I’m an anthropological archaeologist interested in the relationship between people and their built environments, urbanism and the social dynamics of ancient cities, and the application of digital technologies for recording, analyzing and visualizing archaeological phenomena.

I received a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Toronto (2007) and have since held postdoctoral fellowships at Cornell University, the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World at Brown University, the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies (CAST) at the University of Arkansas, and with the Computational Research on the Ancient Near East (CRANE) Project at the University of Toronto.

My research focuses mainly on the early complex societies of the eastern Mediterranean and Near East, especially Cyprus, although I’ve worked on projects in Greece, Jordan, Peru, Guatemala, the US and Canada.  I’m currently Co-director of the Kalavasos and Maroni Built Environments (KAMBE) Project, an investigation of the relationship between urban landscapes, interaction and social change in Late Bronze Age Cyprus (c. 1700-1100 BCE)

Academic Appointments

Associate Professor of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology, Department of Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies, University of British Columbia (July 2022-present)

Assistant Professor of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology, Department of Classical, Near Eastern, and Religious Studies, University of British Columbia (July 2013-June 2022)

Postdoctoral Fellow, Computational Research on the Ancient Near East (CRANE) Project, Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations & Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto (Nov. 2012-June 2013)

Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies & Department of Anthropology, University of Arkansas (2011-2012); Research Associate (Nov. 2012-present)

Postdoctoral Fellow in Archaeology, Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown University; cross-appointed to Department of Anthropology (2010-2011)

Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Lecturer, Department of Classics and Archaeology Intercollege Program, Cornell University (2008-2010)

• AMNE 170--Temples, Tombs, and Tyrants: The Archaeology of the Middle East, Greece, and Rome
• AMNE 300--Uses and Abuses of Antiquity
• AMNE 312--The History of Ancient Egypt
• AMNE 371--Ancient Egypt:  Archaeology of the Land of the Pharaohs
• AMNE 372--The Archaeology of Ancient Iraq and Syria: Babylon and Beyond
• AMNE 376--Greek Art and Architecture
• AMNE 470--The Archaeology of Bronze Age Greece (Seminar in Classical Art and Archaeology)
• AMNE 472--The Archaeology of Ancient Cyprus
• AMNE 395/595--Practicum in Classical or Near Eastern Archaeology (Archaeological Field School in Cyprus)
• AMNE 571--Archaeologies of Space and Place
• AMNE 575--Digital Archaeology
• NEST 500--Interconnections in the Late Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean

Research Interests

• archaeology of the eastern Mediterranean & Near East (esp. Neolithic through Bronze Age Cyprus and the Aegean)
• spatial analysis of built environments and social interaction
• urbanism and the social dynamics of urban landscapes
• place-making, monumentality and power
• digital archaeology (esp. remote sensing, 3D modelling and XR/extended reality)
• emergence of social inequality
• politics of the past; cultural heritage management

Current Projects 

I’m Co-director of the Kalavasos and Maroni Built Environments (KAMBE) Project, a collaborative and interdisciplinary investigation of the relationships between urban landscapes, social interaction, and social change on the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus during the Late Bronze Age (or Late Cypriot period, c. 1700-1100 BCE).  This period saw significant changes to the island’s economic and sociopolitical organization as it became a key player in an increasingly interconnected world.  We’re trying to understand the central role that the island’s first cities had in these profound changes.  Our work focuses on two important urban centers, Kalavasos-Ayios Dhimitrios and the Maroni “urban cluster”, located in neighboring river valleys in south-central Cyprus.  The KAMBE Project uses a number of cutting-edge digital technologies and scientific methods to investigate and visualize these urban landscapes, including high-resolution geophysics, geoarchaeology, drone-based remote sensing, laser scanning, photogrammetry, and 3D modeling.  This collaboration with researchers from Cornell University, University of Chicago, University of Southampton, Simon Fraser University, the Cyprus Institute and other institutions has received substantial funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada) and the National Science Foundation (US). The UBC-led investigations are focusing on Kalavasos-Ayios Dhimtrios (K-AD) where we have been using archaeological geophysics to guide excavations in the Northeast Area of the city that are shedding light on the process by which the main north-south road was gradually monumentalized as it approaches the city’s administrative and economic centre.  Nearby, we are excavating the monumental Building 16, with its bench-lined central court and adjoining rooms with compelling evidence for ritual activity that involved feasting and the consumption of deer.

A related ongoing project led by current PhD student Caroline Barnes and former MA student Graham Braun (now a PhD candidate at University of Cincinnati) is investigating the process and materiality of monumental construction at several Late Bronze sites in Cyprus, including K-AD, Maroni, Palaepaphos, Alassa, and Kition.

