Biological anthropologist specialising in palaeoanthropology and human osteology with interests in the evolutionary biology and palaeoecology of Neanderthals and modern humans.
Research Area
Broadly, my research focuses on how environmental influences (natural and cultural) drive human morphological and particularly skeletal variation, past and present, and the mechanisms that underpin these influences (evolutionary processes, biological plasticity, behaviour). I am particularly interested in how adaptation to our environment, from the scale of deep time to individual lifespans, influenced (past) and influences (present) human biology and health.
Currently, my research centres on the biology and behaviour of Neanderthals from Shanidar Cave, Iraqi Kurdistan, where I lead the excavation and analysis of new Neanderthal remains within the wider Shanidar Cave Project. With these new finds, we are investigating Neanderthal behaviour (e.g., treatment of the dead), life history, health, ecology and adaptation, in order to offer novel perspectives on wider patterns of evolution in the human lineage, and the classic problem of Neanderthal extinction.
I conduct field and lab work, using 2D and 3D microscopic and macroscopic techniques to explore taphonomic, morphological and behavioural signals from skeletal remains. I collaborate with diverse archaeological scientists to further analyse skeletal remains (e.g., isotopes, DNA, proteomics) and to combine contextual and other evidence (e.g., dating, geoarchaeology, geochemistry, zooarchaeology) to achieve as comprehensive as possible an understanding of our closest evolutionary cousins.
Project Interests
I am keen to develop projects investigating the implications of the biology and behaviour of Neanderthals and/or modern humans for our understanding of the ecology, evolution, population dynamics, behavioural flexibility, and variation of past populations. This could include diverse scientific approaches to analysing morphology, diet, life history and behaviour from skeletal remains. I am also interested in developing archaeological science projects linked to the wider Shanidar Cave excavations (e.g., geoarchaeology, faunal analyses) exploring Neanderthal and modern human landscape use, ecology and behaviour in collaboration with other colleagues in the Department of Archaeology and the Shanidar Cave Project team.