At this inaugural international conference on small prey, Dr. Linda Amos and Dr. Ma'ayan Lev presented new analyses of avifaunal and squamate assemblages from the southern Levant. Their contributions offered complementary perspectives on small-prey use during the Late Pleistocene–Holocene transition, reflecting the distinct datasets and...
On Wednesday 22/10/25, Dr. Linda Amos held a talk for the Department of Archaeology's seminar at the University of Durham. Her talk "Why Birds? Archaeological Insights from Avifauna" took the audience on a walk through time, following the progression of Linda's own research across six key sites: from her PhD examining Neanderthal contexts across...
On September 26th, postdoctoral researchers Dr. Ma'ayan Lev and Dr. Linda Amos participated in this year's Science Day program. They presented their research on microfauna in archaeology and explained how these tiny animal bones can reveal important information about human history. Visitors could view example bones under a microscope and learn more...
Congratulations to ASIL guest researcher Dr. Harel Shochat, ASIL director Prof. Cheryl Makarewicz, et al. on their new paper: "A thousand years of Nubian supply of sub-Saharan ivory to the Southern Levant, ca. 1600–600 BCE" published in Journal of Archaeological Science.
Prof. Cheryl Makarewicz and ASIL master's candidate Alexander Gorelik struck out across the steppes of northeastern Kazakhstan to establish the distribution of bioavailable strontium isotopes across the region. These strontium isotope data will provide the reference framework used to establish the mobility histories of Eneolithic equids and bovids....
Congratulations to former ASIL PhD candidate Karolina Varkulevičiūtė, lab manager Dr. Christine Winter-Schuh and ASIL director Prof. Cheryl Makarewicz on their new paper: "Methodological Considerations for the Use of Acid-Based Pre-Treatment Protocols for Carbon and Oxygen Analysis of Tooth Enamel" published in Rapid Communications in Mass...
Congratulations to former ASIL employee Sophia Politt et al. on their new paper: "Insights into the Middle Pleistocene fauna of South Africa: Zooarchaeology, stable isotopes and dating of Pniel 6" published in Journal of Quaternary Science. This paper is based in part on Sophia's MA research supervised by Dr. Michaela Ecker as part of her KHO...
We are pleased to announce the addition of a new instrument to our laboratory equipment. The Gas Chromatography-Flame Ionization Detector (GC-FID) will be used to identify and measure organic compounds.
We had wonderful weather for the week-long experimental zooarchaeology course run by Dr. Linda Amos and Prof. Makarewicz focusing on how processing animal carcasses for meat, grease and fat leave specific taphonomic signatures on bone. Today we ran experiments testing the conditions under which bone burns and becomes calcined, and how varying...
Congratulations to ASIL PhD candidate Nathaniel James et al. on their new paper: "Differences in the isotopic composition of individual grains and aggregated seed samples affect interpretation of ancient plant cultivation practices" published in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology.