People_
Dr Melissa Kennedy
BA Hons (I), PhD
Lecturer in Archaeology
Melissa Kennedy is a Lecturer in Archaeology. Her research interests lie in the Holocene landscapes of the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula. More specifically, her works examines the socio-cultural impacts of ancient climate change, ceramics, and architectural monumentality in the Middle Holocene of Western Asia.
Melissa is the co-director of the Prehistoric AlUla and Khaybar Excavation Project (PAKEP).
She is exploring the shifting landscapes of architectural monumentality in the Middle Holocene of Saudi Arabia, with particularly emphasis on the mustatil tradition.
Her work is also focused on exploring the social and cultural impacts of the end of the Holocene Humid Period in northwest Arabia.
Melissa’s research is also focused on exploring the social and cultural impacts of the 4.2 kyr BP ‘climatic event’ on the Levant and northern Arabia in the 3rd millennium BCE.
She is also interested in cultural hybridisation and documenting cultural boundaries and interaction spheres in antiquity.
ARCO1001 – Civilisations of the Ancient World
| Project title | Research student |
|---|---|
| Northern Arabia Mobile Pastoralism | Jacek WANKOWSKI |
Selected publications
A Land In-between: The Orontes Valley in the Early Urban Age
(Sydney University Press, 2020)
Publications
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Books
- Kennedy, M. (2015). The Late Third Millennium BCE in the Upper Orontes Valley, Syria: Ceramics, Chronology and Cultural Connections. Leuven: Peeters Publishers.
Edited Books
- Kennedy, M. (2020). A Land In-between: The Orontes Valley in the Early Urban Age. Sydney: Sydney University Press.
Book Chapters
- Helms, S., Kennedy, M., Betts, A. (2023). Tell Um Hammad in the Early Bronze IV Period (forthcoming). Festschrift for Jonathan Tubb. London: The British Museum Press.
- Kennedy, M. (2020). Developing Horizons of Cultural Connectivity: North-South Interactions and Interconnections during the EB IV. In Suzanne Richard (Eds.), New Horizons in the Study of the Early Bronze III and Early Bronze IV in the Levant, (pp. 327-346). Winona Lakes: Eisenbrauns.
- Kennedy, M. (2020). Early Urbanism in the EB III of the Upper Orontes, Syria: Ceramics, Chronology and Foreign Relations. In Suzanne Richard (Eds.), New Horizons in the Study of the Early Bronze III and Early Bronze IV in the Levant, (pp. 31-50). Winona Lakes: Eisenbrauns.
Journals
- Kennedy, M., Strolin, L., McMahon, J., Franklin, D., Flavel, A., Noble, J., Swift, L., Nassr, A., Fallon, S., Thomas, H. (2023). Cult, herding, and ‘pilgrimage’ in the Late Neolithic of north-west Arabia: Excavations at a mustatil east of AlUla. PloS One, 18(3 March). [More Information]
- Repper, R., Kennedy, M., McMahon, J., Boyer, D., Dalton, M., Thomas, H., Kennedy, D. (2022). Kites of AlUla County and the Harrat 'Uwayrid, Saudi Arabia. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy. [More Information]
- Dalton, M., McMahon, J., Kennedy, M., Repper, R., Al Shilali, S., AlBalawi, Y., Boyer, D., Thomas, H. (2022). The Middle Holocene 'funerary avenues' of north-west Arabia. The Holocene, 32(3), 183-199. [More Information]
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Expand all
2023
- Kennedy, M., Strolin, L., McMahon, J., Franklin, D., Flavel, A., Noble, J., Swift, L., Nassr, A., Fallon, S., Thomas, H. (2023). Cult, herding, and ‘pilgrimage’ in the Late Neolithic of north-west Arabia: Excavations at a mustatil east of AlUla. PloS One, 18(3 March). [More Information]
- Helms, S., Kennedy, M., Betts, A. (2023). Tell Um Hammad in the Early Bronze IV Period (forthcoming). Festschrift for Jonathan Tubb. London: The British Museum Press.
