AGES

Archaeological, Geographical & Environmental Sciences

Research in Archaeological, Geographical and Environmental Sciences

The Division comprises several units, Archaeological Sciences, Geography & Environmental Sciences, and Forensic Archaeology, each in itself highly interdisciplinary. We boast an unusual breadth and depth of expertise, spanning the Humanities and the Sciences. Archaeological Sciences has long been internationally recognised as a leader in science-based Archaeology. The recent RAE 2008 recognised at least 50% of our research activity as 3* or 4*, noting that we were “world-leading, particularly in areas of fundamental scientific research”. It also recognised our outstanding research environment, with 100% 3* or 4* ratings. We have a large, lively division, with 32 academic staff, around a dozen research fellows and contract researchers, and 60 PhD/MPhil students. Professor Ian Armit is Director of Research, and Dr Randolph Donahue the Director for Post-Graduate Research Students.

Collectively, our research examines the changing relationships between people and their environments, cultural and natural, urban and rural, in the past and in the present. We are particularly interested in change through time, health and well-being, biological and social identities, cultural dynamics, environmental impacts, and death and death-related behaviours. We have several large ongoing field projects that integrate fieldwork with pioneering methodologies, supported by a suite of excellent, well-equipped laboratory and curatorial resources. These include one of the two largest collections of human skeletons in a UK academic institution (the BARC or Biological Anthropology Research Centre), a specialist Herbarium of international importance, and one of the best-equipped archaeologically-dedicated stable light isotopes laboratories in the UK. Current projects have a global reach, extending from our own immediate Yorkshire region to the the North Atlantic, Europe, the Mediterranean, North, East and South Africa, South Asia and South America. Our principal research interests are reflected in two large research groups for Archaeological Sciences (Biological and Social Identity and Social Dynamics), and in Environmental Science and Sustainability in Geographical and Environmental Sciences.

Our research is supported by funding from the UK Research Councils (AHRC, NERC, EPSRC, ESRC), the Leverhulme Trust, the Wellcome Trust, English Heritage, Historic Scotland, CADW, the Shetland Amenity Trust, Yorkshire Water, the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority and, further afield, the EU, HERA, and the US National Science Foundation. Results are published in academic journals, books, monographs and reports, and we are committed to making our work accessible to a broad public through public engagement projects (funded partly by HEIF and the Lottery Fund) as well as television and media collaborations.