Wouter Gheyle (°1980) has been working as a scientific researcher at Ghent University since 2003. His main interest is in the archaeology of the nomadic cultures of the Eurasian steppes and the Altay Mountains, landscape archaeology, remote sensing, aerial photography and WW I archaeology. In 2009, he obtained his doctoral degree at Ghent University with a dissertation entitled "Highlands and Steppes. An Analysis of the Changing Archaeological Landscape of the Altay Mountains from the Eneolithic to the Ethnographic Period". His PhD research was framed within different projects, amongst others a UNESCO/Flanders Funds-in-Trust project on the Preservation of the Frozen Tombs of the Altay Mountains. Research continued with an FWO-Flanders project that involved the in-depth study of the social stratigraphy of the Iron-Age population in Altay, linked with the results of the 9 years of archaeological survey between 2003 and 2011, and some excavations in the Kosh-Agatch area to study some of the less known Bronze Age monument types in Altay. From 2012 to 2014, he was archaeology advisor for the Heritage Department of the Province of Antwerp and guest-professor in Archaeology at Ghent University.
He currently is a postdoctoral researcher on the project "Non-Invasive Landscape Archaeology of the Great War" (Ghent University Special Research Fund – Concerted Research Action (GOA) 2014-2018). The objective is to develop an integrated approach combining archaeological research, aerial photography, geophysical survey and landscape research for assessing the archaeological WW I conflict landscape.The vastness of the former Western Front (one of the largest archaeological sites in the world), the large amounts of buried unexploded ordnance and the possible presence of human remains urge for the use of non-destructive technologies.
