Faculty staff

Curriculum Vitae

ID

• Dr. phil. Maximilian Wilding
• born in Fohnsdorf (Austria)

Office

• Centre of Prehistoric Archaeology of the Near East
  Department of Archaeology and Museology
  Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University
  Arna Nováka 1, CZ-660 88 BRNO, Czech Republic
  

Employment - Position

• Assistant Professor

Education and Academic Qualifications

• 2003 Ph.D. degree, Cultural Anthropology
• Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Vienna.
• PhD. Thesis: “Accidental Voyaging' versus 'Deliberate Voyaging': Analysis of a Scientific Debate in Pacific Studies 1956–1980” (related to prehistoric exploratory navigation).

Position and profesional Carrier

• since 2011 Assistant Professor, Centre of Prehistoric Archaeology of the Near East,
• Department of Archaeology and Museology, Masaryk University, Brno.
• 2007-2010 Field Co-director of Czech Archaeological Project at Tell Arbid Abyad in NE Syria
• 2003-2007 Archaeological Service (AS Archäologie Service), Austria
• 1991-2003 Federal Monuments Office (Bundesdenkmalamt), Austria
• 1991-1993 Conservator, The Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art

Teaching Activities

• Introduction to Cultural Anthropology for Archaeologists (BA course)
• Ethnoarchaeological studies with relevance to the archaeology of Mesopotamia (BA course)
• Team building and communication for excavations abroad (BA course)
• Ethnographic field research methods (BA course)
• Specifics of archaeological research in the Near East (BA course)
• Ethnography of Mesopotamia and its bordering regions (MA course)
• Understanding the phenomenon Orientalism (MA course)
• Ethnological Examples of the Use of Space by Rural Communities in the Near East (MA course)
• Special Topics of the Culture Anthropology (MA course)

Research Interest

• 1) Traditional seafaring, navigational and meteorological lore;
• 2) Taphonomy of buildings of clay; Archaeohydrology;
• 3) Harnessing of the volatile resources wind & rain by past groups;
• 4) Field-archaeology abroad as a launch-point of ethnographical fieldwork;
• 5) ‚Applied archaeology‘ - Developing spin-offs of Near Eastern field-archaeology for the public discourse, the media, NGOs and cross-cultural understanding;
• 6) Labour market situation for young graduates of archaeology;
• 7) Business start-ups of students;
• 8) Visual anthropology. Documentary filming (context: ethnoarchaeology, excavation documentation).

Fellowships/ Academic mobility

• 2015-2018: Guest Researcher, Institut für Vorderasiatische Archäologie, Freie Universität Berlin, 30 months.
• 2015: Department of Anthropology, Yale University, US, 1 month.
• 2014: Department of Anthropology, Yale University, US, 2 months.

Participation in projects

• since 2015 Co-investigator of the project „Research on the archaeological material of the Khabur Basin Project, Syria“, Yale University (together with Prof. Frank Hole, Department of Anthropology, Yale University, Memorandum of Understanding August 2014).
• 2014-2017 Co‐investigator in the project ‘Innovation of Archaeology and Museology Education for Practice in the Interdisciplinary and International Frame’. Department of Archaeology and Museology, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, Brno.
• since 2013 Co‐investigator in ‘Oxa-KALARA-Project, Crete’, together with Věra Klontza and Maximilian Wilding, Department of Archaeology and Museology, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, Brno.
• 2005-2011 Co‐investigator in the project ‘Inter‐disciplinary Centre for Research into Prehistoric to High Medieval Social Structures. Archaeological Field Investigation and Theoretical Research, Application of Natural Science, Methodology, Computing and the Protection of the Cultural Heritage (Prof. PhDr. Zdeněk Měřínský, CSc., Departmet of Archaeology and Museology, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, Brno), VZ MU MSM0021622427, 2005‐2011 – Field Co-director of the Syrian excavations project.

Fieldwork Abroad

• since 2017: Field co-director of project "Sint Polje EP78 and Sint-Sant Plateau (SIPO) - Archaeohydrological Study of a Holocene Lake Depression" in Oman
• since 2013: Field co-director of OXA-KALARA Project, Crete, Greece
• 2007-2010: Field Co-director of Czech archaeological project at Tell Arbid Abyad in NE Syria

Membership of Scientific Organisations

• since 2013 Member of “Academic Society of Alois Musil”
• since 2011 Member of “Archaeologica Mesopotamica”
• since 1985 Member of “Anthropological Society in Vienna”

Major Publications

• WILDING, Maximilian. The Jebel Akhdar Region of Northern Oman as a Potential Prehistoric Refugium I: Archaeohydrological and Environmental Indicators. In By Land and Sea. 2021. info
• ANNA, Hanzelková a Maximilian WILDING. Strainers : Observations on a distinct type of Neolithic and Chalcolithic pottery in the Khabur Valley (Northeastern Syria). In Anna Gómez-Bach, Jörg Becker, Miquel Molist. II Workshop on Late Neolithic Ceramics in Ancient Mesopotamia: pottery in context. 1st. Barcelona: Museu d´Arqueoloqia de Catalunya. s. 207-218. ISBN 978-84-393-9750-2. 2018. info

2017/10/29