Scientific Archaeology Research Group

The Archaeological Science Research Group is concerned with the application of scientific techniques to the interdisciplinary study of past environments and populations. Research combines a range of scientific and theoretical approaches in the laboratory and through fieldwork, to explore issues such as land use, migration, diet and climate change.

We are also active in collaborating with other research groups in the department.

• Key areas

• Bioarchaeology
• Geoarchaeology
• Environmental and experimental archaeology
• Micromorphology
• Palaeodiet
• Building stone archaeology
• Archaeological geophysics
• Forensic archaeology, anthropology and palynology
• Environmental radioactivity, dating and climate change
• Ice age and early Holocene hunter-gatherers
• The origins of farming in Western Asia

Projects

• The Environment and Economy of the Mesolithic of Eastern Islay.
• Animal husbandry in the intertidal zone: a stable isotope approach to changing subsistence strategies in the Belgian Coastal Plain
• Adolescence, Migration and Health in Medieval England: the osteological evidence
• The Ecology of Crusading: The Environmental Impact of Conquest, Colonisation and Religious Conversion in the Medieval Baltic
• Sedentism and Resource Management in the Neolithic of Western Iran (CZAP)
• Inner Hebrides Archaeological Project
• Wadi Faynan
• Stepping out: A computer simulation of hominid dispersal from Africa
• The Afon Ystwyth Experimental Archaeology Project
• The Archaeological Potential of Secondary Contexts Project
• The Palaeolithic Rivers of South-West Britain Project 
• Broom Excavations
• Experimental archaeology and the functional efficiency of Acheulean handaxes
• Water, Life and Civilisation project
• Developing experimental approaches in archaeology
• A Long Way from Home: Diaspora Communities in Roman Britain
• The Severn Estuary
• Çatalhöyük
• Inca ushnus: Landscape, Site and Symbol in the Andes
• Climate Change and the Wetlands of Ireland