Tony James Wilkinson,FBA (14 August 1948 – 25 December 2014) was a Britisharchaeologist and academic, specialising inlandscape archaeology and theAncient Near East. He was Professor of Archaeology at theUniversity of Edinburgh from 2005 to 2006, and Professor of Archaeology atDurham University from 2006 to until his death in 2014.^[1][2]

Wilkinson was born on 14 August 1948 and was brought up inEssex, England.^[2] From 1966 to 1969, he studiedgeography atBirkbeck, University of London,^[3] graduating with aBachelor of Science (BSc) degree.^[4] He then undertookpost-graduate study atMcMaster University, Ontario, Canada, graduating from there with aMaster of Science (MSc) degree in 1972.^[2][5] He never undertook a doctorate.^[4]

Wilkinson worked as a consultant landscape archaeologist from 1972 to 1989.^[4] Between 1989 and 1992, he was the assistant director of theBritish School of Archaeology in Iraq.^[2] From 1995 to 2003, he worked at theUniversity of Chicago, first as aresearch associate and then as anassociate professor.^[1] During the 1990s, he founded the 'Center for Ancient Middle Eastern Landscapes' of theOriental Institute, University of Chicago.^[2]

In 2003, he returned to the United Kingdom to become alecturer at theUniversity of Edinburgh.^[2] He was promoted toProfessor ofNear Eastern Archaeology in 2005.^[1] In 2006, he left Edinburgh to become Professor of Archaeology atDurham University.^[2] In addition to his research and teaching within the Department of Archaeology, he was involved with Durham'sInstitute of Advanced Study.^[6]

Wilkinson had undertaken archaeological surveys in northernSyria,Iran and northernIraq.^[6] He worked with declassifiedCORONAsatellite images to research ancient sites and landscapes ofUpper Mesopotamia.^[2] He was director of theLand of Carchemish project investigating the surrounding landscape ofCarchemish, a Bronze Age capital city.^[7]

In 1995, Wilkinson married Eleanor Rose Barbanes.^[4] She is also an archaeologist, and collaborated with her husband on a number of projects and publications.^[8]

He died on 25 December 2014 from cancer.^[8]

Wilkinson received two awards for hismonograph titledArchaeological Landscapes of the Near East: theSociety for American Archaeology Book Award in 2004 and the James R. Wiseman Book Award by theArchaeological Institute of America in 2005.^[9][10] In 2008, he was electedFellow of the British Academy (FBA), the UK'snational academy for the humanities and the social sciences.^[1] In 2009, he was awarded theJohn Coles Medal for Landscape Archaeology by the British Academy. The medal is awarded biennially 'for distinguished achievements in landscape archaeology'.^[11]

A memorial volume,New Agendas in Remote Sensing and Landscape Archaeology in the Near East: Studies in Honour of Tony J. Wilkinson was published in 2020,^[12] edited and containing chapters by many of Wilkinson's former students.^[13]

• Wilkinson, T. J. (1990).Town & Country in Southeastern Anatolia: Settlement and landuse at Kurban Höyük and other sites in the Lower Karababa Basin. Chicago, Il: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.ISBN 0918986648.
• Wilkinson, T. J.; Tucker, D. J. (1995).Settlement development in the North Jazira, Iraq: a study of the archeological landscape. Baghdad: British School of Archeology in Iraq.ISBN 0856686581.
• Wilkinson, T. J. (1995).The archaeology of the Essex coast. Gressenhall: Essex County Council Archaeology Section in conjunction with the Scole Archaeological Committee.ISBN 1852811196.
• Wilkinson, T. J. (2003).Archaeological landscapes of the Near East. Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press.ISBN 0816521735.
• Wilkinson, Tony J. (2004).On the margin of the Euphrates: settlement and land use at Tell es-Sweyhat and in the upper lake Assad area, Syria. Chicago, Il: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.ISBN 1885923295.
• Sauer, E. W.; Rekavandi Omrani, H.; Wilkinson, T. J.; Nokandeh, J. (2012).Persia's imperial power in late antiquity: The great wall of Gorgan and the frontier landscapes of Sasanian Iran. Oxford: Oxbow Books.ISBN 978-1842175194.
• Wilkinson, T. J.; Gibson, M.; Widell, M., eds. (2013).Models of Mesopotamian landscapes: how small-scale processes contributed to the growth of early civilizations. Oxford: Archaeopress.ISBN 978-1407311739.

• 1948 births
• 2014 deaths
• Academics of the University of Edinburgh
• Academics of Durham University
• Fellows of the British Academy
• University of Chicago faculty
• Alumni of Birkbeck, University of London
• McMaster University alumni
• Archaeologists of the Near East
• 20th-century British archaeologists
• 21st-century British archaeologists
• Landscape historians

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