Dr. Heather M.-L. Miller
Associate Professor and Graduate Coordinator
Department of Anthropology, UTM
        & Graduate Faculty, St. George
University of Toronto

Primary Office: 208 North Building, UTM
Phone: 905-828-3741
FAX:  905-828-3837
Email:  heather.miller "at" utoronto.ca  (check below first -
                   the information you need may be provided!)

Mailing Address:  Anthropology, UTM
                             3359 Mississauga Road North
                             Mississauga, ON L5L1C6
                             Canada

Office Hours for Spring 2008:  UTM:  Tuesdays 4 to 5 pm, in Room 208 North Building
    St. George:  11-12 Mondays:  Drop in Graduate Office hour, 306 Anthropology Building
                                    and  By appointment in Room 306 Anthropology Building
   

TEACHING

RESEARCH

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

EDUCATION

Teaching


FALL 2008

ANT1000:  Theoretical Paradigms and Case Studies (required Masters course)   (Fall 2008 syllabus)

SPRING 2009

ANT416H5:  Advanced Archaeological Analysis   (Spring 2009 syllabus to be posted)


Selection of syllabi for other recently taught courses

ANT101H5    Introduction to Biological Anthropology and Archaeology  (Summer 2006 syllabus)  (Summer 2007 syllabus)
ANT102H5    Introduction to Sociocultural and Linguistic Anthropology (Summer 2006 syllabus)  (Summer 2007 syllabus)
ANT310H5   Complex Societies  (Fall 2005 Syllabus)
ANT310H5:   Complex Societies   (Link to Spring 2008 syllabus - PDF)  (Link to Essay Instructions - PDF)
    Link to library reference page - seaches & encyclopedias (helpful for other classes too!)
ANT312H5   Archaeological Analysis    (Fall 2004 syllabus)
ANT316H5   Archaeology of South Asia   (Fall 2006 syllabus)  (Fall 2004 syllabus)
ANT405Y5:   Technology, Society and Culture   (Link to 2008-09 syllabus)
ANT1000H:  Theoretical Paradigms and Case Studies (required Masters course)  (Fall 2007 syllabus)
ANT4038H5  Archaeology of Urbanism (graduate course)   (Fall 2005 syllabus)
ANT4068H5  Archaeology of Technology (graduate course)  (Fall 2006 syllabus)  (Fall 2004 syllabus) 

SAS 2004H:  Issues in South Asian Studies (Link to Spring 2008 yllabus - PDF)  (Link to Assignment Instructions - PDF)



Information for Students:  Careers in Anthropology

Applying to graduate school?  
    See this link for information on what you need to do  (including how to write a CV) 

Want to know more about non-academic careers in anthropology?  
    (1) Look at the web site for the National Association for Practicing Anthropologists (NAPA)
            (part of the American Anthropological Association):   www.practicinganthropology.org
    (2) Or the web site for the Society for Applied Anthropology:     www.sfaa.net


Research

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Ancient Technology - Material Culture
        Social Aspects of Technology, Craft Production, Manufacturing Techniques & Materials
Complex/Urban Societies
        Comparative;  South Asia, including Indus Valley Civilization, Mughal & Historic period
Regional Inter-connections
        Transportation & Communication, Cultural Contact
Human Ecology / Cultural Geography
        Resource & Subsistence Systems - Human/Plant Interrelations


I've done much of my research on high-temperature pyrotechnologies in the Indus civilization, particularly at the site of Harappa.  This research has been conducted through my involvement with the Harappa Archaeological Research Project (HARP), whose work is featured at www.harappa.com. You can learn more about the archaeology of the ancient city of Harappa and other aspects of the Indus civilization at this web site.  My publications on Indus craft production, agricultural systems, and social/political structures are listed below.

My new research is currently centred around the medieval/Islamic period trade and communication routes through northwestern Pakistan, particularly through the city of Peshawar.  I am working with a number of Pakistani and international scholars on a long-term project, the Caravanserai Networks Project, to examine economic, political, and social aspects of the contact between people along these routes.  A major part of this endeavor is the development of a database of travel amenity locations based on both textual and archaeological data, which will eventually be available to the research community as a searchable internet database (we hope).
My field research at the moment is the development of a pottery typology for both glazed and unglazed ceramics from the excavations at Gor Khuttree in the centre of Peshwar, work being conducted by the Directorate for Archaeology and Museums of the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP).  My graduate student, Jennifer Campbell, is conducting architectural analysis of the Gor Khuttree and other Mughal period serais in the region, including the creation of a flexible typology for the recording of standing architecture. 
This research is currently funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and the Connaught Foundation at the University of Toronto, with great assistance from Prof. Ihsan Ali, formerly Director of the NWFP Directorate and now Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hazara, Pakistan. 

I was the CotsenVisiting Scholar at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA in 2001-2002, and there are two articles about my interests in the Newsletter of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA.  For my general approach to ancient technology and my new research project on caravanserai networks between South & Central Asia, see Backdirt Fall 2001.  For my last season of work at Harappa, see the lead article in Backdirt Spring 2002. 

Finally, in the summer of 2005 I spent six weeks in Papua New Guinea as the material culture consultant for a new project  on imagination and perception among the Asabano, directed by Prof. Roger Lohmann of Trent University.  More information on this project is posted on Dr. Lohmann's website.   Sharon McCartan (BA 2006 from UTM), Roger Lohmann, and I have been cataloguing and analyzing materials previously collected from the Asabano by Dr. Lohmann (wooden drums, wooden arrows, string bags, shell and fiber ornaments, bamboo smoking tubes, grass skirts, etc.) for inclusion in the Mountain Ok database being created by Dr. Barry Craig & Andrew Fyfe (website soon to be posted). 

