Dr. Stephen Merkel

Research Interests

• Archaeometry, Archaeometallurgy, and Conservation
  
• Production and Trade of Silver and Brass in the Early Middle Ages
  
• Roman and Medieval Brass Production and Provenance
  
• High Temperature Technologies: Glass, Ceramics, Metals
  
• Experimental Archaeology of Glass, Ceramics, Metals and Pigments
  

Curriculum Vitae

• Since 2019 Post-doctoral researcher, university of Oxford, ERC project Silver and the Origins of the Viking Age

• 2015-2018 Post-doctoral researcher, DBM, Elsfleth-Project, Archaeometallurgy

• Since 2015 Managing editor of Metalla, Journal of the German Mining Museum

• 2015 PhD in Archaeology at the Ruhr-University Bochum

• 2014-2015 Research fellow at the Institute of Archaeology at the Ruhr-University (Field: Archaeometry)

• 2011-2014 Doctoral candidate at the Ruhr-Univeristy and the German Mining Museum Bochum in the graduate school ‘RITaK’ with the thesis “Silver and the Silver Economy at Hedeby”

• 2008-2011 Architectural Conservator/Archaeologist for the US National Park Service, Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico

• 2007 Archaeologist, URS Contract Archaeology Firm, Maryland, USA, and research assistant for the University College London as ceramic specialist in Belize

• 2006 M.A. in Artefact Studies at the University College London (Focus: Archaeometry)

• 2005 B.A. in Art History and Archaeology at the University of Maryland, College Park

• 2003 A.A. at Howard Community College

Project Involvement

• 2019-2024 ERC project Silver and the Origins of the Viking Age, University of Oxford

• 2015-2018 DFG Elsfleth project, DBM and Niedersächsisches Institut für historische Küstenforschung

• 2012-2015 Volkswagen-Stiftung, Zwischen Wikingern und Hanse, Landesmuseum Schloss Gottorf and DBM