Professor Mike Charles
Research Interests
- Archaeobotany, palynology, plant functional ecology, stable isotopes, plant ancient DNA analysis and ethnoarchaeology.
- Farming societies of western Asia and Europe from 15,000 B.C. Origins and spread of agriculture, plant domestication, the role of plants in prehistory.
- Interactions between humans and the environment in western Asia and Europe since the last glaciation.
Geographic areas
Western Asia & Europe
Research Grants
2017-20 |
ERC Advanced grant Feeding Anglo-Saxon England: The Bioarchaeology of an Agricultural Revolution. P.I Prof Helena Hamerow, CI Prof Amy Bogaard, Dr Richard Thomas (Leicester) |
2011-16 |
ERC Advanced Grant. Evolutionary Origins of Agriculture |
2010-13 |
NERC. Origins of Agriculture: an ecological perspective on crop domestication. Co-investigator with Profs G. Jones & M Rees & Dr C Osborne. NE/H0227161/1. |
2007-10 |
National Science Foundation (USA). Economic integration and cultural survival at neolithic Çatalhöyük Turkey. Co-investigator with Dr. K Twiss, SUNY, USA and Dr Bogaard, (Oxford). |
2008-11 |
NERC. Out of Asia. Co-investigator with Profs G Jones, C Buck & P Blackwell (Sheffield). NE/E019242/1. |
Archaeobotanical Projects
2016- |
Tell Nebi Mend Archaeobotanical Project (Oxford University) with Dr Jade Whitlam |
2014- |
Ur Archaeological Project, directors Prof Elisabeth Stone & Prof Paul Zimansky, (SUNY, New York) |
2011- |
Central Zagros Archaeological Project, directors Prof. Roger Matthews and Dr Wendy Matthews (University of Reading) |
2003- |
Çatalhöyük Neolithic excavations, director Prof. Ian Hodder (Stanford University) |
1998- |
Tell Brak, Syria; Bronze Age; director Dr Augusta McMahon (Cambridge University) & Dr. Geoff Emberling (Metropolitan Museum, New York, USA) |
Postgraduate teaching
Postgraduate taught course options in:
I am happy to supervise on farming societies of western Asia; origins and spread of agriculture; plant domestication; the role of plants in prehistory; crop/livestock integration; palynological approaches to past land use systems. Establishing impact of preservation processes on plant material.
Current students
Archaeobotany, EXPLO project Molly Delaney Jones | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisors: Mike Charles and Amy Bogaard |
WF16 Archaeobotanical Study: Exploring Early Neolithic Settlements in Southern Jordan Yuxi Xie | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisors: Mike Charles and Amy Bogaard |
“Making the landscapeâ€: a palaeoecological and archaeological investigation of late prehistoric land uses in upland England. Marguerite Waechter | Environmental Research (NERC DTP) - Archaeological Science | Supervisors: Mike Charles and Amy Bogaard |
Reconstructing the ecology and chronology of Neolithic agropastoral management at Dispilio, Lake Orestias Doris Vidas | DPhil Archaeological Science | Supervisors: Amy Bogaard, Amy Styring and Mike Charles |
Early rice agriculture in Bangladesh: methodological and archaeobotanical perspectives Mizanur Rahman | DPhil Archaeological Science | Supervisors: Mike Charles and Amy Bogaard |
An integrated study of Neolithic wetland agroecology in the Lower Yangtze river basin, China Rubi Wu | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisors: Mike Charles and Amy Bogaard |
Past students
An archaeobotanical study of the prehistoric lakeshore settlement sequence at PloÄa MiÄov Grad, Lake Ohrid, North Macedonia Amy Holguin (2024) ORA | DPhil Archaeological Science | Supervisors: Mike Charles and Amy Bogaard |
'For a quart of ale is a dish for a king'? Malting, brewing and beer in the Mid Anglo-Saxon period: a case study of Sedgeford Hannah Caroe (2023) ORA | DPhil Archaeological Science | Supervisors: Mike Charles and Amy Bogaard |
‘To call each thing by its right name?’ Exploring the potential of geometric morphometrics to interpret the diversity of archaeobotanical wheat grains Tina Roushannafas (2022) ORA | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisors: Amy Bogaard and Mike Charles |
Agriculture and citadel in the Bronze Age Aegean: the view from Western Anatolia Tom Maltas (2021) ORA | DPhil Archaeological Science | Supervisors: Mike Charles and Amy Bogaard |
The agricultural economies of early urban systems in the northern Fertile Crescent Hyunyoung Kim (2019) ORA | DPhil Archaeological Science | Supervisors: Mike Charles and Amy Bogaard |
Feeding the City: a comparative study of agricultural production in Bronze Age urban systems of Western Asia Charlotte Diffey (2018) ORA | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisors: Mike Charles and Amy Bogaard |
Assessing the nature of early farming in Neolithic Western Asia: a functional ecological approach to emerging arable weeds Laura Green (2018) ORA | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisors: Mike Charles and Amy Bogaard |
An Archaeobotanical investigation into the Chalcolithic economy and social organisation of central Anatolia Elizabeth Stroud (2016) ORA | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisors: Mike Charles and Amy Bogaard |
Key words: bioarchaeology, farming and herding, domestication, land use, urbanisation, woodlands, later prehistory, W Asia, Europe, Eurasia