Staff profile

I am an Assistant Professor in Archaeology on the Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa (EAMENA) Project.  EAMENA uses the remote sensing of satellite imagery to rapidly document and monitor archaeological sites across the MENA region.  Since 2018, I have been engaged in the development and delivery of EAMENA- Cultural Protection Fund (CPF) training with national heritage agencies, NGOs, and civil society groups in Lebanon, Iraq (including the KRI), Syria, Jordan, and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.  I have also been working with the Council for At Risk Academics (Cara) Syria Programme to support Syrian academics displaced during the conflict continue their research. These knowledge exchange projects have also led to the co-production of research with colleagues in Syria investigating the spatial and temporal context of damage to cultural heritage during conflict, and in Iraq documenting the destruction of Yazidi cultural heritage during Islamic State’s Genocide against the Yazidis.

I have extensive experience leading landscape surveys in Iran, Georgia, and Oman.  My PhD research, The Gorgan Plain of northeast Iran: a diachronic analysis of settlement and land use patterns relating to urban, rural and mobile populations on a Sasanian frontier, undertaken at Durham University as part of the Persia and its Neighbours Project.  It used data obtained from both modern and historical (CORONA) satellite imagery and field surveys to reconstruct long-term settlement and land use in the Iron Age through the Sasanian period (c. early-mid 1^st millennium BC – mid 1^st millennium AD) on the Gorgan Plain (NE Iran). My most recent fieldwork project was the Lagodekhi Survey (part of the GILAP project) in Georgia, and I continue to work with Durham colleagues on the Tell Koubba excavations in Lebanon. 

On the Rewriting World Archaeology Project, I supported early career researchers via one-to-one mentoring and knowledge exchange activities to develop publications for international peer-reviewed journals, as part of the Middle East leadership team.  More recently, I have delivered training for social sciences and humanities researchers from the South Caucasus in GIS and remote sensing methodologies supported by the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC), which brought together researchers from Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.

As part of the Steppe Sisters Network, I work with colleagues to connect women and underrepresented groups engaged in human sciences research in Central Asia and neighbouring regions (including the South Caucasus).  Our focus is on creating networking and mentoring opportunities and developing the foundations for equitable and sustainable international research partnerships.

Research Interests

·         Archaeological landscapes of SW Asia, Central Asia and the South Caucasus

·         Cultural heritage protection

·         Landscapes of empires

·         Water management in arid regions

·         The archaeology of mobile pastoral communities

·         GIS and remote sensing applications in archaeology

Esteem Indicators

2023: Chair of Decolonisation Committee, BANEA Steering Committee

2021: Member of the BANEA Steering Committee

2021: Chair of the Steppe Sisters Steering Committee

Chapter in book

• Hopper, K., Omrani Rekavandi, H., Ricci, A., Welton, L., Lawrence, D., & Philip, G. (2022). Sasanian landscapes of the Gorgan Plain: new insights from remote sensing and field survey. In E. Sauer, J. Nokandeh, & H. Omrani Rekavandi (Eds.), Ancient Arms Race: Antiquity's Largest Fortresses and Sasanian Military Networks of Northern Iran: A joint fieldwork project by the Iranian Center for Archaeological Research, the Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism and the University of E. Oxbow Books
• Fobbe, S., Navrouzov, N., Hopper, K., Khudida Burjus, A., Philip, G., Nawaf, M. G., Lawrence, D., Walasek, H., Birjandian, S., Hassan Ali, M., Rashidani, S., Salih, H., Sulaiman Qari, D., & Mishko, F. (2021). Cultural Heritage Destruction during the Islamic State's Genocide against the Yazidis. In J. Rehman, A. Shahid, & S. Foster (Eds.), The Asian Yearbook of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (111-114). Brill Academic Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004466180_006
• Hopper, K., Lawrence, D., Pitskhelauri, K., & Philip, G. (2020). Appendix III. Investigations of ancient canal systems in central and eastern Georgia. In E. Sauer, L. Chologauri, A. Gabunia, K. Hopper, D. Lawrence, E. MacDonald, M. Mashkour, F. Mowat, D. Naskidashvili, K. Pitskelauri, S. Priestman, L. Shumilovkikh, S. Simpson, A. Tiliakou, & et al. (Eds.), Dariali: the Caspian Gates' in the Caucasus from Antiquity to the Age of the Huns and the Middle Ages. The joint Georgian-British Dariali Gorge excavations & surveys 2013-2016 (937-954). Oxbow Books
• Hopper, K., Lawrence, D., Snape-Kennedy, L., Chologauri, L., Priestman, S., Pitskelauri, K., & Philip, G. (2020). Landscape investigations in the Dariali Pass, Georgia. In E. Sauer, L. Chologauri, A. Gabunia, K. Hopper, D. Lawrence, E. MacDonald, M. Mashkour, F. Mowat, D. Naskidashvili, K. Pitskelauri, S. Priestman, L. Shumilovkikh, S. Simpson, & A. E. A. Tiliakou (Eds.), Dariali: the Caspian Gates' in the Caucasus from Antiquity to the Age of the Huns and the Middle Ages. The joint Georgian-British Dariali Gorge excavations & surveys 2013-2016 (303-412). Oxbow Books
• Hopper, K., & Omrani Rekavandi, H. (2020). Investigating Mobile Pastoralist Landscapes in North East Iran: The Contribution of Remote Sensing. In D. Lawrence, M. Altaweel, & G. Philip (Eds.), New agendas in remote sensing and landscape archaeology in the Near East : studies in honour of Tony J. Wilkinson (94-108). Archaeopress
• Hopper, K., Anderson, W., & Robinson, A. (2018). Landscape Archaeology in Southern Caucasia: An Introduction. In W. Anderson, K. Hopper, & A. Robinson (Eds.), Landscape archaeology in Southern Caucasia : finding common ground in diverse environments. Workshop held at 10th ICAANE in Vienna, April 2016 (11-22). Austrian Academy of Sciences
• Hopper, K. (2017). Connectivity on a Sasanian frontier: Route Systems in the Gorgan Plain of North-East Iran. In E. W. Sauer (Ed.), Sasanian Persia : between Rome and the Steppes of Eurasia (126-150). Edinburgh University Press
• Hopper, K., & Kondo, Y. (2016). Surface Structures at Ad-Dariz South. In C. P. Thornton, C. M. Cable, & G. L. Possehl (Eds.), The Bronze Age Towers at Bat, Sultanate of Oman: Research by the Bat Archaeological Project 2007-12 (155-168). University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Philadelphia. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv2t4ct6.13
• Hopper, K., & Wilkinson, T. (2013). Population and Settlement Trends in Southwest Iran and Neighbouring Areas. In C. Petrie (Ed.), Ancient Iran and its Neighbours: Local developments and long-range interactions in the fourth millennium BC (35-50). British Institute of Persian Studies Archaeological Monographs Series. Oxbow Books
• Wilkinson, T. J., Rekavandi, H. O., Hopper, K., Priestman, S., Roustaei, K., & Galiatsatos, N. (2013). The Landscapes of the Gorgān Wall. In H. O. W. Rekavandi, J. S. Tony J. Nokandeh, & W. Eberhard (Eds.), Persia's Imperial Power in Late Antiquity: The Great Wall of Gorgan and the Frontier Landscapes of Sasanian Iran (24-132). Oxbow Books

