Patrick Willett is an Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Fellow with the Flemish Research Foundation at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Research Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University at Buffalo. He received PhDs in both Anthropology and Archaeology from the University at Buffalo and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven respectively. Since then, he has held appointments in Türkiye (American Research Institute in Turkey), Belgium (Flemish Research Foundation) and the United States (University at Buffalo). His research focuses on the social and economic dynamics of land-use practices in the context of long-term environmental change. He is currently working on modeling the impacts of human land uses in the past on subsequent agricultural potentials in the Eastern Mediterranean and how this can inform the sustainable maintenance of productive lands in the face of contemporary climate change.

• Anthropology
• Archaeology
• Environment and Sustainability

Willett, P.T., Carleton, W.C., Broothaerts, N., Vandam, R.: “Changing with the Times: From agricultural potential to spatially explicit reconstructions of past land use,” in: The Holocene 2023 (issue forthcoming).

Willett, P.T., Carleton, W.C., Torun, E., Vandam, R., Poblome, J.: “Modeling Archaeological Potentials in Southwest Anatolia: A Tool for Planning Sustainable Futures at Ancient Sagalassos,” in: K. Garstki (ed.), Critical Archaeology in the Digital Age, Los Angeles, CA, UCLA Cotsen Digital Archaeology Series 2022, pp. 67–78.

Vandam, R., Kaptijn, E., Willett P.T., Poblome, J.: “Highlands and lowlands: different landscapes, different archaeologies? A diachronic case-study from the Taurus Mountains (SW Turkey),” in A. Garcia (ed.), Archaeology of Mountain Landscapes. Albany, NY,  SUNY Press 2023.

Brady, J., Anvari, J., Franz, I., Naumov, G., Orton, D., Ostaptchouk, S., Stroud, E., Willett, P.T., Rosenstock, E., Biehl, P.F.: “Çatalhöyük West and the Late Neolithic to Early Chalcolithic Transition in Central Anatolia,” in: P.F. Biehl, E. Rosenstock (eds.), Times of Change: 6,000 BC in the Near East and Europe. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 2022, pp. 158–177.  

Vandam, R., Willett, P.T., Carleton, W.C., Poblome, J.: “Get Going with Survey Legacy Data. The 2018 and 2019 Archaeological Survey Results from the Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project,” in: S.R. Steadman, G. McMahon (eds.), The Archaeology of Anatolia Volume IV: Recent Discoveries (2018-2020), Cambridge, Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2022, pp. 312–321.

Vandam, R., Willett P.T.: “The Importance of Intensive Surveys in Late Prehistoric Research: A Pisidian Case Study,” in: A. Mörel, G. Kaşka, H. Köker, M. Kaşka, M. Firat, & S.O. Akgönül (eds.), Pisidian Studies II: Production, Trade and Economy in Pisidia and Its Surrounding Areas, Isparta, Adım Matbaacılık 2020, TR. 70–83.

Vandam, R., Willett, P.T., Poblome, J.: “The Results of the 2017 Dereköy Archaeological Survey by the Sagalassos Project in the Western Taurus Mountains,” in: S.R. Steadman, G. McMahon (eds.), The Archaeology of Anatolia Volume III: Recent Discoveries (2017-2018), Ch. 19., Cambridge, Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2019, pp. 260–269.

Anvari, J., Brady, J., Franz, I., Naumov, G., Orton, D., Ostaptchouk, S., Stroud, E., Willett, P.T., Rosenstock, E., Biehl, P.F.: “Continuous Change: Venturing into the Early Chalcolithic at Çatalhöyük,” in: S.R. Steadman, G. McMahon (eds.), The Archaeology of Anatolia Volume II: Recent Discoveries (2015-2016), Ch. 2., Cambridge, Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2017, pp. 6–39.

Vandam, R., Willett, P.T., Poblome, J.: “Up in the Hills: The 2016 Sagalassos archaeological survey results,” in: ANMED News Bulletin on Archaeology from Mediterranean Anatolia 15 (2017), pp. 224-232.

Willett, P.T., Franz, I., Kabukcu, C., Orton, D., Rogasch, J., Stroud, E., Rosenstock, E., Biehl, P.F.: “The Aftermath of the 8.2 Event: Cultural and Environmental Effects in the Anatolian Late Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic,” in: P.F. Biehl, O. Nieuwenhuyse (eds.), Climate and Cultural Change in Prehistoric Europe and the Near East, Distinguished Monograph Series of the Institute for European and Mediterranean Archaeology, Albany, NY, SUNY Press 2016, pp. 95-115.