Keri Porter – What can head trauma tell us about violence in an emerging Bronze Age city? Plus: How to apply for grad school

Keri Porter, a PhD candidate at Notre Dame University, joins the show to discuss their research on patterns of violence in a Bronze Age urban center in the Southern Levant. They focus on cranial trauma and what it can reveal about humans attempting to live together along with what it might reveal about who suffers violence. They also share some excellent recommendations for how to think about grad school, whether or not to go, and tips for applying.

Recommendations

• Keri Porter's Notre Dame profile page
• Martin, D.L., Harrod, R.P., & Pérez, V.R. (Eds.) (2013). The Bioarchaeology of Violence. University Press of Florida.
• Regev J, De Miroschedji P, Greenberg R, Braun E, Greenhut Z, Boaretto E. Chronology of the Early Bronze Age in the Southern Levant: New Analysis for a High Chronology. Radiocarbon. 2012;54(3-4):525-566.
• Greenberg, R. (2019). The Archaeology of the Bronze Age Levant: From Urban Origins to the Demise of City-States, 3700-1000 BCE. Cambridge University Press.
• Krakowka K. (2017). Patterns and prevalence of violence-related skull trauma in medieval London. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 164(3), 488–504. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.23288
• Krakowka, K. (2015). Understanding violence in medieval London: an examination of the skeletal evidence. [PhD thesis]. University of Oxford.
• Gorn, E. J. (1985). "Gouge and Bite, Pull Hair and Scratch": The Social Significance of Fighting in the Southern Backcountry. The American Historical Review, 90(1), 18–43.
• Collins, S. (2025). Sunrise on the Reaping. Scholastic Press.
• Fox, J. (2025). Down the Drain. Simon & Schuster.
• Green, J. (2025). Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection. Crash Course Books.
• Reinhard, A. (2018). Archaeogaming: An Introduction to Archaeology in and of Video Games, Berghan Books.
• Porter, K. (2022, November 4). Digging Up the Digital Past: Archaeogaming and Archaeological Practice in the Sims™ Franchise. UMMAA Brown Bag Lecture Series, Notre Dame University, Notre Dame, IN, USA.