Mikael Fauvelle is an Associate Professor and researcher in the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History. He is interested in the development of political and economic complexity in pre-state and non-state societies. His recent research has focused on topics including the origins of money, long-term resilience in maritime hunter-gatherer societies, and the social impacts of watercraft innovation. Another major focus has been on the development of long-distance trade networks in island and coastal societies. To study ancient exchange systems, he combines non-destructive sourcing methods including X-Ray and infrared spectrometry with insights drawn from ethnohistory and indigenous knowledge.

Mikael is currently the director of the Heritage Science theme at the Lund Institute for Advanced X-Ray and Neutron Science (LINXS), where he is working to promote cutting-edge synchrotron and neutron analytical methods for archaeological research. He also directs the Complex Canoes project, which is using new scientific methods to study museum collections of Bronze Age sewn plank boats. He is a member of the Maritime Encounters project which is exploring Neolithic and Bronze Age maritime connections across the Atlantic Façade of Europe. Much of his work is comparative, and he has directed excavation and laboratory projects in Mexico, Sweden, and the United States.