Andreas Hauptmann is a trained mineralogist and is concurrently head of the Research Group for Archaeometallurgy at the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum, Bochum and a professor of archaeometry at the Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany. Born in 1950, his research has focused on early mining and metallurgy, and the analysis of copper, bronze, iron, gold and pottery. He has led and been involved in major expeditions to Jordan, Oman and Georgia and has participated in many excavations in Germany, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Greece, Syria and Cyprus.