Research
My research involves the use of stable isotope analysis in the reconstruction of ancient foodways to provide clues about the foods consumed by past populations and the impact of diet on health and demography, animal domestication and the onset of farming and sedentism, religious behaviours and ancient infant feeding practices. My research also involves using strontium and oxygen isotope analysis to reconstruct ancient mobility and kinship practices.
Ancient Human Diet and the transition to agriculture
For a number of years I have worked on the carbon, nitrogen, sulphur, oxygen and strontium isotope analysis at three important locations in Central Anatolia: Neolithic Catalhoyuk, Neolithic Boncuklu, Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic Pinarbasi.
Research groups
Research grants
What’s in a house? Exploring the kinship structure of the world´s first houses
LEVERHULME TRUST (UK)
May 2021 - April 2025
DIS-ABLED Past Lifeways and Deathways of the Disabled in 14th-18th Century Central Europe: an Interdisciplinary Study
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
August 2018 - November 2021
Scratching the Surface: A Bioarchaeological Study of Funerary Practices and Emergent Social Complexity in the Neolithic Near East
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY AND INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY (BEIS) (UK)
September 2018 - September 2019
Building large communities: Multi isotope investigations of human mobility and diet in the earliest large villages
ARTS AND HUMANITIES RESEARCH COUNCIL
January 2015 - December 2018
Bone chemistry, food and status.
BRITISH ACADEMY (UK)
January 2006
Use of stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios to infer animal diet in prehistory: Implications for human palaodietary reconstruction.
ROYAL SOCIETY (CHARITABLE)
April 2006 - December 2006