I was born on 24 January 1968 in Sieglar, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany — together with my identical twin brother Christian. Between 1976 and 1990 I spent most of my childhood and school years in Tübingen, attending the Uhlandgymnasium until my Abitur in 1987. Subsequently I was a conscript in the (West-) German army in Bavaria, spying on the (then) Soviet troops in the (then) CSSR.
Between 1988 and 1993 I studied Pre- and Protohistoric Archaeology, Ethnology, and Physical Anthropology at the Universities of Tübingen, Reading, and Hamburg. I completed my first degree (M.A.) at Hamburg with a thesis on the contemporary meanings of megalithic monuments. Leaving Germany behind for good, I then moved on to the Department of Archaeology at the University of Wales, Lampeter, to study with Michael Shanks and other inspiring scholars, first for an M.A. in Archaeological Theory and then for a Ph.D. entitled "Monumental Past: Interpreting the meanings of ancient monuments in later prehistoric Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Germany)", defended in 1998. I felt very much at home in Lampeter, Llanwnnen, and Llanybydder.
In 1998 I became a STINT Visiting Scholar at the (then) Institute of Archaeology at the University of Göteborg. During this academic year, I started two fieldprojects: at Monte da Igreja in southern Portugal and (as part of a much larger initiative) on Monte Polizzo in Sicily. In 1999 I returned to the UK for employment at the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge, two years of which I was replacing Ian Hodder while he was on leave in Stanford. After, in total, eight years in the UK it was however time to move on.
So, in 2002 I became a Marie-Curie Fellow funded by the European Commission and was employed at Riksantikvarieämbetet (the Swedish National Heritage Board) in Stockholm. My two-year research project dealt with "The portrayal of archaeology in popular culture" and resulted in a book with many great cartoons by Quentin Drew.
Between 2005 and 2008 I was an Assistant Professor at the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Lund. In 2007 I was promoted to Docent. From 2008 until 2011 I worked as an Associate Professor (Universitetslektor) in Archaeology, now at the School of Cultural Sciences at Linnaeus University on Campus Kalmar. My main responsibility became the undergraduate programme in Heritage Studies. Since 2011 I have been Professor of Archaeology at Linnaeus University.
As far as my current research is concerned, I am completing various projects including my excavation project in Portugal. I am also developing some new projects on "The Archaeology of Time Travel" (with Bodil Petersson), "Places as stories", and "Applied cultural heritage".
I live in Kalmar together with my son Tom (* 2001) and my daughter Melanie (* 2005).
Where is the beautiful historic city of Kalmar?