Photo of Parkinson, William

William Parkinson, PhD

Professor

Curator of Anthropology, Field Museum of Natural History

Anthropology, Archaeology

About

I am a specialist in European and Eastern Mediterranean Prehistory.  My anthropological research explores the social dynamics of early village societies and the emergence of early states. I direct multi-disciplinary, international, research projects in Hungary, Greece, and the United States.
I am the American Director of the Körös Regional Archaeological Project, a regional project aimed at understanding the social changes that occurred on the Great Hungarian Plain throughout the Holocene.
I also co-direct the Southern Mani Archaeological Project and The Diros Project, regional research projects that explore the social changes that occurred on the Mani Peninsula of southern Greece throughout the Pleistocene and Holocene.
Finally, I co-direct the Tallgrass Prairie Archaeological Landscapes Project, a collaborative research project that investigates the social dynamics of Indigenous communities in the American Midwest during the Holocene.

Education

PhD in Anthropology from University of Michigan, 1999

MA in Anthropology from University of Michigan, 1995

BA in Anthropology from University of Illinois at Chicago, 1992

St. Petersburg State University, Russia, 1991