Joan Oates

Joan Oates, FBA (née Lines) is an American archaeologist and academic, specialising in the Ancient Near East. From 1971 to 1995, she was a fellow and tutor of Girton College, Cambridge and a lecturer at the University of Cambridge. Since 1995, she has been a Senior Research Fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. Since 2004, she has been director of the excavations of Tell Brak; she was Co-Director, with her husband David Oates, between 1988 and 2004.

In 2014, she was awarded the Grahame Clark Medal for Prehistoric Archaeology by the British Academy. The citation read: "to recognise her reputation as one of the leading authorities on Mesopotamian prehistory as well as her fundamental contributions to our understanding of ancient Near Eastern Civilisation."

Personal life

While participating in the excavation of Nimrud, she met David Oates (1927–2004). They married in 1956 and together had three children. They have collaborated on a number of archaeological publications and excavations.

Works

• Oates, David; Oates, Joan (1976). The rise of civilization. Oxford: Elsevier. ISBN 072900015X.
• Oates, Joan (1986). Babylon (Rev. ed.). New York, N.Y.: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0500273847.
• Oates, Carolyn; Postgate, Carolyn; Oates, David (1997). The excavations at Tell al Rimah: the pottery. Warminster: British School of Archaeology in Iraq. ISBN 0856687006.
• Oates, David; Oates, Joan; McDonald, Helen (1998). Excavations at Tell Brak: Vol. 1: The Mitanni and Old Babylonian periods. Cambridge: McDonald Institute. ISBN 0951942050.
• Oates, David; Oates, Joan; McDonald, Helen (2001). Excavations at Tell Brak: Vol. 2: Nagar in the third millennium BC. Cambridge: McDonald Institute. ISBN 9780951942093.
• Oates, Joan; Oates, David (2001). Nimrud: an Assyrian imperial city revealed. London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq. ISBN 0903472252.