Jay Stephens

Jay Stephens joined NYU’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the fall of 2025. Jay has a background in archaeology, materials science, and geochemistry, and applies principles and methodologies from all three fields to study the history of mining and metallurgy, particularly within southern Africa. He received his PhD in Anthropology from the University of Arizona and was previously a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Archaeometry Laboratory at the University of Missouri Research Reactor from 2023-2025.

For the last 10 years, Jay has co-directed the NSF-funded Southern Africa Lead Isotope Project, which uses isotopic, chemical, and microstructural methods to reconstruct the provenance, or geological source, for non-ferrous metals in southern Africa and the technologies with which they were produced. Rather than focus on one specific period or region, Jay’s research takes a macro and diachronic approach to understand how participating communities across southern Africa negotiated their access to materials in the face of diverse social changes, such as the rise of states, mass migration, and arrival of European colonial forces. He has also worked on projects in other regions of the African continent, and in Central Asia, South America, Greece, Italy, and the United States.

While at ISAW, Jay will continue research related to the Southern Africa Lead Isotope Project and its current focus on the geological source for metals found at southern Africa’s earliest state, Mapungubwe, and on the timing for the adoption of bronze in the region. For more information on Jay’s research, see https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jay-Stephens-2?ev=hdr_xprf.