PhD, Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown University, 2015
B.A. (summa cum laude) Anthropology and Classical Archaeology and Ancient History, Brandeis University, 2009
Areas of Specialty
Survey and landscape archaeology
Geographic information systems
Indigeneity and colonialism in the archaeological record
Historical archaeology
Western New York History
Colonial dynamics in the Mediterranean (Iron Age through the Twentieth Century)
Courses Taught
ANT 101 - The Human Condition
ANT 202 - Introduction to Archaeology
ANT 307/WMS 307 - Gendering the Past
ANT 343 - Rivers, Cities and Empires
ANT 381 - Archaeology and Aliens
ANT 384 - Archaeological Methods
ANT 440 - Historical Archaeology
ANT 442 - Field Methods in Archaeology
ANT 470 - Professional Development
ANT 471 - Anthropological Theory
ANT 463/563 - Museology
HON 380 - Rotating Topics
Research Interests
I am a historical archaeologist with roots in the study of the Mediterranean Iron Age and episodes of colonialism and cultural interaction around the world. I have worked in the Rome, Jordan, Montserrat (West Indies), Guatemala, Providence (Rhode Island), and am currently working in Naples, New York, Sardinia, Italy, and Menorca, Spain. I am also heavily involved in public outreach in the Rochester area, working closely with the Memorial Art Gallery (as a Creative Workshop instructor and volunteer) and the Rochester Museum and Science Center.
Together with the Cumming Nature Center in Naples, New York, in 2017 I began excavating a previously known 19th century foundation, located on the nature center’s property, an area once known as Frost Town. This foundation belonged to a family and a settlement that based its livelihood on the exploitation of the old growth forests of the region. As a logging settlement, Frost Town was largely abandoned by the beginning of the 20th century as the forests began to decline and the farmland proved too difficult to exploit. This project, in conjunction with the Cumming Nature Center, a branch of the Rochester Museum and Science Center, aims to explore the daily lives of the people of Frost Town with respect to increasing inter-regional connectivity, Erie Canal traffic to the north, and the environmental degradation wrought by the logging establishment. Frost Town Archaeology had its inaugural field school season in 2019 and recently completed a 2022 field school with the support of an ACLS Sustaining Public Engagement Grant. For more information visit this website, frosttownarchaeology.com, or our Instagram page, @frosttownarchaeology.
I also continue to work in the Mediterranean as a co-director of the Menorca Archaeological Project, which investigates the Medieval Islamic communities of Menorca, Spain. We are an international team of experts that investigate the remains of 13th century Islamic households built into the remains of Iron Age settlements. I have been working on Menorca intermittently since 2007 and wrote my doctoral thesis on the prehistory of the island. Check out or Instgram page, @MAProject360. I am also a former co-director of the Sinis Archaeological Project (SAP) in West-Central Sardinia, a multi-scalar archaeological survey that aims to understand the human occupation of the Sinis Peninsula from the Neolithic to the 20th century.
A. J. Smith, M. S. Coll. 2021. Disentangling the Late Talayotic: Understanding Island Identities through Funerary Practices in the Balearic Islands during the Late Iron Age. In European Islands Between Isolated and Interconnected Life Worlds Interdisciplinary Long-Term Perspectives, edited by Frerich Schön, Laura Dierksmeier, Anna Kouremenos, Annika Condit, and Valerie Palmowski. Tubingen: University of Tubingen Press.
T. P. Leppard, A. J. Smith and J. F. Cherry. 2021. The Colonization and Early Prehistory of the Mediterranean Islands. In The Archaeology of Island Colonization, edited by Matthew F. Napolitano, Jessica H. Stone and Robert J. DiNapoli. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
A. Pérez-Juez, A. J. Smith, and M. Planas. 2021. La ocupación andalusí del yacimiento talayótico Torre d’en Galmés (Alaior, Menorca). Pyrenae.
L. Gosner, J. Nowline, and A. J. Smith. 2021. Ground-truthing the Site-based Survey at S’Urachi and Su Padrigheddu (West-Central Sardinia): Results of the 2016 and 2017 Seasons. Fasti Online Documents and Research.
A. J. Smith. 2020. Balearic Indigeneity in a Global Mediterranean: Considering Circular Domestic Structures of Late Iron Age Menorca. In Mediterranean Archaeologies of Insularity in the Age of Globalization, edited by Anna Kouremenos and Jody Michael Gordon. Oxford: Oxbow.
D. Plekhov, L. Gosner, A. J. Smith, and J. Nowlin. 2020. Applications of Satellite Remote Sensing for Archaeological Survey: A Case Study from the Sinis Archaeological Project, Sardinia. Advances in Archaeological Practice.
A. J. Smith. 2019. Review of Insularity & Identity in the Roman Mediterranean, Edited by Anna Kouremenos. American Journal of Archaeology.
L. Gosner and A. J. Smith. 2018. Landscape Use and Local Settlement at the Nuraghe S’Urachi (West-Central Sardinia): Results from the First Two Seasons of Site Survey (2014-2015). Fasti Online Documents and Research.
A. J. Smith and P. Van Dommelen. 2018. Monumental Engagements: Cultural Interaction and Island Traditions in the West Mediterranean. In Regional Approaches to Society and Complexity: Studies in Honor of John F. Cherry (Monographs in Mediterranean Archaeology 15), edited by Alex R. Knodell and Thomas P. Leppard. Sheffield: Equinox.
A. Pérez-Juez, R. Elia and A. J. Smith. 2015. Proyecto Arqueológico en Isla del Rey. In VI Jornades d’arqueologia de les Illes Balears, pp. 143-152. Formentera: Consell Insular de Formentera.
A. J. Smith. 2015. The Balearic Islands: In The Encyclopedia of Ancient History Online, New York: Wiley and Blackwell Publishing.
A. J. Smith and the Memorial Art Gallery. 2015. Ancient Greece: Interactive iBook. Rochester: Memorial Art Gallery of Rochester, New York.
A. J. Smith and the Memorial Art Gallery. 2014. Ancient Egypt: Interactive iBook. Rochester: Memorial Art Gallery of Rochester, New York.
T. Garrison, J. L. Garrido, O. Axpuac, T. Beach, S. Luzzadder-Beach, F. Beltrán and A. J. Smith. 2010. Capítulo 10: Programa de Investigaciones Regionales (Mapeo y Excavaciones). In Proyecto Arqueológico “El Zotz” Informe No. 5 Temporada 2010, edited by Jose Luis Garrido López, Stephen Houston, and Edwin Román, pp. 321-386. Guatemala: Informe Entregado Al Instituto de Antropología e Historia de Guatemala.
