BSc Hons (Dunelm), MSc (Reading), PhD (Dunelm, MPI-EVA), FSAScot
Personal Chair
- About
-
- Email Address
- k.britton@abdn.ac.uk
- Telephone Number
- +44 (0)1224 273823
- Office Address
Department of Archaeology, School of Geosciences
University of Aberdeen
Room 210, St. Mary's
Elphinstone Road
Aberdeen
AB24 3UF- School/Department
- School of Geosciences
Biography
Kate began her archaeological career in 2002 at Durham University, where she studied Archaeology (BSc), specialising in prehistory, bioarchaeology and palaeodietary reconstruction. She then moved on to University of Reading in 2005 to study for a NERC-funded MSc degree in Geoarchaeology. It was at Reading that Kate began to incorporate the stable isotope analysis of animal and human remains into her research. In 2006 she returned to Durham to start a PhD in Bioarchaeology, again receiving sponsorship from NERC. In 2007 she joined the Department of Human Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, initially as a doctoral candidate, and after finishing her thesis, as a post-doctoral research scientist and DAAD Junior Scholarship holder.
Kate was appointed Lecturer in Archaeological Science in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Aberdeen in 2010, becoming Senior Lecturer in 2016, and Head of Department in 2020. Kate was made Professor (Personal Chair) in 2021.
Internal Memberships
- Departmental social media (w/ Josh Wright)
- Honorary Curatorial Fellow (University Museums)
Latest Publications
Exploring the effects of post-medieval crofting on the modern hillside ecosystem: Vegetation history as cultural legacy
Cultural Landscapes of North-east Scotland: Collaborative Research in History and Archaeology. Shepherd, C. (ed.). Oxbow Books, pp. 147-159Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)An ensemble machine learning bioavailable strontium isoscape for Eastern Canada
FACETSContributions to Journals: ArticlesPalaeoecology of ungulates in northern Iberia during the Late Pleistocene through isotopic analysis of teeth
Biogeosciences, vol. 21, no. 19, pp. 4413-4437Contributions to Journals: ArticlesThe Bears of Scotland
Annales Zoologici FenniciContributions to Journals: ArticlesCarbon, nitrogen, and sulfur elemental and isotopic variations in mouse hair and bone collagen during short-term graded calorie restriction
iScience, vol. 27, no. 6, 110059Contributions to Journals: Articles
Prizes and Awards
Philip Leverhulme Prize in Archaeology (2019)
- Research
-
Research Overview
Kate is an archaeological scientist and human palaeoecologist, specialising in the use of stable isotope analysis for the reconstruction of past diets, movements, and environments. Her research centres on the relationship between life-time behaviours, diets and movements of past humans and animals, and human-animal-environmental interactions. She specialises in the use of multi-isotope systems (δ13C, δ15N, δ18O, δ34S, 87Sr/86Sr) and the reconstruction of individual isotopic histories, focusing on the interaction between humans and animals. This includes the isotopic-identification of subsistence strategies, animal husbandry practices, the isotope ecology of archaeologically-important prey-species, and the identification of broad-scale climatic or environmental isotopic-trends. Regions/periods of focus include Late Pleistocene Europe, pre-contact Western Alaska and (early) Medieval Scotland.
