Ilia Heit studied Prehistoric Archaeology, Geology, and Slavic Philology at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany and received his PhD in Near Eastern Archaeology at the Freie Universität Berlin. His current research focuses on Neolithic and Chalcolithic communities in Central Asia and South Caucasus as well as theories and methods of Soviet archaeology. He is author of Dem Wandel auf der Spur. Bauen und Wohnen in Monjukli Depe und Umgebung, Turkmenistan.