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
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 |
Investigating changing subsistence strategies during the Neolithic in the Southwestern Balkans Amy Holguin | DPhil Archaeological Science | Supervisors: Mike Charles and Amy Bogaard |
Early rice agriculture in Bangladesh: methodological and archaeobotanical perspectives Mizanur Rahman | DPhil Archaeological Science | Supervisors: Mike Charles and Amy Bogaard |
Relating Fluvial and Social Dynamics in pre-Hispanic Nicaragua: Archaeological study of human adaptation to the Mayales River basin Irene Torreggiani | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisors: Alexander Geurds, Mike Charles and William Harvey |
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
'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