Dr Amy Styring

As an archaeological chemist, I am interested in advancing scientific methods that reveal a direct and detailed picture of everyday life in the past, particularly in relation to food production and consumption practices and associated land use change.

My recent Humboldt Research Fellowship (2017–2019) at the University of Frankfurt used isotopic analysis of modern and archaeological crops to explore manuring practices during the first two millennia AD in Burkina Faso. I was involved in an ERC funded project at the University of Oxford (2013–2017), which assessed the role of changing agricultural practices in the emergence of urban centres in central Europe, the Aegean and southwest Asia. I obtained my PhD in Chemistry from the University of Bristol (2007–2012), applying nitrogen isotopic analysis of amino acids as a novel approach for the reconstruction of past diet and agricultural practices.

Listen to Amy discuss her research interests in this podcast recorded with St Cross College

Research activities

• CAVES Africa Project - Agencies of behavioural change in early modern humans in NW Africa, Leverhulme Trust (2022–), PI: Nick Barton
• Tracing the Epipalaeolithic origins of plant management in southwest Asia (PalaeOrigins), European Research Council (2022–), PI: Amaia Arranz Otaegui
• Plant environment and resource exploitation in SW Ethiopia >50 ka to the present, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (2020–), PIs: Katharina Neumann and Karen Hahn
• Resilience and breakpoints – exploring linkages between societal, agricultural and climatic changes in Iron Age Denmark, Det Frie Forskningsråd (2019–), PI: Mads Dengsø Jessen
• Isolation and Evolution in Oceanic Islands: the human colonisation of the Canary Islands (IsoCAN), European Research Council (2019–), PI: Jonathan Santana-Cabrera