Professor Amy Bogaard
Research Interests
My research focus is early farming practice in Europe and Western Asia, from farming origins to early cities. To investigate the nature of early farming we need frameworks to compare ancient and present-day ’traditional’ practices. Research methods therefore range from archaeological excavation and archaeobotanical analysis to survey and characterisation of present-day farming systems. In combination these approaches open up a ‘dialogue' between past and present farming. I’m particularly interested in how farming practice relates to storage systems, diet, inequality and sustainability.
Keywords: Later prehistory; archaeobotany; farming; land use; stable isotopes and palaeodietary studies; housing; inequality
Geographic Areas: Europe and western Asia
Research activities
- Exploring the Dynamics and Causes of Prehistoric Land Use Change in the Cradle of European Farming (EXPLO) project (European Research Council SYNERGY project; Oxford PI Bogaard). Project website available here and School webpage here.
- Feeding Anglo-Saxon England (FEEDSAX) project (European Research Council, PI Hamerow)
- The Agricultural Origins of Urban Civilization (AGRICURB) project (European Research Council, PI Bogaard)
- Excavations on the Lower Gypsades hill, Knossos, Crete
Research awards
Fellow of the British Academy (2021)
Shanghai Archaeology Forum Research Award for AGRICURB (ERC) and Crop stable isotope (NERC) projects (2015)
Undergraduate teaching
Undergraduate course convenor for:
- Honour Moderations Paper 4 - The Nature of Archaeological & Anthropological Enquiry
- Honour Moderations - Practical classes
- FHS option paper - From Hunting & Gathering to States & Empires in Southwest Asia
- FHS option paper - Later Prehistory of Europe
Postgraduate teaching
Postgraduate taught course options in:
I am happy to supervise on late prehistoric archaeology, including topics on farming, food, agroecologies, inequality, households, urbanisation and domestication, including novel methodological approaches.
Current students
The epidemiological transition: farming in sickness and in health. What was the extent of the pathogenic burden of Neolithic &Bronze Age populations? Katherine Hearne | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisors: Greger Larson 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 |
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 |
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 |
Chinese apocrypha titled Foshuo fumu enzhong jing as material culture in medieval Chinese society Ying Chen (2021) ORA | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisor: Amy Bogaard |
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 |
Dynamics underlying Plasmodium Vivax mitochondrial genome diversity across the Eastern Hemisphere. A past human migratory perspective Leonie Raijmakers (2018) ORA | DPhil Archaeological Science | Supervisors: Amy Bogaard and Alyssa Barry |
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 |
Neolithic agricultural management in the Eastern Mediterranean: new insight from a multi-isotope approach Petra Vaiglova (2016) ORA | DPhil Archaeological Science | Supervisors: Julia Lee-Thorp and Amy Bogaard |
The Rites of Spring: A Cognitive Analysis of Ritual Activity in the Agricultural Transition in South-West Asia and North-Western Europe Michael Gantley (2015) ORA | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisors: Harvey Whitehouse and Amy Bogaard |
Agricultural Development in Mid Saxon England Mark McKerracher (2013) ORA | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisors: Helena Hamerow and Amy Bogaard |
An Archaeobotanical Investigation of Plant Use, Crop Husbandry and Animal Diet at early-mid Neolithic Catalhoyuk Central Anatolia Dragana Filipovic (2012) ORA | DPhil Archaeology | Supervisor: Amy Bogaard |
Key words: bioarchaeology, biocultural heritage, farming and herding, inequality, land use, urbanisation, later prehistory, Europe, W Asia, Eurasia, Africa, W Asia