Martin Goffriller

Martin S. Goffriller is an archaeologist and architectural historian currently teaching at the China University of Mining and Technology in Xuzhou, PRC. His research has concentrated on trade, urbanism and fortification during the medieval period across Eurasia with particular foci in Islamic Spain, Arabia, and Central Asia as well as China.

Always focused on architectural history and archaeology, Martin read his undergraduate degree on medieval European and Byzantine architecture at the University of East Anglia, with a particular interest in fortification. During his MA in 2004 his focus turned onto the Andalusi architectural heritage of the Iberian Peninsula where he concentrated on the artistic exchange that grew between Muslims and Christians.

After a number of years of teaching Western history and history of art at the Hunan University of Arts and Sciences in China, and travelling widely throughout Asia, Martin embarked on a PhD into the Islamic past of his native Mallorca at the University of Exeter. As a Marie Curie Research Fellow his research explored the socio-political implications of defensive architecture, delimitation and organization of territories and spatial identities in tribal contexts.

In 2011 Martin joined Prof. Bandyopadhyay’s team at Nottingham Trent University and became one of the founding members of ArCHIAM, where his main research interest lay in the study of oasis defences in the Sultanate of Oman, and the evolution of the Maritime Silk Road and the influence of the porcelain trade on Omani Architecture. Additionally, Martin was closely involved in the development of around one dozen heritage management plans and government reports for public and private agencies in the Gulf region.

Martin has travelled widely throughout Asia with extended stays in China, the Middle East and Central Asia. At present he is developing a series of documentation projects in Central Asia, specifically Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, studying medieval urbanism in the context of the Silk Road by documenting the long-disappeared cities of the Dzhety Azar culture (1^stc. BCE – 8^thc. CE).

• Military/defensive architecture
• Islamic art and culture
• Traditional architectural technology
• Tribalism and tribal identities
• Landscape archaeology
• Sustainable urbanism
• Architectural reconstruction