Professor Rick Schulting

Dr Rick Schulting
Professor of Scientific and Prehistoric Archaeology
+44 (0)1865 278309
rick.schulting@arch.ox.ac.uk

Research Interests

Mesolithic and Neolithic of western Europe; North American Northwest Coast and Plateau archaeology and ethnography; Siberian steppe hunter-gatherers and pastoralists; Caribbean prehistory; Japanese prehistory; complex hunter-gatherers; transition to agriculture; mortuary analysis; stable isotope analysis and dietary reconstruction; strontium isotopes and provenance/mobility; skeletal evidence of interpersonal violence; radiocarbon dating; Bayesian modelling; marine and freshwater radiocarbon reservoir corrections, especially in Europe, Siberia, the Caribbean and northern Chile. 

Research Profile

Research Activities

I have had a long-standing interest in the Mesolithic and Neolithic of Western Europe, both in themselves, and in terms of the transition to farming. Recent and ongoing research is focussed on improving our understanding of chronology, through the use of AMS 14C dating, and of palaeodiet, through the use of stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis. Another current research strand involves a re-assessment of extant Neolithic skeletal collections from various regions of western Europe, from the point of view of evidence for interpersonal violence. Most recently, I have extended my interests to Eurasian steppe pastoralists, and to the hunter-gatherers of Siberia and northern Japan, as a member of the Baikal-Hokkaido Archaeological Project (http://bhap.arts.ualberta.ca/).

An edited volume titled 'Sticks, Stones & Broken Bones: Neolithic Violence in a European Perspective' (OUP), published in 2012, presents overviews of violent injuries on skeletons from various regions of Europe. 

Co-Investigator - Cultivating Societies: assessing the evidence for agriculture in Neolithic Ireland: http://www.chrono.qub.ac.uk/instar

Links

Publications

  • Integrated Stable Isotopic and Radiocarbon Analyses of Neolithic and Bronze Age Hunter-Gatherers from the Little Sea and Upper Lena Micro- Regions, Cis-Baikal, Siberia

    SCHULTING, R, White, A, HOMMEL, P, Lythe, A, RAMSEY, C, Moiseyev, V, Khartanovich, V, Weber, A
    2020
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    Journal article
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    Journal of Archaeological Science

  • The life-history of a late Mesolithic woman in Iberia: A sequential multi-isotope approach

    Fernández-Crespo, T, Le Roux, PJ, Ordoño, J, Ditchfield, PW, Schulting, RJ
    2020
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    Journal article
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    Quaternary International

  • Claddedigaethau mewn ogofâu: prehistoric human remains (mainly) from the caves of Wales

    SCHULTING, R
    2020
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    Journal article
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    Proceedings of the University of Bristol Spelaeological Society

  • Early farmers in northwest Turkey: First dietary isotopes study of human diet at Neolithic Barcın Höyük

    Budd, C, Galik, A, Alpaslan-Roodenberg, S, Schulting, R, Lillie, M
    2020
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    Journal article
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    Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
    © 2020 Elsevier Ltd Barcın Höyük is one of the oldest Neolithic settlement sites in northwest Anatolia, with early layers of occupation radiocarbon dated to ca. 6600 cal BC. The Neolithic phase at the site (ca. 6600–6200 cal BC) has seven layers of occupation, and shows a number of affinities, in terms of structure and zooarchaeological remains, with contemporary sites in the coastal area near Istanbul (Özdoğan, 2015). The available zooarchaeological evidence suggests a diet of terrestrial fauna, with some inclusion from freshwater aquatic species. This study investigates the nature of human diet at Barcın Höyük through carbon and nitrogen analysis of human and animal bone collagen, and examines whether there is any isotopic evidence for a shift in diet after the re-organisation of the site at ca. 6200 cal BC. Here we present 75 human and faunal analyses from the Neolithic layers at Barcın Höyük. Two new radiocarbon dates on human skeletons are also included in the study.

  • Isotopic evidence for changing mobility and landscape use patterns between the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age in western Ireland

    Snoeck, C, Jones, C, Pouncett, J, Goderis, S, Claeys, P, Mattielli, N, Zazzo, A, Reimer, PJ, Lee-Thorp, JA, Schulting, RJ
    2020
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    Journal article
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    Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
    © 2020 Elsevier Ltd This paper presents the results of a study using strontium, oxygen and carbon isotopes, strontium concentrations, infrared analyses and radiocarbon dating to investigate human mobility and landscape use as seen in individuals from the Neolithic court tomb of Parknabinnia, Co. Clare, Ireland. Taking advantage of the recent demonstration that it is possible to obtain reliable in vivo strontium isotope signals from calcined bone, we compare measurements on cremated bone (n = 4) and uncremated tooth enamel (n = 4). The results suggest that two out of four uncremated enamel samples can be considered ‘local’ while the other two, and all four cremated bone samples, represent ‘non-local’ individuals. New radiocarbon dates obtained on two of the cremated bone fragments place them in the Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age, contrasting with the Neolithic dates previously obtained on the uncremated remains, demonstrating re-use of the monument. Assuming that our small sample is representative, it seems that the court tomb was used for burial by both ‘locals’ and ‘non-locals’ during the Neolithic and predominantly by ‘non-locals’ in the Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age. This stands in contrast to the nearby Early Neolithic portal tomb of Poulnabrone where only one individual (of 17 analysed) appears to be an ‘outsider’. Our results suggest that, even within a small region, mobility and landscape use may have differed significantly within the Neolithic and also between the Neolithic and the Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age.
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Teaching

Undergraduate teaching

Undergraduate course convenor for:

  • FHS core paper 3: Landscape and Ecology
  • FHS option paper: Physical Anthropology & Human Osteoarchaeology

Undergraduate lecturer for:

  • Honour Moderations paper 1: Introduction to World Archaeology
  • Honour Moderations paper 3:  Perspectives on Human Evolution

Postgraduate teaching

Postgraduate taught course options in: