Palaeolithic archaeology and human origins, with interests in biomechanical and mechanical experiments, modelling, fieldwork, and morphometric investigations of artefacts.
Research Area
I’m interested in how early humans behaved and how their culture co-evolved alongside phenotypic traits. My research covers the disciplines of Palaeolithic (Stone Age) archaeology and palaeoanthropology, but more often leans towards the former or explicitly combines both. Topics covered by my past research have included the co-evolution of the human hand and stone tool technologies, geometric morphometric analyses of lithic artefacts, temporal and spatial modelling of cultural presence, and the micro-geometric and mechanical characterisation of stone tool cutting actions. I have conducted fieldwork in the UK, USA, mainland Europe and southeast Asia, and currently direct excavations at one of northern Europe’s earliest Palaeolithic sites, Old Park. My work often focuses on Lower Palaeolithic and Early Stone Age technologies, but I have broad interest in human behaviour up the end of the Palaeolithic.
Past collaborative partners and institutions have included various departments from the University of Cambridge (e.g., British Antarctic Survey, Department of Zoology), numerous European, American and Asian universities, museums in the UK and Europe, and geochronology and ecology research institutions. Supervised research students would be encouraged to think about potential partners who could support their research.
Project Interests
I am particularly interested in supervising interdisciplinary research that utilises techniques established in other fields (e.g., engineering, sports science, ecology) but which are novel to archaeology and human origins research. Such work will often be experimental in nature, utilise modelling approaches, or investigate museum-held artefact collections using macro- or microscopic 3D methods. These are, however, just ideas. Any type of creative and methodologically-unique research piques my interest! Equally, I am increasingly interested in the discovery and excavation of new or previously under-investigated archaeological and fossil sites, with a particular focus on the UK and southeast Asia.