A new paper published this week in PNAS by Cheryl Makarewicz, Pascal Flohr, and colleagues from the University of Oxford challenges the long-held view that increases in cereal grain size at the beginning of agriculture resulted primarily from genetic selection associated with cultivation. Instead, the researchers argue that larger grains...
We are excited to announce the arrival of our new PhD candidate in the ROOTS - Cluster of Excellence, Lily Kazanoff. Her research will explore socially mediated biodiversity change in the Southern Levant through the Holocene and attempt to synchronize biodiversity, human aggregation, and settlement data to test if different social structures...
The ASIL Laboratory is welcoming Dr. Alex Bertacchi to its team. He will be responsible for the operation and maintenance of analytical instruments, the development of laboratory workflows, and the training of students. He will also contribute to the processing and interpretation of isotopic data. We look forward to working with him!
Congratulations to Dr. Paul Duffy, Prof. Cheryl Makarewicz, et al. on their new paper "Nascent agricultural extensification and distinct household cultivation strategies supported first population centers in Neolithic southeastern Europe" published in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology. The study reconstructs household-scale farming practices...
Congratulations to Prof. Cheryl Makarewicz et al. on their new paper "In foreign pastures: Livestock mobility at Hazor and the permeability of Iron Age geopolitical borders in the Southern Levant" published in PLOS One. Using isotope analysis of livestock teeth from Tel Hazor, the study examines where Iron Age II sheep and goats were grazed during...
A new paper co-authored by Prof. Cheryl Makarewicz and Dr. Christine Winter-Schuh on the topic of selective violence against children and woman found in an Iron Age mass grave at the site of Gomolava (Serbia) has caught a lot of media attention. Check it out here: Fibiger, L., Iraeta-Orbegozo, M., Koledin, J. et al. A large mass grave...
Congratulations to PhD candidate Fiona Walker-Friedrichs on her publication entitled "Sustained Bronze Age Agricultural Practice at the North Sea Coast: Insights from Weed Ecology and Charred Cereal Grain Stable Isotopes at Bjerre, Denmark" Her work demonstrates persistent use of extensive agriculture regimes through the Bronze Age at Bjerre,...
A radio segment on the topic of social (in-)equality in prehistory produced by German radio station SWR featured several members of the Cluster of Excellence ROOTS. Dr. Paul Duffy and Prof. Cheryl Makarewicz were interviewed in our lab about how archaeological and isotopic data can shed light on social inequality in regions like the Carpathian...
Congratulations to Prof. Cheryl Makarewicz et al. on their new paper "Earliest evidence for the use of desert kite mass-hunting structures in southeastern Jordan during the late pre-pottery neolithic B" published in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. The paper presents the earliest robust dates for desert kites based on radiocarbon and...
On December 12th, Dr. Laura Strolin delivered a presentation on faunal remains from a Neolithic ritual site in the region of AlUla (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) at the 58th Seminar for Arabian Studies in Abu Dhabi (UAE). Titled "When Animals Became Ritual Objects: Evidence from Neolithic North-West Arabia" (L. Strolin, J. Studer, S. Vanin, W....