From Distant Tales ─ Archaeology and Ethnohistory in the Highlands of Sumatra

Dominik Bonatz earned his Ph.D. from the Free University of Berlin (1997) with a dissertation on Das Syro-hethitische Grabdenkmal. He is Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology at the Free University of Berlin, with a special interest in the social and cultural context of ancient Near Eastern visual arts and in comparative studies ranging from the Mediterranean to the Southeast Asian World. He has conducted research in Syria, Lebanon, and Indonesia. John N. Miksic earned his Ph.D. from Cornell University (1979) with a dissertation on Archaeology, Trade, and Society in Northeast Sumatra. He is an Associate Professor in the Southeast Asian Studies Programme at the National University of Singapore. His main books are Historical Dictionary of Ancient Southeast Asia; Old Javanese Gold; Borobudur: Golden Tales of the Buddha; and Icons of Art: National Museum Singapore. J. David Neidel earned a Ph.D. from Yale University (2006) with a dissertation entitled The Garden of Forking Paths: History, Its Erasure and Remembrance in Sumatra's Kerinci Seblat National Park. He is the Asia Training Program Coordinator for the Environmental Leadership and Training Initiative, a joint program of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, based at the National University of Singapore. Mai Lin Tjoa-Bonatz earned her Ph.D. from the Technical University of Darmstadt (2001) with a dissertation on The Shophouse of Colonial Penang. She is a lecturer in the Institute of South Asian Art History at the Free University of Berlin, with special interests in the architecture, urban history, and archaeology of Indonesia and Malaysia.