About 

                                          Dr. Marie (Nikki, or Doc to her students) Nicole Pareja Cummings

                                          is an archaeologist, art historian, and anthropologist who currently

                                          works with the University of Pennsylvania Museum of

                                         Anthropology and Archaeology, and Pennsylvania State University                                             in Central Pennsylvania. Focusing first on Minoan tripod cooking

                                          vessels and then on Bronze Age Minoan and Cycladic iconography,                                           she earned her MA and PhD from Temple University (2013, 2015).

                                         While finishing her first book in 2017, Monkey and Ape Iconography

                                         in Aegean Art, her interest shifted beyond the Aegean Islands, to

                                        include Ancient Egypt, Anatolia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, the

                                        Indus River Valley, and beyond.  She now focuses on movement and

                                        exchange during the Bronze Age in Afro-Eurasia, which includes

                                        such topics as craft specialization, iconography, maritime trade, and

                                        the adaption and adoption of various prehistoric ideologies. 

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Doc teaches cross-listed, transdisciplinary classes for Archaeology, Anthropology, Art History, Design, and Humanities departments. Some of her students' favorite classes are those that Doc independently created, including Myth Making in Ancient Afro-Eurasia, The Archaeology of Death, and Art of the Supernatural: Sky Gods, Earth Mothers, and Hybrid Creatures. Doc also offers the typical introductory courses, including World Archaeology, Archaeological Methods, Introduction to Art History, Greek Art and Archaeology, Roman Art and Archaeology, Art of the Renaissance, and all survey art history and archaeology courses.

 

Because she believes that hands-on, experiential learning is a key component of education, Doc designed, built, and now directs the first outdoor dig simulator for Pennsylvania State University as a critical component of her World Archaeology course. Excavation is a necessarily destructive practice, and therefore archaeologists have a great responsibility to preserve and document as much as possible. Because of this, and the anxiety it often inspires in students about digging, she created the simulator. Now students who are interested in Archaeology can participate and train in excavation from a controlled, low-risk environment while also learning many of the practical skills that are useful within the discipline, broader academia, and beyond (for more on student excavation at PSU, check out @docsdig on Instagram). 

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Doc is the founder and director of the Aegean Bronze Age Studies Initiative (ABASI), and the Plasters Analysis Project (PLAN), which is grounded in the University of Pennsylvania Museum's Center for the Analysis of Ancient Materials. She is co-founder and co-director of the Aegean-Indus Bronze Age Research Network (IA-BARN), a project that grew out of the first international workshop on Bronze Age relations between the Indus and Aegean, at University of Oxford. She is actively involved in several excavations, as well. For more on these, check out the Projects tab at the top of the page. 

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