Research

My academic training was in History (B.A.) and Ph.D. (1989) in Indo-European archaeology, which has allowed my research interests to be quite broad. I have excavated in Ireland, England, Germany, Kazakhstan, and for several years on the Russian Steppe presenting numerous papers at a variety of international conferences.  My work in Russia resulted in several papers and a monograph on bronze age steppe pottery– the first ever in English: Early and Middle Bronze Age Pottery from the Volga-Don Steppe. Oxford: BAR International Series 796.  The analysis of these pottery specimens and the graves in which they were found turned my interests to the differences in female and male graves specifically to female graves with weapons and elite burial goods. The study of female graves with weapons has made great advances since the development of DNA and consequently many graves that had been labeled male simply because they contained weapons have been reexamined often with surprising results.  These new findings along with historical accounts of women who have been military leaders led me to write Women and Warfare in the Ancient World: Myth, Legend and Reality, which appeared in 2024.

Along with the archaeology of the areas mentioned above, I’ve incorporated the mythology, and to a lesser degree, the linguistics that support these disciplines. Recently I have turned my interests to archaeology and its support of history particularly during the Anglo-Saxon period in Britain and specifically to the women of this era. Towards this end, I am currently writing a book tentatively entitled Anglo-Saxon Queens and Abbesses of the 7th and 8th Centuries.

Courses

  • European Archaeology: Proto-Civilizations of Europe – UCLA
  • An Introduction to Indo-European Archaeology & Linguistics – UCLA, team taught
  • European Archaeology in the Iron Age – UCLA
  • British and Irish Archaeology – UCLA Extension
  • Megaliths of Europe – UCLA Extension
  • Celtic Prehistory – UCLA Extension
  • Archaeology of the British Isles – UCLA Extension
  • European Bronze Age Archaeology (Guest Lecturer) – UCLA Language and Culture – California State University, Los Angeles English Language in America – California State University, Los Angeles
  • Roman History – Marlborough School, Los Angeles
  • World History – Marlborough School, Los Angeles
  • Medieval History – Marlborough School, Los Angeles
  • Renaissance History – Marlborough School, Los Angeles

