R. Steadman, 2018 “Sanctifying the House: Child Burial in Prehistoric Anatolia.” Near Eastern Archaeology 81.3: 164-73.
Steadman, S.R., B.S. Arbuckle and G. McMahon, 2018 “Pivoting East: Çadır Höyük, Transcaucasia, and Complex Connectivity in the Late Chalcolithic.” Documenta Praehistorica 45: 64-85.
Hackley, L.D., S.L. Selover, and S.R. Steadman, 2018 “The Persistence of Social and Spatial Memory at Prehistoric Çadır Höyük.” International Journal of the Constructed Environment 9.4 (2018): 1-20
Grants
John Templeton Foundation Grant, 2022-2025
US Embassy in Ankara Ambassador Grant, 2021
National Science Foundation Grant 2000–2002, 2011-2014
Brennan Foundation Award for Archaeological Research, 2014
Loeb Classical Library Research Grant, 2008
Dumbarton Oaks Grant, 2005, 2006, 2008
Foundation for the Exploration and Research of Cultural Origins Grant, 1999