Associate Professor Mike Morley

Mike is a geoarchaeologist with over 20 years’ experience working in both academic and commercial environments. His primary area of expertise is the study of archaeological site formation processes and the reconstruction of palaeoenvironments at various scales through the study of site micro- and macro-stratigraphy, geological sequences and geomorphological landforms. He is interested in reconstructing changes in geomorphological systems (e.g., river behavioural change) and the implications of these dynamics on humans (and hominins) living in—and interacting with—these landscapes. He has worked widely in Europe, North Africa (Sudan, Libya), southern Africa (South Africa, Lesotho), Middle East (Oman, Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia) and Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Myanmar, East Timor).

Mike is currently an ARC Future Fellow, leading a project that will reconstruct the ground conditions present at various Late Pleistocene sites across Southeast Asia during periods of site occupancy and abandonment. He will use these data to gain a better understanding of the environmental conditions preferred by modern humans and other co-existing hominins as they dispersed through the region and ultimately onto the Australasian mainland.