Reinhard Bernbeck is currently professor of Ancient Western Asian Archaeology at the Freie Universität Berlin, and Professor of Anthropology at Binghamton University. His research in Topoi focuses on the implementation of Late Neolithic technological innovations in societies of southern Turkmenistan (Area A II). He has pursued similar research questions through excavations in Iran and Turkey. He is also interested in the ideological dimensions of archaeology and is concerned with the often divisive political fallout of archaeological research. These latter interests have led him to engage in Topoi’s Cross Sectional Group V.