Conference Paper

• Hopper, K., Rova, E., & Kvavadze, D. (2021, April). Kurgans, Churches and Karvasla: Preliminary results from the first two seasons of the Lagodekhi Archaeological Survey, Georgia. Presented at 12th International Congress on the Archeology of the Ancient Near East, Bologna, Italy
• Labbaf-Khaniki, M., Hopper, K., & Sauer, E. Fortifications and the Defensive Landscapes of Kalat (North-Eastern Iran)

Edited book

• Anderson, W., Hopper, K., & Robinson, A. (Eds.). (2018). Landscape Archaeology in Southern Caucasia: Finding Common Ground in Diverse Environments. Workshop held at 10th ICAANE in Vienna, April 2016. Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna

Journal Article

• Deadman, W. M., Jotheri, J., Hopper, K., Almayali, R., al-Luhaibi, A. A., & Crane, A. (2025). Locating al-Qadisiyyah: Mapping Iraq's most famous early Islamic conquest site. Antiquity, 99(403), Article e6. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2024.185
• Kassem, A. A., Hopper, K., Ibraheem, I. M., Hajj, H. E., Maier, A., Ali, A. A., & Richter, J. (2024). Assessment of the impact of the Syrian conflict on archaeological sites in the Daraa region. Levant, 56(3), 425-446. https://doi.org/10.1080/00758914.2024.2420409
• Fiori, S., Hopper, K., Rova, E., & Kvavadze, D. (2024). The kurgans of the Alazani Valley in Eastern Georgia: A new assessment via remote sensing and targeted field survey. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 57, Article 104659. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2024.104659
• Mamo, A. R., Ibraheem, I. M., Al Kassem, A., Al-Khalil, A., & Hopper, K. (2022). The impact of the Syrian conflict on archaeological sites in Al-Hasakah province. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 43, Article 103486. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2022.103486
• Garcia-Molsosa, A., Orengo, H. A., Lawrence, D., Philip, G., Hopper, K., & Petrie, C. (2021). Potential of deep learning segmentation for the extraction of archaeological features from historical map series. Archaeological Prospection, 28(2), 187-199. https://doi.org/10.1002/arp.1807
• Charbonnier, J., & Hopper, K. (2018). The Qanāt: a multidisciplinary and diachronic approach to the study of groundwater catchment systems in archaeology. Water History, 10(1), 3-11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12685-018-0214-9
• Jansen van Rensburg, J., & Hopper, K. (2017). Incense and imagery: mapping agricultural and water management systems on the island of Socotra, Yemen. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, 47, 129-138
• Shumilovskikh, L. S., Hopper, K., Djamali, M., Ponel, P., Demory, F., Rostek, F., Tachikawa, K., Bittmann, F., Golyeva, A., Guibal, F., Talon, B., Wang, L.-C., Nezamabadi, M., Bard, E., Lahijani, H., Nokandeh, J., Rekavandi, H. O., de Beaulieu, J.-L., Sauer, E., & Andrieu-Ponel, V. (2016). Landscape evolution and agro-sylvo-pastoral activities on the Gorgan Plain (NE Iran)in the last 6000 years. Holocene, 26(10 : special issue), 1676 - 1691. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683616646841
• Sauer, E., Pitskhelauri, K., Hopper, K., Tiliakou, A., Pickard, C., Lawrence, D., Diana, A., Kranioti, E., & Shupe, C. (2015). Northern outpost of the Caliphate: maintaining military forces in a hostile environment (the Dariali Gorge in the Central Caucasus in Georgia). Antiquity, 89(346), 885-904. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2015.80

Report

• Fobbe, S., Navrouzov, N., Hopper, K., Khudida Burjus, A., Philip, G., Nawaf, M. G., Lawrence, D., Walasek, H., Birjandian, S., Ali, M. H., Rashidani, S., Salih, H., & Qari, D. S. (2019). Destroying the Soul of the Yazidis: Cultural Heritage Destruction During the Islamic State's Genocide Against the Yazidis. [No known commissioning body]