Dr. Mari Yamasaki is an archaeologist at the department of Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Mainz. In 2021, she obtained her PhD in Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of Mainz, within the framework of the Research Training Group 1876 Ancient Concepts of Humans and Nature (GRK 1876‚ Frühe Konzepte von Mensch und Natur). Between 2023 and 2024 she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Warsaw, and PI of the NCN Funded Polonez Bis project “Underwater Realms”. She has participated to numerous archaeological projects in the Mediterranean and since 2023, she is collaborating with the excavation at the Late Bronze Age site of Erimi-Pitharka, Cyprus, where she is the official illustrator and lithics specialist. 

Her research focus is on ancient Mediterranean maritimity during the Bronze and Iron Ages, with a particular interest for the human-marine entanglement and the conceptualizations of the sea, its resources, and its inhabitants.

Within Challenges, Mari Yamasaki is investigating the ancient divers of the eastern Mediterranean through their material and immaterial traces, their impact in the conceptualizations of the sea and its depths, and their role within the wider coastal/maritime communities. This research is part of Thematic Area 2: Created World

Projekt: The archaeology of ancient diving (TA 2 – Kreierte Welt)

Mitarbeit/Organisation:

• In Bearbeitung

Vorträge:

• Yamasaki, Mari (2026): ‘The Underwater Space as a Hyperobject between Experience and Imagination.’ Guest lecture at GAG-PEGG Seminar, Oxford (UK), May 2026.

Veranstaltungen:

• Oct. 2025 ‘Session D1: Underwater cultural landscapes.’ Session organiser at IKUWA 8 International Congress for Underwater Archaeology, Oostende (Belgium)

Edited volume:

Forthcoming     Yamasaki, M. and E. Rodríguez-Álvarez (eds.). The Ocean Below. Human Experiences and Material Culture of Freediving across Time and Space. Global Perspectives on Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology. Routledge.

Yamasaki, Mari (2026): ‘Die übernatürlichen Konnotationen des Meeres im östlichen Mittelmeerraum des 2. Jahrtausends v. Chr.’ in J. Althoff and A. Pruß (eds). Konzepte von Mensch und Natur: Universalität, Spezifität, Tradierung. DeGruyter.

Yamasaki, M. with S. Speck and F. Meneghetti (eds) 2025. Limiting Spaces. The Attribution of Spatial Meaning through the Creation of Boundaries. New Approaches in Archaeology 7. Brepols. (Open Access)

Articles in peer reviewed journals:

Yamasaki, M. and E. Rodriguez-Alvarez 2024. Freediving in Antiquity. Shima 18(1). DOI: 10.21463/shima.214

Yamasaki, M. 2024. Bronze Age stone anchors as material metaphors. Applying Conceptual Blending Theory to investigate their symbolic value. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. DOI: 10.1007/s10816-024-09642-z

Monograph

Yamasaki, M. 2023. Conceptualizing Bronze Age Seascapes. Concepts of the Sea and Marine Fauna in the Eastern Mediterranean During the 2^nd Millennium BCE. LEMA II. Brepols.

Chapters in edited volumes

Yamasaki, M. 2025. ‘Diving through the mirror. The liminality of water surfaces in the ancient Eastern Mediterranean’, in M. Yamasaki, S. Speck and F. Meneghetti (eds), Limiting Spaces. The Attribution of Spatial Meaning through the Creation of Boundaries. New Approaches in Archaeology 3. Brepols. (Open Access)

Yamasaki, M. 2025. ‘Underrepresented riches from the sea’, in L. Rechts and C. Tsouparopoulou (eds.) Human and Aquatic Beings: Interactions in and beyond the Eastern Mediterranean (3rd-1st Millennia BCE). Themes in Contemporary Archaeology. Springer

Recht, L., K. Zeman-Wisniewska, B. Clark and M. Yamasaki, ‘Excavations at Late Bronze Age Erimi-Pitharka, Cyprus: The 2024 season’, Internet Archaeology 69. https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.69.1

Yamasaki, M. 2022 ‘From Athirat to Aphrodite’ in C. Coppini et al. (Eds) Broadening Horizons 6. Bridging the Gap. Vol. 3. Oxford: ArchaeoPress

Yamasaki, M. 2021 ‘Maritime Identities. The case study of Late Bronze Age Cyprus’ in G. Albertazzi, G. Muti and A. Saggio (Eds), Islands in Dialogue. Rome: Edizioni Artemide