Main Research Themes

My work focuses on the use of faunal remains to investigate the Middle and Upper Paleolithic. Although, I also have experience working with material from the Lower/Middle Paleolithic and the Middle Stone Age.

My main research questions fall into two categories:

1. Human Subsistence: What were people eating? How were animals acquired, processed, and discarded? How did people use animals as raw materials? What role did animals play in the socio-symbolic realms of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers?

2. Paleoecology: What species were present on the landscape and what can we infer about their ecology? What types of interactions occurred between humans and animals (e.g., competition, commensalism, domestication)? How did animal behavior and paleoenvironment influence humans?

Many of these questions are interconnected, and I believe that an interdisciplinary approach, with faunal remains as the central focus, is an effective way of investigating the relationship between humans and animals in the past.