The University of Sheffield
Department of Archaeology

A-Z List of Research Projects

                                        

Current Research Projects
Beaker isotope project Beaker isotope project: mobility, migration and diet in the British Early Bronze Age.
Brodsworth Archaeology Project The Brodsworth Archaeology Project is a landscape archaeology project centred on the Brodsworth Estate in South Yorkshire. The focus of the Estate is Brodsworth Hall which is owned and run by English Heritage. However it is the Estate land and the surrounding area which is the focus of this Project, not the Hall.
Bronze Age Copper Mines of North Wales The aim of this project is to investigate the possibility that 4000 years ago the Bronze Age copper miners at the Great Orme and Parys Mountain in North Wales were incomers from as far afield as the Balkans and Spain.
Dress & Society In sociological and anthropological literature, the role of dress in human society has often been described as a form of non-verbal language or code through which people communicate to their audience their place in society, or `identity´.
Evolutionary origins of Agriculture An ERC-funded collaborative project (the universities of Sheffield and Manchester) investigating the selective pressures driving the domestication of crops through archaeobotany, experimental ecology and DNA analysis.
Feeding Stonehenge
FIBS Identifying ancient land use through the functional ecology of crop weed
Infancy and Earliest Childhood This project investigates the role and significance of newborn children and infants in the Roman family and society.
Imperial Estate at Vagnari This project investigates the buildings, the economy, the living conditions and the role of slave labour on a Roman imperial estate in S-E Italy (Puglia).
Origins of Agriculture A NERC-funded collaborative project that aims to develop an ecological model for crop domestication.
Out of Asia A NERC-funded dating project investigating the timing and routes of the spread of agriculture from its point of arrival in SE Europe across the continent to NW Europe.
Pig Ethnography The Ethnoarchaeology of pig husbandry in Sardinia and Corsica.
South African Palaeocave Survey Kevin Kuykendall, Andrew Reid
The role of animal husbandry in late Iron Age and Roman societies The role of animal husbandry in late Iron Age and Roman societies: cultural identity and relationships between Italy, Iberia and Britain
Thornton Abbey Project
Welland Bank Quarry Animal bones from Welland Bank Quarry.
Zooarchaeology of Central England The aim of this project is to produce a review of the animal bone evidence for Central England from Mesolithic to Modern times.

Completed Research Projects
Auvergne Français L'Age du Fer en Auvergne.
Auvergne English The Iron Age in the Auvergne.
Bipedalism Hominoid energetics: could load carriage have driven the early adoption of bipedal locomotion in human evolution?.
Bradbourne The Bradbourne Landscape Project is situated in the Peak District of Derbyshire, and maintains a long tradition of Departmental research on the Roman and medieval periods in this area.
Caves A study of the conservation status of archaeological caves in the Peak District and Yorkshire Dales National Parks.
Domestication of Europe An investigation of the `domestication´ of Europe through phylogenetic, archaeobotanical and DNA analysis.
European Glass Production Following the recent publication of the 17th-century glass furnace from Vauxhall, this project is collating the archaeological evidence for post-medieval glass production in the capital.
European Identities Archaeology and the Origin of European Identities.
Farfa The Farfa Survey covered the area of the Sabine Hills from the monastery of Farfa westwards to the Tiber. The survey was multi-period, but had a particular focus on late Antiquity and the early middle ages.
Gnalić In 1967 a shipwreck was discovered by the rocky islet of Gnalic, at the entrance to the Pašman channel, just to the south of Biograd, Croatia. It was soon realised that the wreck was a late 16th-century merchantman, which had sunk with its cargo intact.
Hunter-gatherer health Patterns of food consumption, health and demography among hunter-gatherers, past and present – the last 10,000 years.
Integrated Archaeobotanical Research The Integrated Archaeobotanical Research Project (IAR) conducted in the Department of Archaeology of the University of Sheffield from 2007 – 2009 was part of the EU Framework 6 Transfer of Knowledge program. This project had two equal objectives, to develop an integrated research strategy for archaeobotanical remains and to create web-based training packages for archaeobotanical research.
LBK farming societies Origins and development of farming societies in Europe: the case of the LBK.
Lincolnshire Cemeteries and Settlements in North Lincolnshire, c.700-1100 - This research project explores the development of Anglo-Saxon settlement and cemetery organisation, with particular reference to the comparatively understudied 8th to 11th centuries.
Mesolithic societies Mesolithic societies in Europe: a social history of the Mesolithic.
New ways with old wheats This project has opened up an exciting new way for studying prehistoric agriculture.
Origins of ceramics Hunter-gatherers and the origins of ceramics.
Pakistan The British Archaeological Mission to Pakistan, under its Field Director Professor Robin Dennell, carried out research into the Palaeolithic of Pakistan in the 1980's and 1990's. This page provides information on and publications relating to this research.
Siberia A series of magnetometer surveys to investigate a variety of settlement and burial sites near Varshavka village in the Chelyabinsk region of southern Siberia.
Spirits of the Dead It was important to people on many levels of Roman society that, when they died, their memory be preserved for future generations, and to that end numerous and varied funerary monuments were commissioned, carved and set up in the cemeteries of towns, villages and rural estates of Roman Europe.
Utilisation of ancient DNA Utilisation of ancient DNA from charred seeds in studies of the phylogenetics and population genetics of cultivated plants.
Vedrovice project Biological and cultural identity of first farmers: multiple bio-archaeological analysis of a central European cemetery.
Vedrovice projekt Biologická a kulturní identita prvních zemědělců: smíšená bio-archeologická analýza středoevropského pohřebiště.
Venus in Pompeii Nemus et templum: Exploring the sacred garden of Venus in Pompeii - The garden of Venus at Pompeii is demonstrably one of the earliest known temple gardens in the Roman empire.
West Halton Since 2003 we have undertaken fieldwork at West Halton. Our investigations on the green, and elsewhere in the village, have revealed a nearly unbroken 1,000 year sequence of occupation from the Saxon period until the 16th century, which is a comparatively rare feature of medieval settlements in this part of Lincolnshire.
York Barbican Excavation of All Saints church at Fishergate, York, and the surrounding cemetery was undertaken by On Site Archaeology between July 2007 and February 2008. Approximately 580 skeletons were excavated and removed from the cemetery, with a further 113 skeletons removed from post-medieval mass graves situated within and around the church.