I am also currently a member of the Archaeology Centre at the University of Toronto (website in progress), TUARC, the Trent University Archaeology Research Centre, and the Centre for South Asian Studies at the University of Toronto.

Selected Publications - Heather M.-L. Miller

2006   Archaeological Approaches to Technology.   Academic Press/Elsevier. 

in press    Issues in the Determination of Ancient Value Systems:  The Role of Talc (Steatite) and Faience in the Indus Civilization.  For forthcoming Intercultural Relations Between South and Southwest Asia.  Studies in Commemoration of E.C.L. During-Caspers (1934-1996).  ed. Eric Olijdam.  BAR International Series.  Archaeopress.

2008  The Indus Talc-Faience Complex:  Types of Materials, Clues to Production.  In: South Asian Archaeology 1999, ed. Ellen M. Raven.  pp. 111-122. International Institute of Asian Studies (IIAS), Leiden, Netherlands.  (PDF courtesy of the publisher, for individual use only)

2007  Jonathan Mark Kenoyer and Heather M.-L. Miller. Multiple Crafts and Socio-Economic Associations in the Indus Civilization:  New Perspectives from Harappa, Pakistan.  In:  Rethinking Craft Production: The Nature of Producers and Multi-craft Organization, ed. Izumi Shimada.  pp. 152-183.  Univ. of Utah Press.

2007  Associations and Ideologies in the Locations of Urban Craft Production at Harappa, Pakistan (Indus Civilization).  In:  Rethinking Specialization in Complex Societies: Archaeological Analysis of the Social Meaning of Production, ed. Zachary X. Hruby & Rowan K. Flad. pp. 37-51. Archaeological Paper of the American Anthropological Association (AP3A), Number 17.  American Anthropological Association and University of California-Berkeley Press.

2006  Comparing Landscapes of Transportation:  Riverine-oriented and land-oriented systems in the Indus Civilization and the Mughal Empire.  In:  Space and Spatial Analysis in Archaeology, ed.  E.C. Robertson et al.  pp. 281-292.  University of Calgary Press and University of New Mexico Press.

2006  Water Supply, Labor Organization and Land Ownership in Indus Floodplain Agricultural Systems.  In: Agriculture and Irrigation in Archaeology, ed. Charles Stanish & Joyce Marcus.  Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press.  (PDF courtesy of the publisher, for individual use only.)

2005    Investigating Copper Production at Harappa:  Surveys, Excavations and Finds.  In: South Asian Archaeology 2001, ed. Catherine Jarrige and Vincent Lefevre.  pp. 245-252.  Paris:  Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations.

2000    Reassessing the Urban Structure of Harappa:  Evidence from Craft Production Distribution.  In:  South Asian Archaeology 1997, ed. Maurizio Taddei & Giuseppe De Marco.  Rome: Istituto Italian per l’Africa e l’Oriente (IsIAO) & Istituto Universitario Orientale, Naples.  Pp. 77-100.

2000    Massimo Vidale & Heather M.-L. Miller.  On the development of Indus technical virtuosity and its relation to social structure.  In:  South Asian Archaeology 1997, ed. Maurizio Taddei & Giuseppe De Marco.  Rome: Istituto Italian per l’Africa e l’Oriente (IsIAO) & Istituto Universitario Orientale, Naples.  Pp. 115-132.

1999    Jonathan M. Kenoyer & Heather M.-L. Miller.  Metal Technologies of the Indus Valley Tradition in Pakistan and Western India.  In:  The Archaeometallurgy of the Asian Old World, ed. Vincent C. Pigott.  University of Pennsylvania Museum Monograph 89.  University Museum Symposium Series Volume VII.  MASCA Research Papers in Science and Archaeology Volume 16.  Philadelphia:  University Museum Publications, University of Pennsylvania.  Pp.  107-151.

1997    Pottery Firing Structures (Kilns) of the Indus Civilization During the Third Millennium B.C.  In: Prehistory & History of Ceramic Kilns, ed. Prudence Rice & W. David Kingery. Ceramics & Civilization Series, Volume VII.  Columbus, OH: American Ceramic Society.  Pp. 41-71.

1994    Metal Processing at Harappa and Mohenjo-daro:  Information from Non-Metal Remains.  In:  South Asian Archaeology 1993, ed. Asko Parpola & P. Koskikallio.  Annales Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae; Series B, Vol. 271.  Helsinki:  Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia.  Pp. 497-510.

1991    Urban Palaeoethnobotany at Harappa.  In:  Harappa Excavations 1986-1990:  A Multidisciplinary Approach to Third Millennium Urbanism, ed. Richard H. Meadow.  Madison, WI:  Prehistory Press.  Pp. 121-126.


Education

Ph.D.  Anthropology,  University of Wisconsin-Madison, U.S.A.    1999
    Archaeology Concentration;   Minor in Geography
        Dissertation:  Pyrotechnology and  Society in the Cities of the Indus Valley
    Advisor: Dr. J. M. Kenoyer 

M.A. Anthropology,  University of Wisconsin-Madison        1989

M.Sc. Bioarchaeology,  Institute of Archaeology, University College London, U.K.    1988
    Archaeobotany Concentration
        M.Sc. Project:  "Preliminary Analysis of the Plant Remains from Tarakai Qila, Pakistan"
    with Distinction;  Sir Flinders Petrie Award

B.A. Honors Anthropology,  William Marsh Rice University, Houston, Texas, U.S.A.    1987
B.A. Biology
        Honors Thesis:  "Environmental Aspects of the Decline of the Indus Civilization"
    Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa


This page last updated Dec. 12, 2008.