Rowan Flad

Rowan Flad (b. 10.27.1972) is a Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University.  He received his BA from the University of Chicago, and MA and PhD from UCLA. His research focuses on the emergence and development of complex society during the late Neolithic period and the Bronze Age in China, with particular interest in diachronic change in production processes, the intersection between ritual activity and production, the role of animals in early Chinese society – especially their use in sacrifice and divination, and the processes involved in social change in general. Recently he has conducted excavations at a salt production site in Chongqing and archaeological survey in the Chengdu Plain focusing on prehistoric settlement patterns and social evolution in that region. New research is being planned focusing on technological change in Northwest China (Gansu) during the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age. He is the author of _Salt Production and Social Hierarchy in Ancient China: An archaeological investigation of specialization in China’s Three Gorges_ (Cambridge University Press, 2011), and _Ancient Central China: Centers and Peripheries Along the Yangzi River_ (Cambridge University Press, 2013), and numerous articles and book Chapters on Chinese archaeology.