About me
I got my PhD degree from the Faculty of Archaeology at Leiden University in the Netherlands, where I integrated microwear and starch grain analysis to investigate the Neolithic foodways in Central China.
After finishing my PhD in 2020, I did a 2-year postdoc at the University of Science and Technology of China, and had been promoted to Research Associate. Since 2022, I work as a MSCA COFUND researcher at the IPHES-CERCA centre in Tarragona, Spain.
My research interests central around artefact studies, foodways, and prehistoric techniques. So far, I have been invovled in several research projects in China, Europe, and Africa.
Education
01/11/2015-26/08/2020: Ph.D.: Archaeological Science, Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
01/09/2012-17/06/2015: Master of History: Archaeology and Museology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
01/09/2008-2/07/2012: Bachelor of Science: Applied Chemistry, Suzhou University, Suzhou, China
PhD defense at Leiden, 2020
Professional experience
12/12/2022-present: Postdoctoral researcher, The Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES-CERCA), (MSCA-COFUND R2STAIR programme), Spain.
01/11/2020-31/10/2022: Postdoctoral researcher, School of Humanities and Social Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.
01/04/2020-30/09/2020: Guest researcher, Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, The Netherlands
01/11/2019-31/03/2020: Postdoctoral researcher, Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, The Netherlands
Invited Presentations to International Conferences
1. Annual meeting of European Accounting Association (EAA), session 350 entitled Bio-Arch Methodologies to Assess Mobility in the Past: The Need for Interdisciplinary and Multi-Proxy Investigations, invited oral presentation: “Origins of the earliest farmers in Central China: a lithic perspective”, 29 August-2 September 2023, Belfast, UK
2. Conference on “Reconstruction of Foodways through Microfossil Analysis in China and Beyond: Research in Ancient Starch Remains”, oral presentation: Learning from experiments and blind tests: different interpretations of starch data in pervious archaeological studies, 20-22 April, 2023, Stanford University, USA
3. Conference organized by the Association of Archaeological Wear & Residue Analysts (AWRANA), theme: Tracing Social Dynamics, invited oral presentation (online): Diversity of the use and typology of grinding tools at the Neolithic site of Jiahu, China. 4-7 April, 2022, Barcelona, Spain.
4. Online conference organized the University of Neyshabur in Iran and the University of Science and Technology of China, 17 April, 2021, invited oral presentation: Microwear and starch grain analysis on experimental and archaeological grinding tools from Neolithic Central China.
5. Annual meeting of European Accounting Association (EAA), session 364 entitled Integrated methodologies for the study of lifeways, dietary and occupational environments in prehistoric and historical periods, invited oral presentation: “Foodways of the earliest farmers in the Central Plain of China”, 26-30 August 2020, Budapest, Hungary (changed to online conference due to Covid-19).
6. The 3rd Meeting of the Association for Ground Stone Tools Research: Ground Stone Tools and Past Foodways, invited oral presentation: “New interpretation regarding the scarcity of starch grains from rice on grinding tools”. 12-15 September 2019, Copenhagen, Denmark.
7. The 84th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology (SAA), in the session “Archaeology in East Asia”, invited oral presentation: “Life history of Neolithic grinding-stones: a case study at the site of Tanghu in Central China”, 10-14 April 2019, Albuquerque, USA.
8. Conference organized by the Association of Archaeological Wear & Residue Analysts (AWRANA), theme: Beyond use-wear traces: about tools and people), invited oral presentation: “Cereal processing technique inferred from use-wear analysis at the Neolithic site of Jiahu, Central China”, 29 May-1 June 2018, Nice, France.
9. International conference on quarrying, production, function, and exchange of ground stone artefacts, Poster: “Functional study of grinding tools: Use-wear traces on experimental tools and the artefacts from the site of Jiahu, China”, 12-15 September 2017, Mainz, Germany.
Research Projects and Funding
2022-2024: Principal investigator, Origins of the earliest farmers in Central China: a lithic perspective, MSCA-COFUND R2STAIR programme, €119,064
2021-2023: Principal investigator, Study of damaged starch grains from Chinese Medicine and its application in Archaeology, Funded by the Department of Human Resources and Social Security of Anhui Province, China, €7,170.
2021-2023: Principal investigator, Chalcolithic plant food processing at the Iranian site of Borj, Funded by the USTC Youth Innovation Fund, €2, 850
2020-2022: Principal investigator, Functional study of ground stone tools associated with the Shuangdun Culture in the middle catchment of Huai River, China (Grant No. AHSKQ2021D52), Funded by Anhui Provincial Philosophy and Social Science Planning Office, €2,868.
2016-2018: Member of the project entitled “Changes in methods of plant use in the light of technological transformations in Lower Silesia between 6th and 3rd/2nd millennia BC”, supported by National Science Centre, €6,000.
2015-2018: Member of the project entitled “Plant exploitation and human adaption to the environment during the early to middle Holocene in the upper and middle catchment of the Huai River, China”, supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41472148), €137,664.
2015-2018: Member of the project entitled “The emergence, development, and regional differences of mixed farming of rice and millet in the upper and middle the Huai River Valley, China”, supported by Philosophy and Social Science Planning Project of the Ministry of Education (Grant No. 15YJA780003), €14,340.
2013-2015: Principal Investigator of the project entitled “The starch grain analysis of modern Oryza and its application in archaeology”, supported by Youth Innovation Fund of University of Science and Technology of China, €14,340.
✉️ You are welcome to contact me through email: wli@iphes.cat