Paul C. Zimmerman earned his BA in Anthropology from the University of Southern California, and his MA and PhD in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. His Master’s Thesis, A Critical Reexamination of the Early Dynastic “Royal Tomb” Architecture from Ur, examined funerary architecture from Third Millennium BCE Mesopotamia and created 3D computer models from the excavator’s field notes of the 1920’s and 1930’s. His PhD Dissertation, The Middle Ḥaḍramūt Archaeological Survey: Settlement Patterns in South Arabia, was an archaeological survey designed to understand changes in settlement and land use in Yemen’s interior across the Late Pre-Islamic and Early Islamic periods.

As a field archaeologist, he worked extensively on projects across the Middle East, with technical specialties in surveying, mapmaking, photography, and databases, and academic specialties in urbanism and architecture. He is currently on the board of the New York City chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America and co-host of the ArchaeoTech Podcast, both of which keep him actively engaged in public archaeology.