In 2017 I was awarded a Canada Foundation for Innovation John R. Evans Leaders Fund Grant that has allowed us to build infrastructure for digital archaeology at UBC, including the purchase of computers and software for our new computer lab, a Faro Focus 3D x330 terrestrial laser scanner; a structured light scanner, a DJI Matrice 300 RTK UAV system with LiDAR, a 3D printer, an HTC Vive Pro VR headset, and related equipment for use by the KAMBE Project team and other researchers.  In collaboration with the Centre for Digital Media and UBC’s Emerging Media Lab we created a virtual reality app for Building X at Kalavasos-Ayios Dhimitrios that explores this medium as a tool for data integration, spatial analysis and research on ancient place-making.

There are funded research and training opportunities on this project for graduate and undergraduate students.  In the summers I regularly run a UBC archaeological field school where students can join the KAMBE Project, working on excavation and geophysical survey at Kalavasos-Ayios Dhimitrios.  Some students have continued with the project and now work as trench supervisors.  The next field school is scheduled for Summer 2026 (applications will be available through the Go Global website, starting in October 2025).  Please contact me if you’re interested in pursuing any of these opportunities at the BA, MA or PhD level.

Books

Fisher, K.D. 2023. Monumentality, Place-making and Social Interaction on Late Bronze Age Cyprus. Monographs in Mediterranean Archaeology Vol. 17. London: Equinox Press. Winner of ASOR’s 2025 G. Ernest Wright Award. Reviews: P. Basri. 2024. Personalised monuments and monumental personalities in the past and present of Bronze Age Cyprus. Antiquity 398: 547-52; L. Steel, 2024. Journal of Near Eastern Archaeology 83(1): 187-9; T. Brüge, 2024. Cahiers du Centre d’Etudes Chypriotes 54: 519-522.

Creekmore, A.M.T. and K.D. Fisher (eds.). 2014. Making Ancient Cities: Space and Place in Early Urban Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Contents). Reviews: T. Emerson, 2015. American Journal of Archaeology 119.4; G. Crawford, 2017. Bulletin of the American Society of Overseas Research 378: 227-8; G. Cowgill, 2017. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 27(1): 197.

Journal Articles

Andreou, G.M., A. Georgiou, T.M. Urban, K.D. Fisher, S.W. Manning, and D.A. Sewell. 2019. Reconsidering coastal archaeological sites in Late Bronze Age Cyprus: Tochni-Lakkia and the south-central coastscape. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 382: 33-69.

Fisher, K.D., S.W. Manning and T.M. Urban. 2019. New approaches to Late Bronze Age urban landscapes on Cyprus: Investigations at Kalavasos-Ayios Dhimitrios, 2012–2016. American Journal of Archaeology 123.3: 473-507 (available as open access article).

Leon, J.F, K.D. Fisher, S.W. Manning and M. Rogers. 2018. Interim Report on the Kalavasos and Maroni Built Environments Project: The 2011 Field Season. Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus 1 (n.s.): 451-466.

Casana, J., A. Wiewel, A.C. Hill, A. Cool, K.D. Fisher, E. Jakoby-Laugier. 2017. Archaeological aerial thermography in theory and practice. Advances in Archaeological Practice 5(4): 310-27.

Andreou, G.M., R. Opitz, S.W. Manning, K.D. Fisher, D.A. Sewell, A. Georgiou, T. Urban. 2017. Integrated methods for understanding and monitoring the loss of coastal archaeological sites: The case of Tochni-Lakkia, south-central Cyprus. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 12: 197-208.

Urban, T.F., J.F. Leon, S.W. Manning, and K.D. Fisher. 2014. High resolution GPR mapping of Late Bronze Age architecture at Kalavasos-Ayios Dhimitrios, Cyprus. Journal of Applied Geophysics 107: 129-136.

Manning, S.W., G-M. Andreou, K.D. Fisher, P. Gerard-Little, C. Kearns, J. F. Leon, D.A. Sewell and T.M. Urban. 2014. Becoming urban: investigating the anatomy of the Maroni Late Bronze Age complex, Cyprus. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 27.1: 3-32.

Urban, T.M., J.F. Leon, S.W. Manning, K.D. Fisher, C.M. Kearns and P.A. Gerrard-Little. 2013. Ground-penetrating radar investigations at Kalavasos Ayios-Dhimitrios offer a new look at Late Bronze Age Cyprus. Antiquity 87(338): http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/urban338/.

Fisher, K.D., J.F. Leon, S.W. Manning, M. Rogers and D. Sewell. 2011-2012 [pub. 2017]. The Kalavasos and Maroni Built Environments Project: introduction and preliminary report on the 2008 and 2010 field seasons. Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus: 415-442.

