About

Roderick B. Campbell is a Professor of East Asian Archaeology and History at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) at New York University. He is a member of the PhD Admissions Committee for the academic year 2025-26. The information provided does not include further details about his research focus, background, or key contributions.

Research topics

• History
• Archaeology
• Geography
• Political Science
• Economics
• Physical geography
• Geology
• Ancient history
• Cartography
• Economic system
• Paleontology
• Economy
• Market economy
• Law

Selected publications

• Microwear Analysis and Experimental Study on Animal Dismemberment Marks from the Late Longshan Period to the Early Bronze Age in the Central Plains Region

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2026-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Before the Western Zhou: An Outline of Shang Political Economy

  Archaeologies · 2025-04-17

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Pottery analysis at Guandimiao: New insights into the rural economy of the anyang period

  Journal of Archaeological Science Reports · 2025-02-11

  articleCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• War and the Polity in Early China

  University of Arizona Press eBooks · 2025-06-17

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Out of sight out of mind: Impacts of Japanese use of Australian coal

  Climate Change and Law Collection · 2025-09-30

  dataset1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: New coal mines in the Hunter Valley

  Climate Change and Law Collection · 2025-09-30 · 2 citations

  dataset
  PublisherDOI

• The Shang Economy

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2025-03-27 · 3 citations

  bookOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This Element constitutes a systematic attempt to preliminarily reconstruct the Shang economy based on contemporary archaeological and textual evidence. At the same time, the rapid pace of Chinese archaeological discovery and the increasing deployment of archaeological science means that there is a wealth of new information making a new synthesis both challenging and necessary. This synthesis was written from the perspective that the study of ancient economy necessarily proceeds from the construction of models and the systematic exploration of principal economic components, including their articulation and change over time. Setting the Shang in comparative context with other ancient economies in this series, those principal components are the domestic and institutional economy, specialization, forms of exchange, and diachronic developments. It is hoped that with this organization, comparison with other ancient economies can be more easily made and the significance of the Shang case more clearly seen.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Experimental Archaeological Study of Incised Marks on Animal Bones Produced by Iron Implements

  Humans · 2025-05-15 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  In zooarchaeological research, animal bone fractures can result from various processes including slaughtering, dismemberment, marrow/grease extraction, craft processing, carnivore gnawing/trampling, sediment compression, bioturbation, and recovery bias. These fractures are further influenced by bone freshness/dryness and environmental temperature. The animal bones analysed in this study, excavated from Han dynasty tombs in the Xinxiang Plain New District, China, represent ritual offerings. These specimens exhibit distinct truncation features—chop surfaces, rough planes, and fracture traces—created by ancient iron tools for culinary purposes such as stewing preparation or consumption facilitation. These characteristics differ significantly, from the V-shaped butchery marks produced by stone/bronze tools and fracture patterns from marrow/grease extraction to post-depositional breakage formed during burial processes. In this study, steel tools were employed in the rocking slicing and rolling slicing of animal bones, complemented by techniques such as breaking to sever bone shafts. Subsequently, the marks on the cross-sections were observed using a stereomicroscope, and the results were compared and analysed with the materials from Han dynasty tombs unearthed at Xinxiang city, Henan Province. From the comparison between experimental observation results and archaeological materials, it is evident that the fine processing of meat-bearing bone materials mainly involved the use of rocking and rolling slicing methods. The cross-sections of the slices revealed shearing surfaces, rough patches, bone splinters, and sliced ends. The shearing surfaces in particular exhibited numerous visible trace characteristics, with the types and quantities of these traces varying with different cutting tools. This study holds significant reference value for exploring cutting tools and techniques in antiquity.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Pottery Analysis at Guandimiao: New Insights into the Rural Economy of the Anyang Period

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Pottery Analysis at Guandimiao: New Insights into the Rural Economy of the Anyang Period

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Maryanne Slattery

  Johnson & Johnson (Australia)

  13 shared

• Yitzchak Jaffe

  University of Haifa

  7 shared

• Yuan Jing

  6 shared

• Tom Swann

  6 shared

• Su‐Ting T. Li

  5 shared

• Richard Denniss

  4 shared

• Yanfeng Hou

  4 shared

• Cameron Murray

  4 shared

Labs

• Roderick Campbell's LabPI

  Not provided

Education

• Ph.D., Classics

  University of California, Berkeley

  1993

• M.A., Classics

  University of California, Berkeley

  1988

• B.A., Classics

  University of California, Santa Barbara

  1985

Awards & honors

• Canadian Social Sciences and Research Council grant
• Luce-ACLS fellowship
• Chiang Ching-kuo foundation grant
• Wenner Gren foundation grant