Introduction

My research interests are in the prehistoric archaeology of West Asia and South Asia. In particular, I am interested in the period from the emergence of farming and pastoralism to urbanization and civilization. During this period, humans continued to search for various “shapes” of societies, entangled with various things and people from various regions. Drawing on artifacts, I seek to reconsider the social transformation during this period. I am eager to conduct interdisciplinary research collaborating with various natural science fields to extract as much information as possible from artifacts. I also attempt to broaden perspectives on the history of humankind through artifacts drawing attention to recent trends in philosophy and cultural anthropology. Following these policies, I am conducting excavations and surveys of archaeological sites in Iran, Iraqi Kurdistan, Oman, and Pakistan.

■The emergence of farming and pastoralism and urbanization
Miki, T. 2022 Pottery Making and the Communities During the 5th Millennium BCE in Fars Province, Southwestern Iran. Oxford, Archaeopress.
Miki, T. 2024 "A Study on the Design Arrangement of the Neolithic Painted Pottery in Southern Iran" Journal of West Asian Archaeology: 25: 1-17.
Odaka, T., O. Maeda, T. Miki, Y.S. Hayakawa, Y. Itahashi, M. Oda, R. K. Salih, H. H. Gharib "Halaf and Late Chalcolithic occupations at Shakar Tepe in the Shahrizor Plain, Iraqi Kurdistan: Preliminary report of the 2023 excavations", Archaeological Research in Asia 41: 100592 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ara.2025.100592
■Maritime interactions across the Gulf from the 3rd to 2nd millennia BCE and societes of ancient Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and the Arabian Peninsula
Miki, T., T. Kuronuma, H. Kitagawa, and Y. Kondo 2022 “Cave occupations in Southeastern Arabia in the second millennium BCE: Excavation at Mugharat al‐Kahf, North‐Central Oman.” Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 33(1), pp. 85-107. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/aae.12210
Miki, T., T. Kuronuma, B. L. MacDonald, M. D. Glascock, and Y. Kondo 2024 Petrographic and geochemical analyses of pottery from Wadi Tanuf, Oman: Approaching pottery production in south‐eastern Arabia during the second and first millennia BCE. Archaeometry 66(6): 1236-1254. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/arcm.12974

Areas of Research

・Near Eastern Archaeology
・South Asian Archaeology
・Interdisciplinary approaches to pottery

Social Contributions

・Understanding the trajectory of humankind
・Broadening our perspectives of the past