Rogers, M., J.F. Leon, K.D. Fisher, S.W. Manning and D. Sewell. 2012. Comparing similar ground-penetrating radar surveys under different soil moisture conditions at Kalavasos-Ayios Dhimitrios, Cyprus. Archaeological Prospection 19(4): 297-305.

Fisher, K.D. 2009. Placing social interaction: an integrative approach to analyzing past built environments. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 28: 439-57.

Fisher, K.D. 2009. Elite place-making and social interaction in the Late Cypriot Bronze Age. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 22.2: 183-209.

Fisher, K.D. 2006-07. The aegeanization of Cyprus at the end of the Bronze Age: an architectural perspective. In Cyprus, the Sea Peoples and the Eastern Mediterranean: Regional Perspectives of Continuity and Change. T.P. Harrison (ed.). Special Issue of Scripta Mediterranea 27-28: 81-103.

Contributions to Edited Volumes

Barnes, C., G. Braun and K.D. Fisher. Forthcoming. A study of ashlar masonry at three localities in Palaepaphos: Kouklia, Hadjiabdoullah, and Laona. In M. Iacovou and A. Georgiou (eds.). The Palaepaphos Urban Landscapes Project Vol. 1. Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology. Astrom Editions.

Fisher, K.D. 2022. Toward a social life of people and things on Late Bronze Age Cyprus. In Critical Approaches to Mediterranean Archaeology, edited by S.W. Manning, V. Kassianidou, and L. Crewe. London: Equinox.

Fisher, K.D. 2020. The materiality of ashlar masonry on Late Bronze Age Cyprus. In Ashlar: Exploring the Materiality of Cut-Stone Masonry in the Eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age, edited by M. Devolder and I. Kriemerman. Pp. 307-338.  Louvain-la-Neuve: Presses universitaires de Louvain.

Manning, S.W. and K.D. Fisher. 2018. Locating the Late Bronze Age peasant in Cyprus. In Structures of Inequality on Bronze Age Cyprus. Studies in Honour of Alison K. South, edited by L. Hulin, L. Crewe and J. Webb. Pp. 121-138. Nicosia: Astrom Editions.

Fisher, K.D. 2018. Archaeology of Cyprus. In The Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. 2nd ed. C. Smith (ed.). New York: Springer.

Fisher, K.D. 2014. Rethinking the Late Cypriot built environment: households and communities as places of social transformation. In The Cambridge Prehistory of the Bronze and Iron Age Mediterranean, A.B. Knapp and P. van Dommelen (eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 399-416.

Fisher, K.D. 2014. The creation and experience of monumentality on Protohistoric Cyprus. In Approaching Monumentality in the Archaeological Record. J. Osborne (ed.). Albany: SUNY Press. Pp. 355-381.

Fisher, K.D and A. Creekmore. 2014. Making ancient cities: new perspectives on the production of urban places. In Making Ancient Cities: Space and Place in Early Urban Societies. A. Creekmore and K.D. Fisher (eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 1-31.

Fisher, K.D. 2014. Making the first cities on Cyprus: urbanism and social change in the Late Bronze Age. In Making Ancient Cities: Space and Place in Early Urban Societies Studies. A. Creekmore and K.D. Fisher (eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 181-219.

Fisher, K.D. 2014. Investigating monumental social space in Late Bronze Age Cyprus: an integrative approach. In Spatial Analysis and Social Spaces: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Interpretation of Historic and Prehistoric Built Environments. E. Paliou, U. Lieberwirth and S. Polla (eds.). Berlin: De Gruyter. Pp. 167-202.

Fisher, K.D. 2006. Messages in stone: constructing sociopolitical inequality in Late Bronze Age Cyprus. In Space and Spatial Analysis in Archaeology. E.C. Robertson, J.W. Seibert, D.C. Fernandez and M.U. Zender (eds). Calgary and Albuquerque: University of Calgary Press and University of New Mexico Press. Pp. 123-32.

Book Reviews

2015. Review of D. Maliszewski. Chalcolithic and Bronze Age Pottery from the Field Survey in Northwestern Cyprus, 1992–1999. Polis-Pyrgos Archaeological Project, Volume 1 (Oxford: BAR International Series 2547). Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 373: 246-7.

2012. Review of J. Smith. Art and Society in Cyprus from the Bronze Age into the Iron Age (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 366: 90-2.

2009. Review of J. Smith (ed.), Views from Phlamoudhi, Cyprus (Boston: Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research vol. 63, 2008). Journal of the American Oriental Society 129.2: 25-6.

