Prof Bill Finlayson

Bill Finlayson has been the CBRL’s Director since 1999, having previously managed the University of Edinburgh’s applied archaeology research section. He works closely with the Board of Trustees and CBRL’s institutional directors to provide overall management and guidance to the council.

He maintains an active research career, and is a Visiting Professor in the University of Reading. His major active projects are:

• conducting a new phase of work at the PPNA site of Wadi Faynan 16 with a major grant from the AHRC with co-directors Steven Mithen and Mohammad Najjar; following on from an extensive and evaluation project (B. Finlayson and S. Mithen (2007) The Early Prehistory of Wadi Faynan, Southern Jordan, Archaeological survey of Wadis Faynan, Ghuwayr and al-Bustan and evaluation of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A site of WF16, Council for British Research in the Levant and Oxbow Books: Oxford)
• co-directing a major early prehistoric excavation at the PPNA site of Dhra’ with Ian Kuijt of Notre Dame University (USA) (eg B. Finlayson, I. Kuijt, T. Arpin, M. Chesson, S. Dennis, N. Goodale, S. Kadowaki, L. Maher, S. Smith, M. Schurr, and J. McKay (2003) “Dhra’ Excavation Project 2002, Interim Report, Levant 35, 1-38) now in its post-excavation phase
• running a experimental, conservation and public archaeology project at the Neolithic site of Beidha (with Najjar, M. and Dennis, S. 2003, Bayda: Conservation and presentation project, April-November 2003, Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 47, 489-490). He is working with Brian Byrd to bring together material and reports from old excavations at this site for publication
• working as one of the joint PIs on the Leverhulme Trust funded Water, Life and Civilisation (WLC) project based at the University of Reading and CBRL
• developing a ‘Neolithic Heritage Trail’ running from Wadi Faynan to Beidha, and including sites being worked on by teams from Berlin, Copenhagen and Las Vegas, together with the Department of Antiquities
• maintaining his interest in the Mesolithic of Scotland (eg B. Finlayson 2006 Overview – Setting up questions, in C. Conneller and G. Warren (eds) Mesolithic Britain and Ireland: New Approaches, Tempus, Stroud, 165-184)

Penny McParlin

Penny Wiggins completed a BA in Classics and Ancient History from the University of Swansea, and went on to be awarded an MPhil on the Asclepius cult in Asia Minor. Her research took her to Turkey where she worked on epigraphy, several archaeological survey projects and later joined the staff of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara for two years. On returning to the UK, she worked for the British Academy, Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB), and SOAS, before joining the staff at CBRL.