Publications

Articles

  • 2014: Indo-European Queenship.  In: Eurasian Steppe: Bronze Age and Early Iron Age in the Eurasian Steppe and in Contiguous Territory. Papers in Honor of E. E. Kuz’mina. Novosibirsk: Izdatelstvo Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, 44–57.
  • 2012: Tall Hats:  Reaching to the Sky.  In: Steppe Cultural Relics. Selected paper from the 3rd International Conference on Turfan Studies, Turfan, China, October 2008, pp.110–14. [in Chinese]
  • 2009: Indo-European Archaeology: What it is and why it is important.  In: Departure from the Homeland: Indo-Europeans and Archaeology: Papers from the 12th European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) Annual Meeting, Krakow, Poland,19th to 20th September 2006. Marc Vander Linden and Karlene Jones-Bley (eds.). (JIES Monograph Series, 56), Washington, D.C.: Institute for the Study of Man, 1–26.
  • 2008: Arma Feminamque Cano: Warrior Women in the Indo-European World.  In:  Are all Warriors Male? Katheryn Linduff and Karen Rubinson (eds.).  Altamira Press: Lanham/New York/Toronto, 35–50.
  • 2006: Traveling to the Otherworld:  Transport in the Grave.  In: Anthropology of the Indo-European World and Material Culture, Marco V. García Quintela, Francisco J. González García, and Felipe Criado Boado (eds.). Budapest: Archaeolingua, 357–68.
  • 2006: The Evolution of the Chariot.  In: Horses and Humans: The Evolution of Human/Equine Relations. Sandra Olsen et al. (eds.). Oxford: BAR International Series 1560, 181–92.
  • 2006: Basal Motifs on Bronze Age Pottery across the Eurasian Steppe.  In: Ceramic Studies: Papers on the social and cultural significance of ceramics in Europe and Eurasia from prehistoric to historic times, Dragos Gheorghiu (ed.).  Oxford: BAR International Series 1553, 43–51.
  • 2003: Basal Motifs and Indo-European Ritual. Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference: Los Angeles, November, 2001. Karlene Jones-Bley, Martin E. Huld, Angela Della Volpe, and Miriam Robbins Dexter (eds.).  (JIES Monograph Series 47) Washington, D.C.: Institute for the Study of Man, 250–69.
  • 2002: Indo-European Burial, the Rig Veda, and the Avesta.  In: Complex Societies of Central Eurasia from the 3rd to the 1st Millennium BC. Karlene Jones-Bley and D.G. Zdanovich (eds.) (JIES Monograph Series 45), Washington, D.C.: Institute for the Study of Man, 68–81.
  • 2000: Steppe Burials and Their Western European Counterpart. In: Kurgans, Ritual Sites, and Settlements Eurasian Bronze and Iron Age. Jeannine Davis-Kimball, Eileen M. Murphy, Ludmila Koryakova, Leonid T. Yablonsky (eds.).  Oxford: BAR International Series 890, 126–34.
  • 2000: The Sintashta “Chariots.” In: Kurgans, Ritual Sites, and Settlements Eurasian Bronze and Iron Age. Jeannine Davis-Kimball, Eileen M. Murphy, Ludmila Koryakova, Leonid T. Yablonsky (eds.).  Oxford: BAR International Series 890, 135–40.
  • 1998: Celtic/Scythian Art Connection.  In: Papers from the EAA Third Annual Meeting at Ravenna 1997, Volume I: Pre- and Protohistory, Mark Pearce and Maurizio Tosi (eds.).  Oxford: BAR International Series 717, 97–103.
  • 1997: Zhenshchiny i voyna v indoevropeyskom mire.  [Women and war in the Indo-European World] STRamym: STRukmury i kama STRofy.  M.E. Tkachuk, I.V. Manzura, L.A. Mosionzhnik (eds.).  Sankt-Peterburg: Nestor, 67–72.  [in Russian]
  • 1997: Defining Indo-European Burial. In: Papers in Memory of Marija Gimbutas: Varia on the Indo-European Past. Miriam Robbins Dexter and Edgar Polomé (eds.). (JIES Monograph Series, No. 19), Washington, DC: Institute for the Study of Man, 194–221.
  • 1996: Nasledie stepnogo pogrebal’nogo obryada v bronzovom veke Evropy.  Drevchosti Volgo-Donskikh Stepey v Sisteme Vostochnoevropeyskogo Bronzovogo Veka. Volgograd: Peremena.  [The Legacy of Steppe Burial in Bronze Age Europe] Antiquities, Volga-Don Steppe in the Area of Eastern Europe in the Bronze Age, Volgograd:  Peremena], 6–9.  [in Russian]
  • 1993: An Archaeological Reconsideration of the Solar Mythology. Word 44(3):431–443.
  • 1993: Dva pogrebeniya katakombnoi kul’typy iz kurganov u c. Pervomayskogo. Drevchosti Volgo-Donskikh Stepey 3, Volgograd [Two Catacomb Culture Burials from Pervomyskiy Kurgans.]  Antiquities, Volga-Don Steppe 3, Volgograd], 21–27.  [in Russian]
  • 1991: The Earliest Indo-European Burial Tradition in Pre-Celtic Ireland. JIES 19(1&2):1–13.
  • 1990: ‘Fame that will live forever’—The Indo-European Tradition of Burial. JIES 18(1&2): 215–224.

Editing and Other Positions

  • 1997–2008: Chief Editor of the Proceedings of the Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference, co-editors: Martin Huld, Angela Della Volpe, and Miriam Robbins Dexter
  • 2007–2009: Editor, FAIES Bulletin
  • 2000–2014: Archaeology Book Review Editor, Journal of Indo-European Studies (JIES)
  • 1994–2022: Assistant Researcher, Indo-European Studies Program, UCLA