Biography

At Wollongong University John completed a BSc (1983) and a Dip.Ed. (1985). From Macquarie University he has received a MA in Egyptology (2008) and Research Preparation (2010), followed by a PhD in 2020. His PhD dissertation concerned changes in resource acquisition practices in the face of climate change during the latter stages of  Egypt’s Old Kingdom. This work was greatly aided by his initial training in the ecological sciences. John has undertaken fieldwork at several sites relating to the late Old Kingdom.

Since 2020, John has been investigating the role that landscape has had upon the development of local history at sites significant to the history the late Old Kingdom and First Intermediate periods of ancient Egypt.

Research Interest: "History through the Lens of the Landscape." 

John believes that too many studies of societal change focus on the history that occurred with too little emphasis on the environment in which it too place.  Since geography shapes the landscape, and ecology fills it, then the history that happened in it must have been influenced by those factors. His studies aim to incorporate a landscape-oriented approach to the history that developed.