Personal Statement
Mary Shepperson is an archaeologist specialising in architecture and urbanism of the ancient Near East. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Cambridge and her PhD at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. Mary's research interests encompass the emergence of urbanism in Mesopotamia, climatic adaptation in early cities, sunlighting in the built environment and the spatial organisation of ancient architecture. She also has an interest in conflict archaeology and 'dark' heritage, and researches and publishes on the archaeology and heritage of the Iran-Iraq war. Mary is a specialist in mudbrick architecture and has excavated extensively at settlement sites across the Middle East and North Africa, including in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and Sudan. She also worked for several years as a UK commercial archaeologist in London, Staffordshire and Cheshire.

Research Overview
My PhD addressed the relationship between early urbanism in Bronze Age Mesopotamia and the sunlight and climate conditions of the region. This involved an analysis of early cities and buildings in terms of passive design, urban form, orientation and sensory experience, combining both practical and symbolic uses of light. This work was published as a book in 2017, in addition to which I have published several articles and book chapters on sunlighting in ancient Near Eastern architecture.

In addition to my work on sunlight in ancient cities, my research has covered a wide range of topics related to ancient urbanism, architectural heritage and conflict archaeology. I've worked extensively on research excavations on a number of major archaeological sites in the Middle East, publishing research on the architectural results of these projects.
Research fieldwork projects:
Iraq: Tell Khaiber, Charax Spasinou. Iraq (Kurdish region): Erbil Citadel, Gurga Chiya, Qalatga Darband
Tell Brak (Syria), Ziyaret Tepe (Turkey), Sidon (Lebanon), Tell Dhiban (Jordan), Tell el-Amarna (Egypt), Kom Firin (Egypt), Amara West (Sudan)