I have taught at the University of Arizona since 1991. I was the first hire in W. David Kingery's Culture, Science and Technology Program and taught the history and sociology of technology in both Anthropology and the College of Engineering. At that time I did mostly ethnoarchaeological and archaeological research on African iron smelting technology. From 2003 to 2008 I coordinated the NSF/University of Arizona IGERT Program in Archaeological Sciences, which has so far produced 22 PhDs, with another 11 on track to graduate in 2013 and 2014. I have a well-equipped laboratory in Anthropology for optical techniques (petrography, metallography, ore microscopy) and collaborate with isotope geochemist Joaquin Ruiz to use heavy isotopes (lead and strontium) for provenance of non-ferrous metals, turquoise, glass and glazes. My recent work in archaeometallurgy is on tin and bronze production in South Africa and on copper smelting in north coastal Peru. I am also doing collaborative ceramic provenance studies in Botswana, New Mexico and New Caledonia. I am a member of the Editorial Board for Journal of Archaeological Science, Journal of African Archaeology, and Ethnoarchaeology.

Ph.D. in Anthropology, Yale University
B.A. (Honours) in Archaeology, University of Cape Town

History and prehistory of technology, with particular interest in early mining and metallurgy

African history and prehistory, especially early contacts between sub-Saharan African and the Muslim world

Provenance studies - tracing prehistoric movement of lithics, pottery, turquoise, glass and metals by geological and geochemical methods

Archaeological method and theory, with particular interest in the role of scientific methods in archaeology

Killick, David
2013    Iron smelting technology in the Middle Senegal Valley, ca. 550 BCE-1500 CE. In Seeking the Origins of Takrur: Archaeological Excavations and Survey in the Middle Senegal Valley, edited by Roderick J. McIntosh, Susan Keech McIntosh and Hamady Bocoum, Chapter 7. New Haven: Yale University Publications in Anthropology, in press.

Fenn, Thomas and David Killick
2013    Copper Alloys. In Seeking the Origins of Takrur: Archaeological Excavations and Survey in the Middle Senegal Valley, edited by Roderick J. McIntosh, Susan Keech McIntosh and Hamady Bocoum, Chapter 8. New Haven: Yale University Publications in Anthropology, in press.

Killick, David
2013 Archaeometallurgy as archaeology. In Archaeometallurgy in Europe III, edited by Andreas Hauptmann and Diana Modarressi-Tehrani. Bochum: Deutsches Bergbau Museum, in press.

Holliday, Vance and David Killick
2013   An early Paleoindian bead from the Mockingbird Gap site, New Mexico. Current Anthropology 54:85-95.

Killick, David and Thomas Fenn
2012  Archaeometallurgy: the study of preindustrial mining and metallurgy. Annual Review of Anthropology 41:559-575.

Thibodeau, Alyson, John Chesley, Joaquin Ruiz. David Killick and Arthur Vokes
2012   An alternative approach to the prehispanic turquoise trade. In Turquoise in Mexico and North America: Science, Conservation, Culture and Collections, edited by J.C.H. King, M. Carocci, C. Cartwright, C. McEwan and R.Stacey, pp. 63-72.  London:  British Museum/Archetype. 

Heimann, Robert, Shadreck Chirikure and David Killick
2010    Mineralogy of slags from prehistoric South African tin smelting sites.  European Journal of Mineralogy 22:751-761.

Chirikure, Shadreck, Robert Heimann and David Killick
2010    The technology of tin smelting in the Rooiberg valley, Limpopo Province, South Africa, ca. 1650-1850 CE.  Journal of Archaeological Science 37:1656-1669.

Thornton, C.P., J. Golden, D.J. Killick, V.C. Pigott, Th. Rehren and B. W. Roberts
2010    A Chalcolithic error: Rebuttal to Amzallag (2009). American Journal of Archaeology 114:305-315.

Thebe, Phenyo, Edwin N. Wilmsen, David Killick and Dana Drake Rosenstein
2009    Mmopi le mmpoa: potter and clay. Making pottery today and c. 1000 years ago. Botswana Notes and Records 41:25-38.

Fenn, Thomas R., David Killick, John Chesley, Sonja Magnavita and Joaquin Ruiz
2009    Contacts Between West Africa and Roman North Africa: Archaeometallurgical Results from Kissi, Northeastern Burkina Faso. In: Crossroads / Carrefour Sahel. Cultural and Technological Developments in First Millennium BC / AD West Africa. Développements culturels et téchnologiques pendant le premier millénaire BC / AD dans l'Afrique de l'Ouest ,edited by  S. Magnavita, L. Koté, L., P. Breunig,and O.A. Idé, pp. 119-146. Frankfurt: Africa Magna Verlag.
   
Killick, David
2009    Cairo to Cape: the spread of metallurgy through eastern and southern Africa.  Journal of World Prehistory 22:399-414.

Killick, David
2009    Agency, dependency and long-distance trade: East Africa and the Islamic World, ca. 700-1500 C.E. In Polities and Power:  Archaeological Perspectives on the Landscapes of Early States edited by Steven Falconer and Charles Redman, pp. 179-207.  Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Wilmsen, Edwin N., David Killick, Dana Drake Rosenstein, Phenyo Thebe and James Denbow
2009    The social geography of pottery in Botswana as reconstructed by optical petrography. Journal of African Archaeology 7:3-39.

Studying the provenance of turquoise in the southwestern USA , and of glass trade beads and copper alloys in Africa, by lead and strontium isotopic ratio analysis. Collaboration with Alyson Thibodeau, Joaquin Ruiz and John Chesley (UA Geosciences), Tom Fenn (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven), Saul Hedquist and Chuck Adams (UA Anthropology). Supported 2009-2011 by NSF grant BCS-0852270.

Sican copper smelting (900-1100 CE) in the Pampa de Chaparri, north Peru. (Collaboration with Frances Hayashida, University of New Mexico). Supported by NSF grant BCS-0838211 to Dr. Hayashida.

Tracing the movements of Lapita colonists (1200-800 BCE) around New Caledonia and adjacent islands through petrographic and trace element analysis of pottery. (Collaboration with Scarlett Chiu, National University of Taiwan).

Technology transfer and long-distance trade in the Islamic world system of the Indian Ocean, ca. 750-1500 CE, as seen from southern African peripheries. Collaboration with Simon Hall and Shadreck Chirikure (University of Cape Town), Ed Wilmsen (Edinburgh), Jim Denbow (University of Texas, Austin), Lisa Molofsky (ex-UA Geosciences), Dana Drake Rosenstein and Tom Fenn (UA Anthropology). Supported 2006-2008 by NSF grant BCS-0542135.

 Sub-Saharan Africa, southwestern USA, Peru, New Caledonia