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The University of Aberdeen
Department of Archaeology, School of Geosciences University of Aberdeen Room 210, St. Mary's Elphinstone Road Aberdeen AB24 3UF
Kate began her archaeological career in 2002 at Durham University, where she studied Archaeology (BSc), specialising in prehistory, bioarchaeology and palaeodietary reconstruction. She then moved on to University of Reading in 2005 to study for a NERC-funded MSc degree in Geoarchaeology. It was at Reading that Kate began to incorporate the stable isotope analysis of animal and human remains into her research. In 2006 she returned to Durham to start a PhD in Bioarchaeology, again receiving sponsorship from NERC. In 2007 she joined the Department of Human Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, initially as a doctoral candidate, and after finishing her thesis, as a post-doctoral research scientist and DAAD Junior Scholarship holder.
Kate was appointed Lecturer in Archaeological Science in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Aberdeen in 2010, becoming Senior Lecturer in 2016 and then Head of Department in 2020. Kate also holds a position as an Associate Research Scientist at the Department of Human Evolution at the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig.
Kate is an archaeological scientist, specialising in the use of stable isotope analysis for the reconstruction of past diets, movements, and environments. Her research centres on the relationship between life-time behaviours, diets and movements, and the stable isotope chemistry of body tissues. She specialises in the use of multi-isotope systems (δ13C, δ15N, δ18O, δ34S, 87Sr/86Sr) and the reconstruction of individual isotopic histories, focusing on the interaction between humans and animals. This includes the isotopic-identification of subsistence strategies, animal husbandry practices, the isotope ecology of archaeologically-important prey-species, and the identification of broad-scale climatic or environmental isotopic-trends.
Why you aren’t always what you eat: Exploring the influence of dietary macro-nutrient composition on diet-tissue 15N-enrichment and the implications for palaeodietary reconstruction
Orsolya Czére (AHRC-funded, with Historic Environment Scotland, 2016 - )
Diet from the Dark Ages to the Medieval State: a Diachronic Isotopic Study of Dietary Change in Scotland, from the Late Iron Age to the High Medieval Period
Pre-contact ecology, subsistence and diet on the Yukon-Kuskowim Delta: An integrated ecosystem approach to pre-contact lifeways using zooarchaeological analysis and stable isotope techniques
Research Funding and Grants
2020-2023
Philip Leverhulme Prize in Archaeology
The Leverhulme Trust
2018-2021
Intergrative Approaches to late Pleistocene Herbivore Ecology, Ranging and Diet (PleistoHERD) Leverhulme Standard Grant (PI with Dr. Joshua Wright, Prof. Steeve Côté and Dr. Vaughan Grimes [co-Is])
2016-2019
Diet from the Dark Ages to the Medieval State (Historic Environment Scotland co-funded with Arts and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Studentship to Orsolya Czére)
2016-2018
Animals, Lifeways and Lifeworlds in Yup’ik Archaeology (ALLY): Subsistence, Technologies, and Communities of Change Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) - LabEx (Fr) (PI with Dr. Isabelle Sidéra [Fr], Prof. Keith Dobney [co-I] and Dr. Rick Knecht [co-I])
2013-2018
Understanding Cultural Resilience and Climate Change on the Bering Sea through Yup'ik Ecological Knowledge, Lifeways, Learning and ArchaeologyArts and Humanities Research Council Standard Research Grant (co-I with Dr. Rick Knecht [PI] and Dr. Charlotta Hillerdal [co-I])
2012-2013
Isotope analysis at St. Nicholas Kirk, Aberdeen: Diet, Health and Mobility in a Medieval Maritime SocietyRoyal Society of Edinburgh Arts and Humanities Small Research Grant
2012
Principal's Excellence Fund Travel Grant, University of Aberdeen (SAA 2013)
2012
Maritime adaptations and dietary change in prehistoric Western Alaska: stable isotope investigations at NunalleqCarnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland Research Travel Grant
2011-2013
Animal Husbandry in the Intertidal Zone: A Stable Isotope Approach to Changing Subsistence Strategies in the Belgian Coastal PlainBritish Academy Small Research Grant (co-PI with Dr. Gundula Müldner, University of Reading, in collaboration with Dr. Anton Ervynck, Flemish Heritage Institute)
2009-2010
Palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic reconstruction at the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic site of Neumark-Nord, GermanyDeutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst research grant for Junior Scholars
The Past in the Yup’ik Present: Archaeologies of Climate Change in Western Alaska
Britton, K. (ed.), Knecht, R. (ed.), Hillerdal, C. (ed.)
Études Inuit Studies, vol. 43
Contributions to Specialist Publications: Special Issues
Environmental conditions at the Last Interglacial (Eemian) site Neumark-Nord 2, Germany inferred from stable isotope analysis of freshwater mollusc opercula
Milano, S., Pop, E., Kuijper, W., Roebroeks, W., Gaudzinski-Windheuser, S., Penkman, K., Kindler, L., Britton, K.
CoproID predicts the source of coprolites and paleofeces using microbiome composition and host DNA content
Borry, M., Cordova, B., Perri, A., Wibowo, M. C., Honap, T. P., Ko, J., Yu, J., Britton, K., Girdland Flink, L., Power, R. C., Stuijts, I., Garcia, D. S., Hofman, C. A., Hagan, R. W., Kagone, T. S., Meda, N., Carabin, H., Jacobson, D., Reinhard, K., Lewis, Jr., C. M., Kostic, A., Jeong, C., Herbig, A., Hubner, A., Warinner, C.
What's the Catch?: Archaeological application of rapid collagen-based species identification for Pacific Salmon
Korzow-Richter, K., McGrath, K., Masson-MacLean, E., Hickinbotham, S., Tedder, A., Britton, K., Bottomley, Z., Dobney, K., Hulme-Beaman, A., Zona, M., Fischer, R., Collins, M., Speller, C.
Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 116, 105116
Anion exchange resin and slow precipitation preclude the need for pretreatments in silver phosphate preparation for oxygen isotope analysis of bioapatites
Pederzani, S., Snoeck, C., Wacker, U., Britton, K.