Heather Miller

Dr. Miller’s research is currently centered around the medieval/Islamic period trade and communication routes through northwestern Pakistan, particularly through the city of Peshawar.  She is working with a number of Pakistani and international scholars on a long-term project, the Caravanserai Networks Project, to examine economic, political, and social aspects of the contact between people along these routes.  A major part of this endeavor is the development of a database of travel amenity locations based on both textual and archaeological data, which will eventually be available to the research community as a searchable internet database.

Her field research at the moment is the development of a pottery typology for both glazed and unglazed ceramics from the excavations at Gor Khuttree in the centre of Peshwar, work being conducted by the Directorate for Archaeology and Museums of the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP).

This research is currently funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and the Connaught Foundation at the University of Toronto, with great assistance from Prof. Ihsan Ali, formerly Director of the NWFP Directorate and now Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hazara, Pakistan.

Dr. Miller is currently a member of TUARC, the Trent University Archaeology Research Centre, and the Centre for South Asian Studies at the University of Toronto.

Education

Ph.D. (University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1999)

Publications

2014 (with Brett C. Hoffman). “Production and Consumption of Copper-base Metals in the Indus Civilization,” In Benjamin W. Roberts and Christopher P. Thornton (eds) Archaeometallurgy in Global Perspective. Method and Syntheses, pp. 697-728. Springer Publications, NY.

2013  Weighty Matters: Evidence for unity and regional diversity from the Indus Civilization weights. In S. Abraham et al. (eds)  Connections and Complexity: New Approaches to the Archaeology of South and Central Asia. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.

2012  Types of Learning in Apprenticeship. In Willeke Wendrich (ed) Archaeology and Apprenticeship: Body Knowledge, Identity & Communities of Practice, pp. 224-239.  University of Arizona Press.

2010   (with Ihsan Ali).  Pottery Classification and Activities in a City Centre:  First Results from Pottery Analysis of Mughal to Modern Period Excavations at Gor Khuttree, Peshawar, Pakistan.  Ancient Pakistan XXI: 89-106.

2009  (with Brett Hoffman). Production and Consumption of Copperbase Metals in the Indus Civilization. Journal of World Prehistory 22(3): 237-264.

2008  The Indus Talc-Faience Complex:  Types of Materials, Clues to Production.  In Ellen M. Raven (ed) South Asian Archaeology  pp. 111-122. International Institute of Asian Studies (IIAS), Leiden, Netherlands.

2007  Jonathan Mark Kenoyer and Heather M.-L. Miller. Multiple Crafts and Socio-Economic Associations in the Indus Civilization:  New Perspectives from Harappa, Pakistan.  In:  Rethinking Craft Production: The Nature of Producers and Multi-craft Organization, ed. Izumi Shimada.  pp. 152-183.  Univ. of Utah Press.

2007  Associations and Ideologies in the Locations of Urban Craft Production at Harappa, Pakistan (Indus Civilization).  In Zachary X. Hruby & Rowan K. Flad (eds) Rethinking Specialization in Complex Societies: Archaeological Analysis of the Social Meaning of Production, pp. 37-51. Archaeological Paper of the American Anthropological Association (AP3A), Number 17.  American Anthropological Association and University of California-Berkeley Press.

2006   Archaeological Approaches to Technology.   San Diego, CA: Academic Press/Elsevier.

2006  Comparing Landscapes of Transportation:  Riverine-oriented and land-oriented systems in the Indus Civilization and the Mughal Empire.  In E.C. Robertson et al. (eds) Space and Spatial Analysis in Archaeology,  pp. 281-292.  University of Calgary Press and University of New Mexico Press.

2006  Water Supply, Labor Organization and Land Ownership in Indus Floodplain Agricultural Systems.  In Charles Stanish & Joyce Marcus (eds) Agriculture and Irrigation in Archaeology, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press.

Graduate Students

• Rachele Andrea Bianchi