Alistair Paterson is an archaeologist and Associate Professor at the University of Western Australia. His research and teaching covers culture contact, historical archaeology in maritime and terrestrial settings, sheep and cattle pastoralism, European colonization, historical rock art, and archaeological and historical methodology. He is the author of The Lost Legions: Culture Contact in Colonial Australia (AltaMira, 2008) and editor with Jane Balme of Archaeology in Practice: A Student Guide to Archaeological Analyses (Blackwell Publishing, 2006). He was Honorary Visiting Fellow at the University of Copenhagen and at the Danish National Museum, and is past President of the Australian Archaeological Association.