Tony Wilkinson

Tony Wilkinson
Born	Tony James Wilkinson (1948-08-14)14 August 1948
Died
Other names	Tony J. Wilkinson T. J. Wilkinson
Citizenship	British
Fields	Landscape archaeology Ancient Near East
Institutions	British School of Archaeology in Iraq University of Chicago University of Edinburgh Durham University
Alma mater	Birkbeck, University of London McMaster University
Notable awards	Fellow of the British Academy (2008)

Tony James Wilkinson, FBA (14 August 1948 – 25 December 2014) was a British archaeologist and academic, specialising in landscape archaeology and the Ancient Near East. He was Professor of Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh from 2005 to 2006, and Professor of Archaeology at Durham University from 2006 to 2014.

Early life

Wilkinson was born on 14 August 1948 and was brought up in Essex, England. From 1966 to 1969, he studied geography at Birkbeck, University of London. He then undertook post-graduate study at McMaster University, Ontario, Canada. He graduated from there with a Master of Science (MSc) degree in 1972.

Academic career

Between 1989 and 1992, Wilkinson was the Assistant Director of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq. From 1995 to 2003, he worked at the University of Chicago, first as a research associate and then as an Associate Professor. During the 1990s, he founded the 'Center for Ancient Middle Eastern Landscapes' of the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago.

In 2003, he returned to the United Kingdom to become a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh. He was promoted to Professor of Archaeology in 2005. In 2006, he left Edinburgh to become Professor of Archaeology at Durham University. In addition to his research and teaching within the Department of Archaeology, he was involved with Durham's Institute of Advanced Study.

Wilkinson had undertaken archaeological surveys in northern Syria, Iran and northern Iraq. He worked with declassified CORONA satellite images to research ancient sites and landscapes of Upper Mesopotamia. He was director of the Land of Carchemish project investigating the surrounding landscape of Carchemish, a Bronze Age capital city.

Honours

Wilkinson received two awards for his monograph titled Archaeological Landscapes of the Near East: the Society for American Archaeology Book Award in 2004 and the James R. Wiseman Book Award by the Archaeological Institute of America in 2005. In 2008, he was elected Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the UK's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. In 2009, he was awarded the John Coles Medal for Landscape Archaeology by the British Academy. The medal is awarded biennially 'for distinguished achievements in landscape archaeology'.