Dr Jayson Gill, Resident Fellow at UWA
UWA School of Social Sciences, Political Science and International Relations
Bio
Dr Gill is an anthropologically trained archaeologist with over 15 years of field and lab experience. He specialises in stone tools and hominin behaviour during the Pleistocene epoch 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago; a period in which multiple species of humans evolved and shared the landscape, including Neanderthals and our own species, Homo sapiens. His geographic focus is on the regions that are now modern-day Georgia and Armenia. Dr Gill currently directs the Pleistocene behavioural landscapes of Armenia field project in collaboration with scholars from the Armenian Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Yerevan State University, King’s College London, the University of Winchester, the Desert Research Institute, the University of Michigan, Yale University, and the University of Connecticut. At UWA he is unit coordinator for the Semester 2 units ARCY3012 (Maritime and Historical Archaeology) and joint coordinator for ARCY2220 (Archaeology Field School).
Research Summary
Dr Gill applies cultural evolutionary theories alongside 3D scanning, statistical shape analysis, and traditional methods of stone tool analysis to answer questions regarding behavioural change during the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic in Eurasia. His work spans several areas, including:
studying stone age tools to understand how early humans made, changed, and shared their technologies over time, especially across major periods like the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic;
exploring how early human behaviour and culture evolved, including how people learned skills from each other and adapted to changing environments;
reconstructing how hunter-gatherer groups moved through and used landscapes throughout ice ages and interglacial warm periods, especially in the southern Caucasus and surrounding regions;
using digital tools like 3D scanning, GIS mapping, and statistics to analyse ancient artefacts and understand patterns in early human behaviour;
Combining high fidelity excavation techniques with chronological, geological, and ecological data to better understand the contexts that past humans were adapting to.
Work and Education History
2026 - now Lecturer in Archaeology, UWA School of Social Sciences, Political Science and International Relations
2024 - 2026 Visiting Assistant Professor, Archaeology Program, Wesleyan University, Connecticut, USA
2025 - now Field School Director, Experiential Global Learning, University of Connecticut, Connecticut, USA
2023 – now Affiliated Research Scientist, Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Connecticut, USA
2023–2024 Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Boise State University, Idaho, USA
2014–2023 Graduate Teaching Assistant, Special Lecturer, and Instructor of Record, Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Connecticut, USA
2022 Adjunct Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, Connecticut College, Connecticut, USA
2019 Adjunct Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, Southern Connecticut State University, Connecticut, USA
2017–2018 Adjunct Lecturer, Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, University of Hartford, Connecticut, USA
2016–2023 PhD in Anthropology, “Factors Underlying Long Term Cultural Change in the Eurasian Middle Pleistocene” University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA
2013–2016 Master of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA
2010–2013 Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Anthropology, summa cum laude, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Colorado
Connect
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