Research Specialisms
- Archaeological Sciences
- Archaeology
Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is HESA open data, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
Current Research
- Integrative Approaches to Late Pleistocene Herbivore Ecology, Ranging and Diet
- Diet and health in Medieval Aberdeen
- Palaeodiet and subsistence practices in northwest Alaska, including the exploration of vitamin D health
- Late Pleistocene archaeo-ecology of Scotland
Past Research
- Salt-marsh grazing and coastal agriculture in North-West Europe
- Late Pleistocene faunal biogeography and implications for Neanderthal subsistence strategies and landscape use in southwest France
- Dietary change and maritime adaptations in prehistoric North-West Alaska
- Use of oxygen isotope analysis of faunal remains as terrestrial palaeoclimatic proxies at the late Pleistocene site of Neumark-Nord 2, Germany
Supervision
Current PhD students:
Jovita Fawcett (Aberdeen; AHRC funded, 2023 - )
Zootropolis: Multi-species archaeological, ecological and historical approaches to animals in Medieval urban
Louise Smith (Aberdeen; NERC QUADRAT DTP funded, 2022 - )
Leia Tilley (Aberdeen; NERC QUADRAT DTP funded, 2022 - )
Integrating Human Late Pleistocene Recolonisation and Environmental Histories in Scotland and Ireland (PRE-Histories)
Lucy Koster (Aberdeen; Crick Institute; SOG funded, 2021 - )
Sarah Barakat (Aberdeen; NERC QUADRAT DTP funded, 2020 - )
Exploring the potential of multi-tissue sulphur and strontium isotope analysis and isoscape modelling to reconstruct past faunal movements
Sarah Ferrandin (Queen's University Belfast; NERC QUADRAT DTP funded, 2020 - )
Investigating the timing and causes of nitrogen cycle changes in Bronze Age Ireland
Past PhD students:
Dr Eléa Gutierrez (SBS-SOG joint funded, 2019 - 2023)
Are you what you eat during dietary stress? Multi-isotope and multi-tissue analysis on calorie restricted mice from controlled feeding experiments
Dr Judith Findlater (Queen's University Belfast, AHRC Northern Bridge funded, graduated 2023)
Feeding Medieval Carrickfergus: A Multi-Proxy Study of Livestock Husbandry in a Frontier Town
Dr John Graham (Aberdeen, 2016 - 2022, part-time)
Othering and Ordering in Middle Palaeolithic Archaeology
Dr Orsolya Czére (AHRC-funded, with Historic Environment Scotland, graduated 2021)
Diet from the Dark Ages to the Medieval State: a Diachronic Isotopic Study of Dietary Change in Scotland, from the Late Iron Age to the High Medieval Period
Dr Sarah Pederzani (MPI-EVA/Leiden/Aberdeen, graduated 2021)
Exploring late Pleistocene intra- and inter- site climate variability and seasonality using isotope zooarchaeology
Dr Ciara Gigleux (AHRC-funded, graduated 2018)
Caribou and the precontact Yup'ik: the isotope ecology and biogeography of a key subsistence species
Dr Carly Ameen (University of Liverpool/Aberdeen, graduated 2018)
Establishing and quantifying morphological variation amongst canids: a GMM approach to identifying domesticates
Dr Edouard Masson-Maclean (AHRC-funded, graduated 2018)
Animals, subsistence and society in Yup'ik Prehistory
Dr Ellen McManus-Fry (NERC-funded, graduated 2015)
Pre-contact ecology, subsistence and diet on the Yukon-Kuskowim Delta: An integrated ecosystem approach to pre-contact lifeways using zooarchaeological analysis and stable isotope techniques
Funding and Grants
2023-
2028
People, Animals, Landscapes and Environments of Late Glacial Scotland (PALaEoScot). ERC selected, funded by UKRI Frontier Research Guarantee [Consolidator] Award (PI)
2022-2023
Determining vitamin D status in precontact Western Alaska: a new method for exploring past health and dietary adaptations to high-latitude living. Natural Environment Research Council Exploring the Frontiers Grant (PI with Prof. Baukje de Roos [co-I])
2022
Diet and deficiency: Integrating vitamin D status into palaeodietary studies using novel biomedical diagnostic tools. Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council mitigation funding (PI with Prof. Baukje de Roos [co-I])
2020-2023
Philip Leverhulme Prize in Archaeology The Leverhulme Trust (PI)
2018-2021
Intergrative Approaches to late Pleistocene Herbivore Ecology, Ranging and Diet (PleistoHERD) Leverhulme Standard Grant (PI with Dr. Joshua Wright, Prof. Steeve Côté and Dr. Vaughan Grimes [co-Is])
2016-2019
Diet from the Dark Ages to the Medieval State (Historic Environment Scotland co-funded with Arts and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Studentship to Orsolya Czére)
2016-2018
Animals, Lifeways and Lifeworlds in Yup’ik Archaeology (ALLY): Subsistence, Technologies, and Communities of Change Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) - LabEx (Fr) (PI with Dr. Isabelle Sidéra [Fr], Prof. Keith Dobney [co-I] and Dr. Rick Knecht [co-I])
2013-2018
Understanding Cultural Resilience and Climate Change on the Bering Sea through Yup'ik Ecological Knowledge, Lifeways, Learning and Archaeology Arts and Humanities Research Council Standard Research Grant (co-I with Dr. Rick Knecht [PI] and Dr. Charlotta Hillerdal [co-I])
