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Zahraniční postdoc
Konzultační hodiny – Consulting hours
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I am an anthropological archaeologist specialising in ceramic technology, the organisation of production, and ancient fingerprints (palaeodermatoglyphics). I received my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in archaeology from the University of Sheffield and completed my doctorate in anthropology at the University of Manitoba. At its core, my work is concerned with how crafted clay artefacts preserve the otherwise lost histories of labour, social life, and human experience. By combining ceramic analysis, experimental archaeology, and forensic biometry, my current Primus project explores how traces of touch preserved in clay can illuminate embodied labour and the social worlds of ancient craftspeople. To date, most of my work has focused on early urbanism, state formation, and the emergence of kingdoms in the Levant through the lens of pottery production and technostylistic analysis. My doctoral thesis specialised in chaîne opératoire research on Early Bronze Age ceramics from Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath, while subsequent postdoctoral work expanded these interests to other key sites, including a Canaanite cultic enclosure and Judean border fort at Tel Burna, and the Early Bronze Age megasite of Qedesh in the Galilee highlands.
My research bridges archaeology, material science, forensic science, and the history of labour. When preserved, fingerprints baked into ceramic surfaces offer a valuable, albeit partial, window into the individuals engaged in production and the composition of the workforce. They provide a direct and personal connection with ancient producers, making it possible to test long-standing assumptions surrounding task specialisation, the division of labour, and craft learning (transmission of technological knowledge). More broadly, my research seeks to contribute toward a more human-centred understanding of craft production and the social lives of past communities.
I also enjoy life as an active field archaeologist, instructor, and supervisor, with excavation experience across the Canadian Shield, England, and the Near East on sites ranging from the Palaeolithic to the Medieval periods. Poppy, my loyal fieldwork companion and resident morale officer, is a lively dog and occasionally joins me on these excavations.
Ross, Jon. 2026. Distorted touch: clay shrinkage experiments and the challenge of fingerprint analysis. Journal of Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 18: 114. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-026-02460-2
Ross, Jon., Kent D. Fowler, and Matthew J. Adams. 2025. Fingerprints on Early Bronze Age pottery from Megiddo: A pilot study using high precision silicone impression materials. In Economies of Scale: The Archaeology of Emerging Complex Societies of the Old World. Studies in Honour of Haskel J. Greenfield, edited by J. Beller, T. Greenfield, and K. Fowler, pp. 79-81. Oxford: BAR.
Ross, Jon and Itzhaq Shai. 2024. Figurines and their makers from a Canaanite cultic enclosure at Tel Burna. Special issue on the archaeology of cult and religion. ‘Atiqot 116: 43-76.
Ross, Jon, Shira Albaz, Haskel J. Greenfield, and Aren M. Maeir. 2024. Ceramic platters at Early Bronze Age Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath: An integrated chaîne opératoire approach. Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies 12(3): 298-325. https://doi.org/10.5325/jeasmedarcherstu.12.3.0298
Ross, Jon, Kent Fowler, and Itzhaq Shai. 2023. New fingerprint evidence for female potters in Late Bronze Age Canaan: The demographics of potters and division of labour at Tel Burna. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 71:101533.
Ross, Jon, Haskel J. Greenfield, Kent D. Fowler and Aren M. Maeir. 2020. In search of Early Bronze Age potters at Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath: A new perspective on vessel manufacture for discriminating chaînes opératoires. Special edition volume on the chaîne opératoire past, present, and future. Archaeology Review Cambridge 35(1): 74-89.
Fowler, Kent D., Jon Ross, Elizabeth Walker, Christian Barritt-Cleary, Haskel J. Greenfield, and Aren M. Maeir. 2020. Fingerprint evidence for the division of labour and learning pottery-making at Early Bronze Age Tell es-Sâfi/Gath, Israel. PLoS ONE 15(4). 10.1371/journal.pone.0231046.
Fowler, Kent D., Elizabeth Walker, Jon Ross, Haskel J. Greenfield, and Aren M. Maeir. 2019. The identity of potters in early states: Determining the age and sex of fingerprints on Early Bronze Age pottery from Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath, Israel. Journal of Anthropological Method and Theory 26(4): 1470-1512. DOI: 10.1007/s10816-019-09419-9
Ross, Jon, Kent D. Fowler, Itzick Shai, Haskel J. Greenfield and Aren M. Maeir. 2018. A scanning method for the identification of pottery forming techniques at the mesoscopic scale: A pilot study on the manufacture of Early Bronze Age III holemouth jars and platters from Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath. Journal of Archaeological Science Reports 18: 551-56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2018.01.036
04/2026 PI on Primus Postdoctoral Grant, Charles University
Project: Tracing the Workforce: Fingerprints and Pottery Production in the Levant from Egyptian rule to Iron Age Kingdoms
04/2024 Lady Davis Fellowship, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Project: Metallic Ware and Early Urban Complexity at Qedesh in the Early Bronze Age
03/2024 Franklin Research Grant, American Philosophical Society
Project: Profiling the people behind the pots: Judahite fingerprints from an Iron Age border fortress at Tell en-Nasbeh
04/2021 Postdoctoral Fellowship on the Tel Burna Excavation Project
Project: The social organisation of pottery production at a Canaanite cultic enclosure
02/2020 Albright Institute / Palestine Exploration Fund Joint Fellowship
01/2018 Honourable Philip S. Lee C.M., O.M. and Family Scholarship
06/2014 University of Manitoba Graduate Fellowship (UMGF)
01/2014 St Paul’s College Bursary, University of Manitoba
09/2013 Graduate Enhancement of Tri-Council Stipends, University of Manitoba (GETS)
09/2013 International Student Graduate Entrance Award
2023 Best Paper in Levant Journal
2022 Minerva Foundation Conference Travel Award
2021 Top Graduating PhD Student Award in Anthropology, Canadian Anthropology Society
2021 University of Manitoba Distinguished Thesis Award
2014 to 2021 Dean’s Honour Roll, St Paul’s College, University of Manitoba
2018 Professional Development Fund. Faculty of Arts
2017 Royal Bank of Canada Emerging Scholar, Winnipeg Spur Festival
2017 Anthropology Thesis Write-Up Award, University of Manitoba
2016 University of Toronto Conference Travel Award
2013 International Citizen Service Award, International Service
2012 Petrie Watson Exhibition Award, University of Sheffield
2012 Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society Award
2011 Bible Society Prize for the best dissertation, University of Sheffield
2026 – MA supervisor for Pavel Šandera
2023 – D. supervisor for Katja Eppelbaum
2020 Sessional Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, University of Winnipeg
ANTH 2221 Archaeology of the Ancient Near East
2018 – 2020 Sessional Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, University of Manitoba
ANTH 1210 Human Origins and Antiquity, University of Manitoba
2016 – 2019 Tutor/Mentor, teaching assistantships, marker, and invigilator at the University of Manitoba
2014 – 2017 Archaeological field school instructor for Prof. Haskel Greenfield, Near Eastern and Biblical Archaeology Laboratory, University of Manitoba
2025– Peer Reviewer for Springer Nature (Journal of Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences) and editor for Open Quaternary