Rita P. Wright

Dr. Wright is an anthropological archaeologist whose research engages early states and urbanism in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and India. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at New York University and is Assistant Director of the Harappa Archaeological Research Project and Director of the Beas Landscape and Settlement Survey near Harappa. Her specialties include ceramics, gender issues, urbanism and state level societies. 

Her ceramic research the Indus civilization and studies along the Beas River are broadening perspectives on the city of Harappa, rural settlements and urban processes.

Dr. Wright employs a comparative approach in her research, a view she presents in her book, The Ancient Indus: Urbanism, Economy and Society (Cambridge and New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 2010).

Dr. Wright's studies of climate change have spawned a new wave of research on this topic among Indus scholars.  She was the first archaeologist to employ sourcing (Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis) and archaeometric techniques to the study of clays in Indo-Iran in order to establish provenance and to reconstruct technologies of objects of material culture that circulated in a vast system of exchange. Her studies along the Beas are providing a broadened perspective on the city of Harappa, rural settlements and urban processes. The results of her studies of climate change have spawned a new wave of research on this topic among Indus scholars.

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