David Frankel (archaeologist)

David Frankel is Emeritus Professor in Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Archaeology and History at La Trobe University.

Frankel studied archaeology at the University of Sydney (BA (Hons) 1970, MA (Hons) 1973) and Gothenburg University Sweden (PhD), where he specialised in Cypriot prehistory. He worked in the Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities, at the British Museum (1975–78) before returning to Australia in 1978 to take up a lectureship at La Trobe University. As a student he excavated in New Zealand and Israel as well as Irrawang Pottery and Elizabeth Farm House in New South Wales and participated in two seasons of Sydney University’s excavations at Zagora in Greece.

Frankel was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 1993, and served on the Humanities Panel of the Australian Research Council (1996–98). He was awarded the Prime Minister’s Centenary Award for services to Australia society and the humanities in 2003 and joint Editor-in-Chief of Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology. In 2015 he was awarded the Australian Archaeological Association's Rhys Jones Medal for outstanding contributions to the discipline. His research interests include Australian Aboriginal archaeology with particular reference to south-eastern Australia and the archaeology of the Bronze Age of Cyprus having excavated in Papua New Guinea, Moonlight Head midden and Koongine Cave in Australia, and Marki Alonia, Deneia and Politiko Kokkinorotsos in Cyprus.