Selected Grants and Awards

G. Ernest Wright Award for Monumentality, Place-making and Social Interaction on Late Bronze Age Cyprus (2025)
Awarded by the American Society of Overseas Research to author of the most substantial volume dealing with archaeological material, excavation reports and material culture from the ancient Near East and Eastern Mediterranean.

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Partnership Grant for Computational Research on the Ancient Near East – CRANE: Large-scale Data Integration and Analysis in Near Eastern Archaeology; Co-investigator (PI: Timothy Harrison; 2018-24; $2.49 million CAD)

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Grant for Investigating the Socio-environmental Dynamics of an Ancient Urban Landscape; Principal Investigator (2018-23; $276,338 CAD)

National Endowment for the Humanities Research Grant for Exploring Archaeological Landscapes through Advanced Aerial Thermal Imaging; Co-applicant (Principal Investigator: J. Casana; 2017-20; $324,930 USD)

UBC Dean of Arts Research Award (2017)

Canada Foundation for Innovation John R. Evans Leaders Fund Grant for Building Infrastructure for Spatial Archaeometry and Visualization (2017-18; $185,406 CAD)

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Connections Grant for Creating and Training a Network of Digital Humanities Scholars on the Lower Mainland; Co-applicant (2014; $23,785 CAD)

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Development Grant for Investigating Urban Social Dynamics Using High Resolution Archaeology; Principal Investigator (2014-16; $73,738 CAD)

UBC Digital Salon Accelerator Grant for Creating an Augmented Reality App for the Archaeological Site of Kalavasos-Ayios Dhimitrios, Cyprus (2014-15; $5000 CAD)

Arts HSS Research Grant (University of British Columbia, Faculty of Arts) for archaeological work at Kalavasos-Ayios Dhimitrios, Cyprus (2014; $3500 CAD)

Arts HSS Workshop & Visiting Speakers Grant (University of British Columbia, Faculty of Arts) for Digital Perspectives on the Past: New Methods and Research in Digital Archaeology Symposium (2014; $2000 CAD)

Arts Undergraduate Research Award (University of British Columbia) for Analyzing and Visualizing Built Space on Bronze Age Cyprus Project (2014; $3000 CAD)

National Endowment for the Humanities Research Grant for Mapping Ancient Cultural Landscapes Using Aerial Thermography; Co-Principal Investigator (2012-14; Award Ref. # HD-51590-12; $49,999 USD)

National Science Foundation Collaborative Research Grant for Kalavasos and Maroni Built Environments Project; Co-Principal Investigator (2009-12; Awards # BCS-0917732 & 0917734; $168,208 USD)

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship (2008-10; $81,000 CAD)

Society for American Archaeology Dissertation Award (2008); for best dissertation.

Archaeological Institute of America Harriet and Leon Pomerance Fellowship (2004-2005)

Caroline Barnes (PhD in progress). From the Ground Up: Assessing settlement patterns and community transformations at the beginning of Cyprus’ Late Bronze Age

Kaylyn Lehmann (PhD in progress). Architectural Dialects of Minoan Crete: Digital Reconstruction and Space Syntax Approaches to Regional Variation in Neopalatial Domestic Architecture

Paige Piché (MA, 2026). Firing a Long Shot: Sling Bullets from Late Bronze Age Kalavasos-Ayios Dhimitrios, Cyprus

Caroline Armstrong (MA, 2025). Migration as Resilience: Multi-Scalar GIS Investigations of Levantine Climate Migration from the 13th-10th Centuries BCE

Isabelle Sauvé (MA, 2023). Mystic Mountains and Sacred Caves: Re-Examining Minoan Extra-Urban Sanctuaries

Safia Boutaleb (MA 2022). 9 to 5: A Study in Women’s Work, Wealth and Economic Agency in Cyprus and the Aegean during the Late Bronze Age

Caroline Barnes (MA, 2022). Monumental Stonework at Kition Kathari: A Spatial Analysis of a Late Cypriot Built Environment.

Graham Braun (MA, 2022). Evaluating Entanglements at Middle–Late Bronze Age Phylakopi: A Space Syntax Approach to the Pillar Rooms Complex and LH IIIA Megaron.

Rory MacLean (MA, 2022). Marginalised Mariners: Bronze Age Fishing in the Southern Aegean.

Joseph Burkhart (MA, 2021). The Byrsa’s Second Death: Reconstruction and Erasure in the Heart of Colonial Carthage.

Jem Tari (MA, 2019). Deploying Low Cost Virtual Reality for Archaeological Research.

Florencia Fustinoni (MA, 2018). The Egyptian Empire in the Levant through a Study of Space.

Drea Brake (MA, 2018). Excavating a Legacy: A Contextualizing Study of the Miniature Frescoes from the Court Complex at Knossos.