Dr. Rowan Flad

Biography

Rowan Flad is the John E. Hudson Professor of Archaeology and Department Chair at Harvard University. His research focuses on the emergence and development of complex societies during the late Neolithic period and Bronze Age in China. He has conducted extensive excavations at a salt production site in the eastern Sichuan Basin and has surveyed the Chengdu region, concentrating on prehistoric settlement patterns and social evolution. Flad's current projects investigate various aspects of social complexity, including specialized production technology, mortuary analysis, cultural transmission, and bias in media coverage of archaeological practices. He has published widely in leading journals such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Antiquity, and Current Anthropology. His works include 'Salt Production and Social Hierarchy in Ancient China' and 'Ancient Central China: Centers and Peripheries Along the Yangzi River'. Currently, he is working on final reports for the Chengdu Plain Archaeological Survey and the Tao River Archaeological Project.

Research Interests