2012-2013
Isotope analysis at St. Nicholas Kirk, Aberdeen: Diet, Health and Mobility in a Medieval Maritime Society Royal Society of Edinburgh Arts and Humanities Small Research Grant
2012
Principal's Excellence Fund Travel Grant, University of Aberdeen (SAA 2013)
2012
Maritime adaptations and dietary change in prehistoric Western Alaska: stable isotope investigations at Nunalleq Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland Research Travel Grant
2011-2013
Animal Husbandry in the Intertidal Zone: A Stable Isotope Approach to Changing Subsistence Strategies in the Belgian Coastal Plain British Academy Small Research Grant (co-PI with Dr. Gundula Müldner, University of Reading, in collaboration with Dr. Anton Ervynck, Flemish Heritage Institute)
2009-2010
Palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic reconstruction at the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic site of Neumark-Nord, Germany Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst research grant for Junior Scholars
- Teaching
-
Teaching Responsibilities
I am currently on research leave, normally I lead/contribute to the following courses:
Course Co-ordinator
- AY2006 Test Tubes & Trowels (Undergraduate 15-credit course)
- AY3027: Mammoths to Microliths: Life and Landscapes in Palaeolithic Europe (Undergraduate 15-credit course)
- AY4014 Bioarchaeology (Undergraduate 15-credit course)
- AY5001 Northern Worlds (MSc 30-credit course)
Additional Teaching
- SX1501 Humans and Other Animals
- ED1057 What Makes Us Human
- AY1003 Introduction to World Prehistory
- AY1503 Archaeology in Action
- AY2505 The Archaeology of the North: Lifeways and Culture Change
- AY3009 Scottish Archaeology
- SX3012 An Appetite for Food and Health
- AY3512 Archaeological Research Project Part I
- AY4002 Archaeological Research Project Part II
- AY4510 Current Issues in Archaeology
- AY4511 Indigenous, Community and Public Archaeologies
- AY5002 Theory and Method in Archaeological Research
- AY5501 Northern Peoples and Cultures
- AY5502 Advanced Archaeological Approaches
- Publications
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The Bodies in the ‘Bog’: A Multi-Isotope Investigation of Individual Life-Histories at an Unusual 6th/7th AD Century Group Burial from a Roman Latrine at Cramond, Scotland
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, vol. 14, 67Contributions to Journals: ArticlesSilver Linings at the Dawn of a ‘Golden Age'
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, vol. 9, 748938Contributions to Journals: ArticlesSubarctic climate for the earliest Homo sapiens in Europe
Science Advances, vol. 7, no. 39, eabi4642Contributions to Journals: ArticlesPalaeoproteomic analyses of dog palaeofaeces reveal a preserved dietary and host digestive proteome
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 288, no. 1954, 20210020Contributions to Journals: ArticlesReconstructing Late Pleistocene paleoclimate at the scale of human behavior: an example from the Neandertal occupation of La Ferrassie (France)
Scientific Reports, vol. 11, 1419Contributions to Journals: ArticlesMulti-isotope analysis of the human skeletal remains from Blair Atholl, Perth & Kinross, Scotland: insights into the diet and lifetime mobility of an early medieval individual
Tayside and Fife Archaeological Journal, vol. 27, pp. 31-44Contributions to Journals: ArticlesSampling Plants and Malacofauna in 87Sr/86Sr Bioavailability Studies: implications for isoscape mapping and reconstructing of past mobility patterns
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, vol. 8, 579473Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2020.579473/full#supplementary-material
- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2020.579473
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/15517/1/Britton_et_al_FIEAE_SamplingPlantsAndMalacofauna_VoR.pdf
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
New isotope evidence for diachronic and site-spatial variation in precontact diet during the Little Ice Age at Nunalleq, southwest Alaska: Nouvelles donnees isotopiques mettant en evidence l'organisation spatiale et les variations temporelles dans l'alimentation precontact durant le petit age glaciaire a Nunalleq (sud-ouest de l'Alaska)
Études Inuit Studies, vol. 43, no. 1-2, pp. 223-242Contributions to Journals: ArticlesActivity Areas or Conflict Episode? Interpreting the Spatial Patterning of Lice and Fleas at the Precontact Yup’ik Site of Nunalleq (16-17th Centuries AD, Alaska)
Études Inuit Studies, vol. 43, no. 1-2, pp. 197-221Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1071945ar
Environmental conditions at the Last Interglacial (Eemian) site Neumark-Nord 2, Germany inferred from stable isotope analysis of freshwater mollusc opercula
Boreas, vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 477-487Contributions to Journals: Articles
