Dr Heather Jackson

Biography

Heather is researching the area of household archaeology in the Hellenistic Near East, with the aid of ARC funding for four years. Since 1995, she has been Field Director of an excavation of a whole insula of houses at Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates in North Syria and Co-Director, with Professor Graeme Clarke of ANU, Canberra, of the on-going Jebel Khalid campaigns, in which University of Melbourne students have been involved annually. Co-author of Greek Vases in the University of Melbourne (1999), Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates (2002), and the National Gallery of Victoria's Handbook of Antiquities (Dec. 2003). Two further volumes are in press: a monograph on the Terracotta Figurines of Jebel Khalid (Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates, vol. II), and a co-authored volume on the Pottery (Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates, Vol. III). She is currently working on the publication of the houses at Jebel Khalid and hopes to publish an associated database. Teaching has included Latin, Ancient Greek and Classical Studies courses at all levels, including Summer Schools.

Qualifications: B.A. Hons, University of London; Dip. Ed. University of Oxford; M.A. University of Melbourne; PhD, University of Melbourne.

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Research

Research strengths:
Ancient Greek vase iconography, Hellenistic lamps from the Near East, Classical and Hellenistic terracotta figurines, Hellenistic pottery, in particular the commonwares of Jebel Khalid, chemical analysis of clays, Hellenistic wall-painting, Greek houses and households, particularly in the near East.

Current project:
ARC Discovery Project
This project will be the first study of households in the Near East in the Seleucid period. It takes a unique, newly-excavated site in Syria as a starting point for a wider investigation of Hellenistic houses in the Near East, using the cross-disciplinary evidence of architecture, ceramics, domestic cult, zooarchaeology, palaeobotany and nuclear analysis of clays to interpret living space.

Grants & awards
2004: 4-year post-doctoral ARC grant (Discovery Project).
2003: Research grant from Australian Institute of Science and Technology for chemical analysis of clays.

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Publications

Books

• Heather Jackson, (With G.W. Clarke et al.), Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates. Report on excavations 1986-1996, Vol. I, Mediterranean Archaeology Supplement 5, Sydney 2002, 338pp, ISBN 0-9580265-0-5
• Heather Jackson, (With the late Peter Connor), Greek Vases at the University of Melbourne, Macmillan, Melbourne 2000, 272 pp, ISBN 1-876832-07-X

Book Chapters (from 2002)

• Heather Jackson (with G. Clarke), 'Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates, North Syria', in Archaeology from Australia, ed. T. Murray, Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2004, 342-60
• Heather Jackson, 'The Cemetery Pottery - 1996 and 1997', in Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates. Report on excavations 1986-1996, Vol. I, Sydney 2002, Chapter 5, pp. 101-124
• Heather Jackson, 'The Lamps from the Domestic Quarter', in Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates. Report on excavations 1986-1996, Vol. I, Sydney 2002, Chapter 7, pp. 147-199
• Heather Jackson, (with J. Littleton), 'Inventory of the Graves excavated in 1995-6', in Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates. Report on excavations 1986-1996, Vol. I, Sydney 2002, Chapter 4, 71-100
• Heather Jackson, (with Graeme Clarke), 'Graffiti and Dipinti', in Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates. Report on excavations 1986-1996, Vol. I, Sydney 2002, Chapter 9, pp. 205-216

Journal Articles (from 2002)

• Heather Jackson, 'Two engraved gems from Hellenistic Jebel Khalid,' in Antike Kunst, vol. 47, 2004, pp.34-46
• Heather Jackson, 'Jebel Khalid, the 2002 Season: The Housing Insula', in Mediterranean Archaeology 16, 2003, pp. 175-181

Other Publications (from 2002)

• Co-author of Handbook of Antiquities in the National Gallery of Victoria. NGV Melbourne, 2003

Recent Presentations (from 2002)

• ASCS Conference 2005 (New Zealand), paper entitled: The Terracotta people of Jebel Khalid
• American Schools of Oriental Research Annual Conference in Philadelphia, USA: Cultural Identity in a Hellenistic Housing Insula in North Syria
• One-day conference on Research in the Levant, at Macquarie University, Sydney: An unusual Jar Sealing from Jebel Khalid

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