University of Cambridge

Post-Doc, Archaeology

About

I'm currently working as research assistant to James Barrett on the Leverhulme-funded project 'Ancient DNA, Cod and the Origins of Commercial Trade in Medieval Europe'. This has primarily involved (a) sourcing bone samples for aDNA-based studies of (post)medieval trade into London and Bristol, and (b) analysing and writing up stable isotope data for long distance trade into the North Sea and especially Baltic regions. I have obtained my own funding to expand this study, and have been invited to join the steering committee of the History of Marine Animal Populations (HMAP) project on the strength of this work.

Meanwhile, I've recently begun a second project looking at the potential implications of archaeological data for contemporary environmental conservation and campaigning, with the fisheries research as the main case study. Over the coming year I'll be interviewing representatives of NGOs and relevant public bodies and holding a series of seminars, to explore how environmental archaeologists can best design and disseminate their research in order to generate genuine impact in the modern world.

This is a departure from my prior research, which concerns the Neolithic and Chalcolithic of South-East Europe and Anatolia. While my PhD addressed human-animal relations and social change in the later Neolithic Balkans, especially Serbia, the geographical focus of my own research has since shifted to Turkey. I undertook a one-year post-doctoral position at Binghamton University in 2008-9, studying the animal remains from the Turkish Halaf site of Fıstıklı Höyük, and have an ongoing commitment as the faunal analyst for the current West Mound project at Çatalhöyük. In the future I hope to maintain active research both in the Balkans and in Anatolia.

Thematically, I am interested in the roles played by animals within prehistoric societies, and especially in processes of social change. My methodological background is in zooarchaeology – I hold an MSc in this subject from the University of York – and I am particularly keen to develop concrete methodologies that bridge the gap between human-animal relations theory and zooarchaeological data. My recent work on historical periods has also led me to develop an interest in the historical ecology paradigm as applied to archaeology.

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