Dr William Deadman

Post Doctoral Research Associate 

What do you do?

I grew up in Oman and studied the Early Bronze Age of eastern Arabia during my undergraduate and postgraduate studies at Durham University. In 2017 I completed my PhD at the same institution, mapping and analysing the distribution of Bronze Age tombs using remote sensing and GIS.

I have participated in a number of research projects in the region, including as Assistant Director of the ‘Rustaq-Batinah Archaeological Survey’. I now work as a postdoctoral researcher for EAMENA at Durham University. 

How are you involved in this area of science? 

I am a postdoctoral researcher for the ‘Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa’ project at Durham University. I started working for the project on a casual basis after completing my PhD at Durham, helping to collate data on archaeological sites in Iraq, and was very pleased to secure a full-time job with the project in 2019.

My initial role was to design and deliver training courses to our partner heritage agencies in the Middle East, particularly focusing on GIS and remote sensing. After helping to deliver two rounds of this training my role shifted to spearheading the technical aspects of the Durham team’s heritage management, site prospection and condition assessment work in Iraq, Lebanon and Syria.  

What do you love about this topic?

Some of the work I have been most proud of for EAMENA includes assisting our Lebanese colleagues following the Beirut Blast, and leading on our photogrammetry work with historical aerial imagery. 

How does this work deliver real-world impact?

1. Passing archaeological data onto local heritage agencies to help safeguard sites.
2. Gathering data to enable future academic research.
3. Developing new technical methods and tools studying the past and protecting cultural heritage.
4. Empowering local heritage defenders across the Middle East to better protect their own cultural heritage.