Rate My Professor Philip Latham

Philip Latham serves as the Archaeology Laboratory Manager in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Otago. He holds an MA in Archaeology from the University of Otago, where his 2005 master's dissertation, titled 'Investigating Change over Time in the Prehistoric Fish Catch at Pūrākaunui,' explored prehistoric fishing practices in New Zealand. Latham's academic interests center on New Zealand archaeology and the replication of prehistoric technologies. In addition to his managerial role, he has contributed to scholarly research, co-authoring the paper 'Victorian Era European Exploitation of Pounamu in Southern New Zealand' with Justin J. Maxwell and Angela Middleton, published in the Journal of Pacific Archaeology in 2015. This work details the historical European processing and commercialization of greenstone (pounamu) in Dunedin during the Victorian era.

As Laboratory Manager, Latham oversees an extensive array of archaeological facilities totaling 295 square meters on the ground and first floors of the Richardson Building. These include dedicated spaces for cleaning and sorting excavated materials, a controlled-temperature room for drying wet samples, laboratories for processing, identification, and analysis of assemblages, and secure storage for archaeological collections. The labs feature comprehensive reference collections of faunal remains, lithic materials, and artefacts. Specialized equipment supports advanced research through a spatial analysis laboratory with GIS capabilities, a microscopy lab, a petrology lab for thin-section preparation, and an ancient DNA laboratory. Latham acts as the primary point of contact for accessing these resources, enabling researchers, staff, and students to conduct high-quality analyses. He also fulfills the role of Departmental Health and Safety Officer, ensuring safe operations across the laboratories. His technical expertise and support have been acknowledged in numerous peer-reviewed publications spanning obsidian sourcing, phylogeographic studies, isotopic analyses of colonial remains, and more, underscoring his integral contributions to archaeological research at the University of Otago.