Professor Mark Pollard

professor mark pollard
Edward Hall Professor of Archaeological Science
Director of the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art
+44 (0)1865 285228
mark.pollard@arch.ox.ac.uk

Research Interests

My research over the past 35 years has encompassed the application of the physical sciences, particularly chemistry, within archaeology, and has included a wide range of topics. It might be summarized under three main headings – the study of archaeological materials, the investigation of biogeochemical processes, and numerical applications in archaeology and palaeoclimatic reconstruction. Each of these has been supported by external research grants, postgraduate studentships, and publications. 

Research Profile

Research Activities

I have had almost continuous external funding (mostly UK Research Council) since March 1986. The focus of my research has shifted over the period from a relatively straightforward analysis of archaeological materials to more complex questions of process, integration of various sources of information, and the development of numerical methodologies. There is a continuing need to further develop the theoretical underpinning of materials study in archaeology, including methods for the better integration of scientific provenance studies with existing archaeological understanding.

I am a Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a Member of the Oriental Ceramic Society.

Current Research Projects

FLAME (FLow of Ancient Metal across Eurasia): European Research Council Advance Grant 1300505. 2.47MEuro, 1/10/2015-30/9/2020.

Completed Research Projects

  • 'The Past People of Oxfordshire', funded by Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF) in partnership with Oxford Archaeology and Oxford City Council.
  • Mass migration and apartheid in Anglo-Saxon Britain?: an ancient DNA re-evaluation
  • Leverhulme Trust RPG-388 (Pollard/Hamerow/Bradley) 2 years from 1/1/12.
  • BookNET: a network for the technological study of the book and manuscript as artefact
  • AHRC AH/G015309/1 (Pollard, Ovendon, Howell and Neate) Science and Heritage Cluster, 9 months from Jan 2009.
  • Transition to Ironworking in Ancient Cholcis 
  • National Geographic Global Exploration Fund GEFNE30-11 (Pollard) for 2012.
  • Chemical structure and human behaviour: a new model for prehistoric metallurgy
  • Leverhulme Trust F/08 622/D (Pollard, Gosden, Northover and Bray) 2 years from 1/01/11.
  • Ancient Cholcis and the Origins of Iron: Field investigations of the earliest iron working in western Georgia 
  • British Academy SG100285 (Albert Reckitt Archaeology Fund) (Pollard, Gilmour and Johnson) £7,500 from August 2010.
  • Below the Salt: A study of the human remains and associated material from the salt mine at Chehrabad, Zanjan, Iran
  • AHRC AH/HO10998/1 (Pollard and Brothwell, University of York) 1/4/2010 for 2 years.
  • Evaluating Hunter-Gatherer Subsistence Strategies in Late-Glacial Central Italy 
  • Leverhulme Trust F/00 235/1 (Donahue (University of Bradford), Lee-Thorp, Blockley (RHUL), Pollard and Pellegrini) 3 years from June 2009.

Links

FLAME (The FLow of Ancient Metals across Eurasia)

RESET — Response of Humans to Abrupt Environmental Transitions

Below the Salt

Publications

  • Social hierarchy and the choice of metal recycling at Anyang, the last capital of Bronze Age Shang China.

    Liu, R, Pollard, AM, Cao, Q, Liu, C, Sainsbury, V, Howarth, P, Bray, P, Huan, L, Yao, B, Fu, Y, Tang, J
    November 2020
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    Journal article
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    Scientific reports
    Anyang, the last capital of the Chinese Shang dynasty, became one of the largest metal consumers in Eurasia during the second millennium BCE. However, it remains unclear how Anyang people managed to sustain such a large supply of metal. By considering the chemical analysis of bronze objects within archaeological contexts, this paper shows that the casting and circulation of metal at Anyang was effectively governed by social hierarchy. Objects belonging to the high elites such as Fuhao, particularly the bronze ritual vessels, were made by carefully controlled alloying practice (primary) using very pure copper, whereas the lower elites only had access to bronzes made by secondary alloying practice and copper with more impurities. Such contrasts allow scholars to identify those objects which are less likely to have been made by mixing and recycling, which has very important implications for the chemical and isotopic determination of provenance for future studies.

  • Synthesis of stable isotopic data for human bone collagen: A study of the broad dietary patterns across ancient China

    Liu, R, Pollard, M, Schulting, R, Rawson, J, Liu, C
    July 2020
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    Journal article
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    HOLOCENE
    ancient China, big data, dietary change, Eurasian agriculture, east-west communication, stable isotope analysis

  • Introduction to the Special Issue: Correlating changes for environmental, technological and societal transformation in prehistoric eastern Asia

    Liu, R, Dong, G, Ma, M, Pollard, AM
    January 2020
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    Journal article
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    Holocene
    © The Author(s) 2020. Identifying and explaining changes in the prehistoric material and social world is one of the greatest research interests in archaeology, palaeoclimate and environmental science. In the last two decades or so, a considerable number of studies have made significant contributions to the associated disciplines in eastern Asian archaeology. However, due to the more specialised scientific approaches and the rapid accumulation of new excavation materials, it becomes increasingly difficult for scholars to examine and correlate research outputs from different areas and achieve a holistic picture of the past. Using eastern Asian archaeology as an example, this Special Issue aims to break down the disciplinary boundaries and present the current research debate on how to correlate different climate, environmental and social changes and explain human past. One of the fundamental issues is the lack of adequate chronological resolution to order various archaeological events. To tackle this, a large number of radiocarbon dates, primarily derived from short- lived materials, are provided in the Special Issue. A great variety of changes in local environment, agricultural practice, animal husbandry, technologies, migration, demography and social organisations are revealed in the following papers but there are two profound drivers to all of these changes. One is the broad climate change since the start of the Holocene and the other is the communication between the West and the East.

  • China's major Late Neolithic centres and the rise of Erlitou

    Zhang, C, Pollard, AM, Rawson, J, Huan, L, Liu, R, Tang, X
    June 2019
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    Journal article
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    ANTIQUITY
    China, Eurasia, Erlitou, Neolithic, settlement, vessel sets, jades

  • From Alloy Composition to Alloying Practice: Chinese Bronzes

    Pollard, AM, Liu, R, Rawson, J, Tang, X
    February 2019
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    Journal article
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    Archaeometry
    © 2018 University of Oxford We propose a new methodology based on standard statistical processes for displaying and rigorously comparing the alloy composition of archaeological bronze alloys. Although traditional approaches using visual comparisons of histograms of alloying elements in an assemblage of archaeological objects are adequate for observing differences between these distributions, we argue that differences in sample size cannot be adequately accounted for without using a statistical approach. We demonstrate this methodology by comparing the alloy composition of bronzes from the sequence of Bronze Age cultures in Central China—Erlitou, Erligang (Zhengzhou, or early Shang), Anyang (late Shang) and Western Zhou. We suggest that this approach allows the identification and rigorous comparison of ‘regional alloying practices’, which in turn enables us to link the alloy composition of the objects with the intentions and skills of foundry workers.
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Teaching

Postgraduate teaching

Lectururer for MSc in Archaeological Science