Sam Nixon (PhD UCL 2008) is an archaeologist and Senior Research Associate at the University of East Anglia, and Co-Editor of the Journal of African Archaeology. His principal research to date has focused on the Sahara and West Africa during the medieval era, and in particular on exploring the trans-Saharan caravan routes linking North and West Africa. Sam’s excavations at the trans-Saharan trading town of Essouk-Tadmekka have been written up as a monograph for the Journal of African Archaeology Monograph Series (Brill), published Autumn 2017. He also worked on the ERC-funded Crossroads of Empires project, investigating medieval ‘empires’ and urban landscapes in West Africa, focused around fieldwork in the Republic of Benin. Currently Sam is working on a synthetic study of the early trans-Saharan trade, entitled The Gold Route, to be published by Thames & Hudson. He is also developing a new field project at the early Islamic oasis town of Tamdult, in the Moroccan Sahara, together with colleagues from INSAP Morocco. During October, Sam will be working with UrbNet faculty and staff on developing funding applications for this project.