Tuna Kalayci is a Assistant Professor of Archaeological Computer Sciences and is part of the Digital Archaeology research group. His interests include sensor data integration, urban studies, environmental modelling, production landscapes, and landscapes of movement within Near Eastern and Mediterranean contexts. His research tacks between data science and archaeology.
Tuna holds degrees in Statistics (BSc), Settlement Archaeology (MSc), and Anthropology (PhD). In his dissertation work at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville he investigated the stability of urban systems at the times of environmental crises. Next, he held a post-doctoral researcher position at the IMS-FORTH (Greece) specializing in remote sensing approaches to archaeology. Before joining Leiden University, he was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellow at the ISPC-CNR (Italy) and Durham University (UK). His project with the title “Modern Geospatial Technologies for Ancient Movement Praxis” produced computational tools for a better understanding of Bronze Age traffic in Upper Mesopotamia.
Currently, he is the assistant director of the Kerkenes and Zincirli projects in Turkey and is focusing on Iron Age urban dynamics. He is also affiliated with the SAILS Initiative.
