J.R. (Jennifer) Pournelle is an archaeologist and anthropologist who reconstructs landscapes surrounding ancient cities. A Research Fellow in the University of South Carolina's Environment and Sustainability program, and past Mesopotamian Fellow of the American School of Oriental Research, her research in Turkey, Iraq, and the Caucasus has been featured in Science Magazine, The New York Times, on The Discovery Channel, and in the National Geographic Television Network's "Diving Into Noah's Flood." In a former life, she received numerous decorations for service as a United States Army intelligence officer and arms control negotiator. Her book, Excavations, A City Cycle, drew from that experience. It won the South Carolina Poetry Initiative Book Prize.