Ronika K. Power
Alma materMacquarie University
University of Bradford
Scientific career
InstitutionsMacquarie University
University of Cambridge
ThesisFrom the cradle to the grave : child, infant and foetal burials in the Egyptian archaeological record from the Early Dynastic Period to the Middle Kingdom (ca. 3300-1650 BC) (2012)

Ronika K. Power is an Australian archaeologist who is a Professor of Bioarchaeology in the Department of History and Archaeology and Director of the Centre for Ancient Cultural Heritage and Environment at Macquarie University. Power is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and the Royal Society of New South Wales.

Early life and education

Power became interested in mummies as a child.[1][2] She became ill with glandular fever and missed her high school leaving exams.[2] She was left with chronic fatigue syndrome and remained unwell for eight years.[2] Power was an undergraduate student at Macquarie University, where she studied ancient history. She graduated with the University Medal. After graduating Power moved to the United Kingdom, where she completed a master's degree in Palaeography at the University of Bradford. Power returned to Australia, where she completed her doctoral research in egyptology at Macquarie University.[3] Her doctorate evaluated burials in the early Dynastic period. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.[1]

Research and career

Power worked as a European Research Council postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge. As part of this work, she looked to understand the nature of connectivity in the Trans-Saharan zone.[4] In 2014, she started working on the ERC Fragility and Sustainability in the restricted island environments of Malta (FRAGSUS) project, which studied why certain cultures maintained civilisations for centuries whilst other collapsed more quickly.[5] FRAGSUS was the outcome of a long-term collaboration between the University of Malta and the University of Cambridge, largely driven by Caroline Malone.[5] Power worked with the British Museum to develop Egyptian Mummies: Exploring Ancient Lives, an exhibition that ran from 2016 to 2017.[6]

In 2016, Power returned to Macquarie University, where she was made a lecturer in bioarchaeology. Her research considers ancient human remains to better understand human health and migration.[3] She studied the fossilised skeletons of a massacre that occurred 10,000 years ago in Lake Turkana.[7] This study was named by Archaeology as one of the Top Ten Discoveries of 2016.[8] Alongside her research, Power taught courses on the archaeology of death and burial. She delivered a TED talk at TEDxMelbourne in 2019.[9]

Awards and honours

Selected publications

  • Marta Mirazón Lahr; F Rivera; Ronika Power; et al. (20 January 2016). "Inter-group violence among early Holocene hunter-gatherers of West Turkana, Kenya". Nature. 529 (7586): 394–398. doi:10.1038/NATURE16477. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 26791728. Wikidata Q30052466.
  • Ronika K. Power; Yann Tristant (21 November 2016). "From refuse to rebirth: repositioning the pot burial in the Egyptian archaeological record". Antiquity. 90 (354): 1474–1488. doi:10.15184/AQY.2016.176. ISSN 0003-598X. Wikidata Q59144962.
  • Michelle F. Whitford; Simon Wyatt-Spratt; Damian B. Gore; Mattias T. Johnsson; Ronika K. Power; Michael Rampe; Candace Richards; Michael J. Withford (October 2020). "Assessing the standardisation of Egyptian shabti manufacture via morphology and elemental analyses". Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. 33: 102541. doi:10.1016/J.JASREP.2020.102541. ISSN 2352-409X. Wikidata Q108194966.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Kellahan, Kristie (4 December 2018). "Superstar of STEM, Ronika Power, makes a living by looking into death". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 "Whispers From The Ancient Dead: The Engrossing World Of Ronika Power - The Brilliant". 1 October 2020. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  3. 1 2 "Associate Professor Ronika Power". AIPS. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  4. ↑ "Trans-SAHARA: State Formation, Migration and Trade in the Central Sahara (1000 BC - AD 1500) | Archaeology and Ancient History | University of Leicester". le.ac.uk. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  5. 1 2 Stoddart, Dr Simon (28 April 2019). "FRAGSUS: Fragility and Sustainability in the restricted island environments of Malta". www.arch.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  6. ↑ Hakim, Libby (22 March 2017). "Building pictures of the ancient past". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  7. ↑ "Archaeological Find Points to Ancient Human Violence". Science Friday. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  8. ↑ "10,000-Year-Old Turf War - Archaeology Magazine". www.archaeology.org. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  9. ↑ Our urgent need to do death differently | Ronika Power | TEDxMelbourne, retrieved 24 January 2022
  10. ↑ "Prof Ronika Power". Society of Antiquaries of London. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  11. ↑ Administration (15 July 2019). "Macquarie Ancient History researchers elected to Royal Society of NSW". The Lighthouse. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  12. ↑ "Max Crawford Medal". Australian Academy of the Humanities. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  13. ↑ "2. Union académique internationale", Deutsch als internationale Wissenschaftssprache und der Boykott nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg, De Gruyter, pp. 434–449, 23 September 2019, retrieved 24 January 2022
  14. ↑ "NSW Tall Poppies". AIPS. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
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