Tutor: Archaeology 1A and 1B, 2025-2026.

My research here at Edinburgh focuses on the technological and social histories of trumpet-horns across EWANA (Europe, West Asia, North Africa) over the last millennia, from the medieval to contemporary periods. My work explores how to connect the material and contextual histories of these instruments, and aims to explain why different forms of instrument appear in different social-historical contexts, the central research question being why trumpet-horns across EWANA exhibited remarkable similarity in design during the medieval period but in the subsequent millennium were developed in vastly different trajectories in different areas. I explore this by: 1) documenting the technological design features of instruments across this study area and period using a fluid attribute-based method rather than traditional typologies or taxonomies; 2) surveying historical and social contextual information about the environments in which different instruments are made and used; and 3) connecting these histories by interpreting instruments as embodied technologies or tools which people consciously create and use to reproduce socially and artistically meaningful actions. The methods employed involve surveying collections of musical instruments and documenting material and technological attributes in a statistically comparable format; designing experiments with historical and reproduction instruments to record their experiential and phenomenological aspects; and compiling historical and ethnographic surveys with interviews with players and manufacturers to document the contexts in which these instruments are made and used.

The outcomes of this research include a thorough documentation of brass instrument design histories, including filling in existing gaps in the history and documenting instruments in under-represented collections from around the study area, with a goal to share this information in a publicly accessible format. Additionally, I aim to enhance embodied and experience-based approaches to historical instruments by exploring avenues in accessible reproduction as it relates to key points in my research: currently I am developing methodologies in 3d modelling and printing reproductions of historical instruments and aim to make these models publicly available as well.

Contextualising this research, my general interests include instrument-centred studies of music history, culture and practice, and the use of musical instruments as windows into broader social, political, religious, economic, and conflict history. I particularly enjoy exploring the archaeology and music of 9th-21st century societies across Europe, North and East Africa, and West and Central Asia, especially the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean worlds. This intersects with my background as a composer through historically- and ethnographically-inspired composition, performance and improvisation. Additionally, I am especially interested in the relations between Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities across this area, and the potential for social, historical and musical research in political action and contemporary problem-solving. Besides musical instruments, other material culture that I like working with includes weaponry, numismatics, architecture, mechanical technologies, and space satellites.

I would be very happy to connect with anyone through the worlds of musical instruments, early music, ethnomusicology, Islamic and medieval archaeology, and archaeological fieldwork in the aforementioned areas.