2022
- Repper, R., Kennedy, M., McMahon, J., Boyer, D., Dalton, M., Thomas, H., Kennedy, D. (2022). Kites of AlUla County and the Harrat 'Uwayrid, Saudi Arabia. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy. [More Information]
- Dalton, M., McMahon, J., Kennedy, M., Repper, R., Al Shilali, S., AlBalawi, Y., Boyer, D., Thomas, H. (2022). The Middle Holocene 'funerary avenues' of north-west Arabia. The Holocene, 32(3), 183-199. [More Information]
- Dalton, M., McMahon, J., Kennedy, M., Repper, R., Al Shilali, S., AlBalawi, Y., Boyer, D., Thomas, H. (2022). The Middle Holocene ‘funerary avenues’ of north-west Arabia. The Holocene, 32(3), 183-199. [More Information]
2021
- Kennedy, M., McMahon, J., Hugh, T., David, B., Repper, R., Dalton, M., AlKhaldi, K. (2021). Dating the 'Pendant' Burials of Northwest Arabia: First Radiometric Results from the Khaybar Oasis, Saudi Arabia. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy, 32(S1), 183-197. [More Information]
- Hugh, T., Kennedy, M., McMahon, J., Strolin, L., Franklin, D., Flavel, A., Noble, J., Swift, L. (2021). Monumentality, Social Memory, and Territoriality in Neolithic-Chalcolithic Northwestern Arabia. Journal of Field Archaeology, 46(4), 239-259. [More Information]
- Hugh, T., Kennedy, M., Dalton, M., McMahon, J., Boyer, D., Repper, R. (2021). The mustatils: cult and monumentality in Neolithic north-western Arabia. Antiquity, 95(381), 605-626. [More Information]
2020
- Kennedy, M. (2020). A Land In-between: The Orontes Valley in the Early Urban Age. Sydney: Sydney University Press.
- Kennedy, M. (2020). Developing Horizons of Cultural Connectivity: North-South Interactions and Interconnections during the EB IV. In Suzanne Richard (Eds.), New Horizons in the Study of the Early Bronze III and Early Bronze IV in the Levant, (pp. 327-346). Winona Lakes: Eisenbrauns.
- Kennedy, M., Badreshany, K., Philip, G. (2020). Drinking on the periphery: the Tell Nebi Mend goblets in their regional and archaeometric context. Levant, 52(1-2), 103-135. [More Information]
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2016
- Thomas, H., Kennedy, M. (2016). A new methodology for accurate digital planning of archaeological sites without the aid of surveying equipment. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 10, 887-892. [More Information]
- Kennedy, M. (2016). The end of the 3rd millennium BC in the Levant: New perspectives and old ideas. Levant, 48(1), 1-32. [More Information]
2015
- Kennedy, M. (2015). Assessing the Early Bronze-Middle Bronze Age Transition in the Southern Levant in light of a Transitional Ceramic Vessel from Tell Umm Hammad, Jordan. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 373, 199-216. [More Information]
- Kennedy, M. (2015). EB IV Stone-Built Cist Burials from Sir Flinders Petrie's Excavations at Tell el-Ajjul. Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 147(2), 104-129. [More Information]
- Kennedy, M. (2015). Life and Death at Tell Umm Hammad: A Village Landscape of the Southern Levantine EB IV. Deutscher Palaestina-Verein. Zeitschrift, 131, 1-28.
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In the media
Print media
- Enigmatic ruins across Arabia hosted ancient ritual sacrifices, The Conversation, Melissa Kennedy and Hugh Thomas, 16 March 2023.
- The Mysteries of the Mustatils, AramcoWorld, Graham Chandler, March 2023.
- 7,000-year-old cult site in Saudi Arabia was filled with human remains and animal bones, LiveScience, Ben Turner, 18 March 2023.
- These mysterious stone structures in Saudi Arabia are older than the pyramids, NBC News, Tom Metcalfe, 1 May 2021.
Television
- Documentary: The Architects of Ancient Arabia, Discovery Channel, 2021.
- Archaeologists uncover earliest evidence of domesticated dogs in Saudi Arabia, Sunrise Channel 7, 15 April 2021.