An archaeologist and historian by training, after teaching appointments at Leyden, Amsterdam, Cambridge (UK) and Paris (Panthéon-Sorbonne) he recently took up the Chair of the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. His research interests are in archaeological theory, reconstruction of ancient ceramic technologies, regional archaeology, ancient and modern man-land relationships, computer simulation modelling and Complex Systems Theory. He did archaeological fieldwork in Syria, Holland and France, and conducted ethno-archaeological studies in the Near East, the Philippines and Mexico. Since 1992 he has been involved in a series of large international research projects financed by the European Union. These were concerned with understanding and modelling the natural and anthropogenic causes of desertification, land degradation and land abandonment, as well as Environmental Perception and Policy Making and Environmental Communication. Another such project concerned the “Archives of European Archaeology” and the way they have selectively been used in the creation of national and regional identities. In 1999-2001 he directed a project on the relationship between regional identity, history and the landscape in Eastern France funded by the French Ministry of the Environment.
In 2001-2003, he served as “Rapporteur-Général” (Secretary General) of the French “Conseil national de Coordination des Sciences de l’Homme et de la Société”. This was followed by an appointment as Deputy Director for Social Sciences at the CNRS and at the Institut national des Sciences de l’Univers (2002-2003). He is an External Faculty Member of the Santa Fe Institute, a Correspondent of the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Member of the Institut Universitaire de France.
Among his books are: “Quelles natures voulons nous?” (What kind of nature do we want for ourselves?)(with Chr. Lévèque; Elsevier, Paris, 2003), “Archéologie et systèmes socio-environnementaux” (Archaeology and socio-natural systems) (with F. Favory and J.-L. Fiches; Presses du CNRS, Paris, 2003) and “The Archaeomedes project: Understanding anthropogenic causes of land degradation and desertification in the Mediterranean Basin” (Official Publications of the European Union, Luxemburg, 1998). He published 12 other books and about 100 papers and book chapters, as well as numerous reports to the research Directorate of the European Union and other institutions.