Research Team
Alan Outram
UK Principal Investigator
Prof. Outram is Professor of Archaeological Science at the University of Exeter, UK. He is a bioarchaeologist and palaeoeconomist who specialises in zooarchaeology and a co-director of the Research Centre for Human-Animal-Environment Bioarchaeology (HumAnE). Some of his most significant work has been on tracing the domestication of the horse in Central Asia and studying the development of steppe pastoral societies in Kazakhstan. He is additionally well known as a specialist in bone taphonomy, particularly fracture and fragmentation analysis to identify bone marrow and grease extraction. He has also recently been engaged on major research projects relating to early dairying, ancient horse genetics over time and medieval warhorses.
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Cheryl Makarewicz
German Principal Investigator
Prof. Cheryl Makarewicz is Professor of Zooarchaeology and Stable Isotope Biogeochemistry at Kiel University. Cheryl's inspiration comes from her extensive research and travels throughout the Near East and Inner Asia - where she has carried out archaeological fieldwork, led biomolecular proof-of-concept research, and worked closely with contemporary pastoralists. Extensive ethno-archaeological research in Mongolia and Jordan engages nomadic herders documenting the diverse ways in which they manage their livestock, process meat and dairy for daily meals, and move across the landscape throughout the year. As part of this, Cheryl draws out how these pastoralist behaviors are expressed in the faunal and biomolecular records - rich and durable archives that store information on the dietary intake and mobility of both humans and animals. At Kiel University, Cheryl directs both the Zooarchaeology Lab and Archaeology Stable Isotope Lab at Kiel University, which are hubs of PASTLOST research and analysis.
Postdoctoral Researchers
Dr. Thomas Larsen focuses on the impact of environmental changes and human exploitation on food webs and ecosystem functioning through stable isotope techniques and biomolecular methods. He pioneered the development of stable isotope fingerprinting of amino acids, an innovative method for tracing the biosynthetic origins of essential amino acids that have provided unprecedented insights into both ancient and modern resource use. Using isoscapes and probability models, Dr. Larsen currently investigates how human manipulation of horse movement influenced equine domestication processes and explores the role of Near Eastern ruminant livestock in early horse husbandry. With PASTLOST, Dr. Larsen aids in the investigation of animal mobility patterns through stable isotope analyses of oxygen and carbon isotope analyses of horse teeth, carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of equid and ruminant bone, and isoscaping.
Elena Sandoval is a postdoctoral researcher who studies isotopic analysis, osteoarchaeology, and Bayesian modeling. She has a background in funerary archaeology, bioarchaeology, and bulk stable isotopic analysis. Elena is interested in the reconstruction of mobility in pastoralist societies, expanding the understanding of the impact pastoralist societies had on sedentary cultures, animal husbandry practices, and gender dynamics. During her PhD, she participated in several rescue excavations in Hungary and Bulgaria as a team member of the Yamnaya Impact Project. Her PhD thesis, 'Investigating the Dietary Patterns of Yamnaya Pastoralists and the Dietary Impact of the Yamnaya Horizon on Local Populations in Romania and Bulgaria', focused on using bulk stable isotopic analysis of human skeletal collagen to reconstruct dietary trends of the Yamnaya Horizon. Elena's research on the Yamnaya Horizon combined isotopic analysis, bioarchaeological information, and hierarchical Bayesian modeling to better understand dietary patterns between cultural designations, age categories, and sexes of Early Bronze Age individuals from the Thracian and Danubian Plains. As a member of Pastoralists Lost, Elena aids in the investigation of animal mobility patterns through stable isotopic analyses of strontium and oxygen of horse teeth.