Traditional & Practice Based Research
Research focus
My research focuses on the art, and the role of artists, in the Ancient Near East. In addition I have researched rock art recording, online teaching, place-based conservation and co-design methods.
I have collected primary data from the basement of the Rockefeller Museum, the attics of the Pontifical Biblical Institute, the Ecole Biblique Jerusalem and in the field at places like Jericho and Teleilat Ghassul.
Practice-Based Research
In addition to traditional research methods, I also undertake practice-based research, or learning-by-doing. This often involves quite physical processes of making, reflection and analysis. It is experimental and messy and the insights gained could not be collected through traditional research methods alone.
Publications
Books
2018 Howells A, Drabsch B, Atkins D, Sailer P, Weekes TC, Observe, Research, Create Case Studies in Natural History Illustration PhD Projects
2015 Drabsch B, The mysterious wall paintings of Teleilat Ghassul, Jordan: In context, Archaeopress Archaeology, Oxford
Book Chapters
2021 Drabsch B, 'Artefacts and Insights: A reflective account of an archaeological illustrator', The Elephant's Leg: Adventures in the Creative Industries
2019 Drabsch B, 'Nude, Robed and Masked Processions: Considering the Figural Images in the Teleilat Ghassul Wall Paintings, Jordan', Human Iconography and Symbolic Meaning in Near Eastern Prehistory
2018 Drabsch BS, 'Learning by Observing, Learning by Doing, Learning by Sharing: A Conversational Account of a Researched Practice Case Study', Observe, Research, Create Case Studies in Natural History Illustration PhD Projects
Journal Articles
2022 Killen C, McIntyre K, Drabsch B, Cassin A, Chalmers A, Callen A, et al., 'Communicating as Community: Examining power and authority in community focused environmental communication through participatory action research in the Ourimbah Creek Valley.'
2019 Drabsch B, Howells A, Lloyd C, 'Blending Graphite with Pixels: Natural History Illustration Online', The International Journal of Arts Education
2019 Drabsch B, Howells A, 'Drawing on the Past', ( issue.24 pp.26-29). Sydney: The University of Sydney
2019 Drabsch B, Bourke S, 'Early Visual Communication: Introducing the 6000-Year-Old Buon Frescoes from Teleilat Ghassul, Jordan', Arts
2017 Drabsch B, 'The Wandering Star of Ghassul: from the east to the west - and back again?', The Near Eastern Archaeology Foundation Bulletin
2015 Drabsch BS, 'Drawn into the Star: Recreating the Ghassulian Wall Paintings', The Near Eastern Archaeology Foundation Bulletin
2015 Drabsch BS, 'The wall art of Teleilat Ghassul, Jordan: When, where, why, to whom and by whom', Expression
2014 Drabsch B, Bourke S, 'Ritual, art and society in the Levantine Chalcolithic: The 'processional' wall painting from Teleilat Ghassul', Antiquity, 88 1081-1098
Extract from published book review
This book offers a very important contribution not only to our understanding of the Teleilat Ghassul wall paintings, but also more generally to the study of so-called ‘artistic’ representations in pre- and proto-historic societies, emphasising and rigorously applying the method of integral analysis and the contextualisation of findings, which alone can bring us closer to restoring meaning to the material expressions of cultures and ideologies physically, culturally and historically very remote from ourselves.
Prof. Marcella Frangipane, Fondazione Sapienza, University of Rome, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome
Conference Presentations
I have hosted themed sessions and presented my research at conferences in Warsaw, Vienna, Jerusalem, Valcamonica, Vancouver, Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Newcastle.
