University of Bradford

Faculty Member, Division of Archaeological, Geographical and Environmental Sciences

Sr Lecturer in Archaeology and Anthropology

Life Sciences

About

I received my PhD in Anthropology from Michigan State University in 1986 where I specialized in the European Stone Age, archaeological (and quantitative) methods, hunter-gatherers, and lithic analyses. I taught for three years at SUNY—Stony Brook and four years at the University of Sheffield before joining the Department of Archaeological Sciences, University of Bradford in 1994 and serving as its Head from 2002 to 2004.
I direct my research activities towards improving understanding of the diversity of hunter-gatherer adaptive strategies from the early hominins to the origins of agriculture. My current Palaeolithic research is examining the causes and timing for the human population expansion in northwest Europe at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum, hunter-gatherer mobility and subsistence strategies during the Lateglacial in central Italy, and the hunting capabilities of archaic hominids and early AMH. Prof. William Lovis (Michigan State University) and I have recently completed the first phase of a major regional study examining hunter-gatherer mobility in boreal forests using the Mesolithic of Yorkshire as a case study (Hunter-Gatherers of the Yorkshire Dales). The results are challenging previous models that failed to consider adequately the importance of long distance logistical mobility in such environments. My Palaeolithic and Mesolithic research has also led me back to cave archaeology; e.g., A Conservation Audit of Archaeological Cave Resources in the Peak District and Yorkshire Dales (co-PI with A Chamberlain). I also specialize in lithic microwear analysis, also referred to as use-wear analysis, which I apply to reconstruct past human activities, site function, social organisation, and site formation processes. I am the Director of the Lithic Microwear Research Laboratory, located at the University of Bradford, which is further developing methodologies and carrying out contract microwear work on stone tools from archaeological sites worldwide. My experience in lithic studies and in the design of regional surveys has led Co-Investigator roles on various major research projects: The Anuradhapura (Sri Lanka) Hinterland Project (R. Coningham, PI), Socioeconomic Transformations on the Plain of Tehran, Iran (R. Coningham, PI), and The Leverhulme Trust. Late-date “rod” microlith sites and the British Mesolithic-Neolithic trIansition (P. Rowley-Conwy PI).
Recently I initiated a three year project to investigate hunter-gatherer resource procurement in the Late Glacial of peninsular Italy. This is a collaborative effort between the Universities of Bradford, Royal Holloway, London, Oxford, Pisa, Florence and Rome, the Pigorini Museum and the isotope laboratories at the Max Planck Institute and the British National Isotope Geosciences Laboratory. The project combines high precision dating with stable isotope analyses to study seasonal ungulate movement; analyses faunal remains to identify human predation; and investigates lithic raw material procurement, tool production and tool use to improve understanding of site function

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