I am a palaeoecologist, environmental archaeologist and a geoarchaeologist with a focus on Middle Eastern Neolithic Archaeology and Ethnoarchaeology. My research focuses on applying scientific methodologies to investigate human and animal occupation/activity signatures. I recently held a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship in partnership with the Council for British Research in the Levant (http://cbrl.ac.uk/british-Institute-amman). I completed my degrees at the University of Reading. My PhD focused on Neolithic sites in the Zagros Mountains (https://www.czap.org/). I previously worked at Bournemouth University on the INEA project (https://research.bournemouth.ac.uk/2014/07/inea-project-2/). I also held two Postdoctoral Fellowships at the British Institute in Amman (CBRL), and a Teaching Fellowship at the University of Aberdeen. I was also a Posdoctoral fellow on the PAST project at the University of Exeter which examined pre-Columbian societies and crop domestications in Amazonia (http://amazoniapast.exeter.ac.uk/).

Research

My research applies scientific methodologies to modern reference material, ethnoarchaeological and archaeological samples. I utilise a combined scientific approach to investigate human and animal signatures and activities in Neolithic villages in the Middle East. The Neolithic period represents the transition from mobile hunter-gatherers to sedentary farmers. My specialisms are encompassed within palaeoecology and soil science and include phytolith analysis (plant silica remains), thin section soil micromorphology, geochemistry and dung studies (faecal spherulites). In my research modern samples are collected from known contexts in order to apply the scientific methodology to samples where I can also collect the intangible heritage. These samples include plant material, animal dungs and modern sediments from traditionally built abandoned villages. The modern and ethnoarchaeological results are then used to inform on the scientific results from the archaeological samples. The archaeological samples originate from a range of Neolithic villages in the Middle East from the early Neolithic up until the late Neolithic.

Publications

Grants

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