Affiliation: Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
Keywords: Prehistoric migrations, Kinship practices, Neolithic and Copper Age, Ancient DNA, Artificial intelligence
Full profile: Maxime Brami is a prehistoric archaeologist at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, where he serves as substitute professor in the Department of Pre- and Early Historical Archaeology of the Institute for Ancient Studies. Since 2018, he has also been a researcher in the university’s ancient DNA laboratory. A French-Luxembourg national raised in Paris, he studied archaeology and anthropology in the UK, completing his PhD at the University of Liverpool in 2014, followed by postdoctoral positions at the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
His research explores the interaction between culture and genetics in Neolithic and Copper Age Europe, using innovative AI-assisted approaches for data collection and analysis. Besides initiating research at the intersection of archaeology, genetics and computer science, Maxime is writing on the methodological and interpretive challenges raised by recent advances in ancient DNA research. His work has been supported by the German Research Foundation, the Luxembourg National Research Fund, and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. He delivered the 2023 Curl Lecture, an award that is conferred biennially by the Council of the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) and is currently Associate Editor (archaeology) for JRAI, the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.
Maxime is also active in supporting early-career researchers. He founded the Early-Career Archaeologists (ECA) Community within the European Association of Archaeologists, which promotes transparent and equitable professional practices. The 2021 international survey of early-career archaeologists organised by the ECA Community has received wide attention, and its mentoring scheme currently supports researchers across the discipline.