Photo of Professor Jessica Pearson

Professor Jessica Pearson D. Phil. (Oxon)

Professor of Bioarchaeology Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology

    Research

    Research Overview

    My research involves the use of stable isotope analysis in the reconstruction of ancient foodways to provide clues about the foods consumed by past populations and the impact of diet on health and demography, animal domestication and the onset of farming and sedentism, religious behaviours and ancient infant feeding practices. My research also involves using strontium and oxygen isotope analysis to reconstruct ancient mobility and kinship practices.

    Ancient Human Diet and the transition to agriculture

    For a number of years I have worked on the carbon, nitrogen, sulphur, oxygen and strontium isotope analysis at three important locations in Central Anatolia: Neolithic Catalhoyuk, Neolithic Boncuklu, Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic Pinarbasi.

    Research Grants

    What’s in a house? Exploring the kinship structure of the world´s first houses

    LEVERHULME TRUST (UK)

    May 2021 - March 2025

    DIS-ABLED Past Lifeways and Deathways of the Disabled in 14th-18th Century Central Europe: an Interdisciplinary Study

    EUROPEAN COMMISSION

    August 2018 - November 2021

    Scratching the Surface: A Bioarchaeological Study of Funerary Practices and Emergent Social Complexity in the Neolithic Near East

    DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY AND INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY (BEIS) (UK)

    September 2018 - September 2019

    Building large communities: Multi isotope investigations of human mobility and diet in the earliest large villages

    ARTS AND HUMANITIES RESEARCH COUNCIL

    January 2015 - December 2018

    Bone chemistry, food and status.

    BRITISH ACADEMY (UK)

    January 2006

    Use of stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios to infer animal diet in prehistory: Implications for human palaodietary reconstruction.

    ROYAL SOCIETY (CHARITABLE)

    April 2006 - December 2006

    Research Collaborations

    Clark Spencer Larsen

    External: Ohio State University

    Dietary and status reconstruction of the inhabitants at Neolithic Çatalhöyük

    Doug Baird

    Internal

    Dietary reconstruction at the Epipalaeolithic site of Pinarbasi, Turkey using stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis.

    Alexandra Fletcher

    External: The British Museum

    Physical anthropology of the Jericho plastered Skull held in the British Museum

    Theya Molleson

    External: Natural History Museum

    Task-related wear at Tell Abu Hureyra, Syria during the Epi-palaeolithic-Neolithic

    Assessing the connection between age of weaning and infant mortality in Neolithic Turkey

    Growth of the Neolithic Child

    Anne Haour

    External: The University of Oxford

    Physical anthropology of the human remains at Kufan Kanawa, Niger

    Alexander Bentley

    External: The University of Durham

    Diet reconstruction at Ban Chiang, Thailand using isotope evidence

    Alasdair Whittle

    External: The University of Wales, Cardiff

    Dietary reconstruction of the inhabitants at Neolithic Ecsegfalva 23, Hungary

    Hitomi Hongo

    External: Kyoto University

    Pastoral systems and herding intensity reconstruction at Çayönü Tepesi, Turkey using stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis.

    Isotopic evidence for domestication events at Çayönü Tepesi, Turkey

    Melinda Zeder

    External: Smithsonian Institution

    Pastoral systems and herding intensity reconstruction in the Khabur Drainage Basin, Syria using stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis.

    Isotopic evidence for the initial domestication of Capra hircus 10,000 years in the Zagros, Iran

    Robert Hedges

    External: The University of Oxford

    Pastoral systems and herding intensity reconstruction at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey using stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis.

    Dietary and status reconstruction of the inhabitants at Neolithic Çatalhöyük

    Assessing the connection between age of weaning and infant mortality in Neolithic Turkey

    Isotopic evidence for domestication events at Çayönü Tepesi, Turkey

    Dietary and status reconstruction of the inhabitants at Neolithic Çayönü Tepesi, Aşıklı Höyük and Musular

    Ian Hodder

    External: Stanford University

    Spirituality and religious ritual in the emergence of civilisation: Catalhoyuk as a case study.

    Louise Martin

    External: University College London

    Pastoral systems and herding intensity reconstruction using stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis.

    Nerissa Russell

    External: Cornell University

    Pastoral systems and herding intensity reconstruction at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey using stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis.

    Nicholas Postgate

    External: The University of Cambridge

    Physical anthropology of the human remains at Kilise Tepe, Turkey

    Stuart Campbell

    External: The University of Manchester

    Physical anthropology of the Byzantine cemetery at Domuztepe, Turkey