Dr Malcolm Lillie

Reader in Prehistoric Archaeology and Wetland Science

Research interests include:

• Mesolithic-Neolithic transitions in Ukraine
• The interpretation of diet from dental pathology and stable isotope analyses
• Wetland Archaeology
• Holocene landscape development and human-landscape interactions

Selected current and recent projects

• Dating and diet in the earlier Neolithic: with colleagues in Kiev, Minnesota, Durham, Cambridge, Cork and Oxford a series of dating projects are being undertaken to further assess initial indications of a freshwater reservoir effect on earlier Neolithic human populations who consumed diets with inputs of freshwater resources. To date, the evidence indicates that populations of the middle and lower Dnieper Region in Ukraine have significant reservoir offsets in the radiocarbon dating undertaken on these individuals, when compared to the terrestrial fauna from the region (Lillie et al. 2009). We are assessing these influences at other locations in Europe and obtaining stable isotope ratios to further assess/reinforce the observations obtained to date.
• Subsistence in transitional hunter-gatherer to farmer contexts: A number of small projects aimed at assessing the nature of subsistence strategies across the shift from the exploitation of wild to domesticated resources from the Baltic to the Black Sea regions are being undertaken with colleagues from western, central and eastern Europe.
• Biological & Cultural Identity of First Farmers: Multiple Bio-Archaeological Analysis of a Central European Cemetery (Vedrovice, Znojmo District, Moravia): working with colleagues in Sheffield, analysing human skeletal remains at an early Neolithic cemetery in the Czech Republic and considering issues relating to the emergence of the LBK culture and the emergence of the 'Neolithic' in Europe. (Links: FARMING : VEDROVICE )
• Understanding Waterlogged Burial Environments: The Impacts of Aggregates Extraction and De-Watering on the Buried Archaeological resource [Phase 2] (English Heritage Funded). This phase of the project continues the multi-disciplinary studies of watertable dynamics and the analysis of the chemistry of the burial environment at Newington, and develops the research agenda further by integrating high resolution studies of the microbiology of the floodplain sediments in order to understand the potential for in situ preservation at this site.
• Understanding water table dynamics and their influence on the buried archaeological resource in relation to aggregates extraction (English Heritage and MIRO funded Aggregates Levy Project): integrating multi-disciplinary studies of watertable dynamics, the chemistry of the burial environment and palaeoecological studies in order to assess the impacts of extraction on in situ burial environments. Data modelling in GIS and hydrogeological package (MODFLOW).
• Scottish Wetland Archaeology Research Project (Historic Scotland funded) - Monitoring of in situ burial environments and preservation status of southwest Scottish crannogs: monitoring preservation status of five crannog sites and their local environmental context. This research is generating a robust, multi-faceted, dataset of environmental data relating to medium-term preservation status at the locations investigated.
• Understanding the Processes of Degradation and Preservation of Woody Tissues in Differing Burial Environments (English Heritage Funded): quantitatively determining the different lignin and holocellulose fractions within oak wood in various degrees of degradation.
• The preservation and degradation of woody tissues in wetland archaeological and landfill sites: this research involved the characterisation of differing burial environments by analysis of the biological, chemical and physical parameters responsible for wood decomposition. By using experimental design (a laboratory-based lysimeter study) in order to represent the conditions that exist within both natural and artificial burial environments. The thesis determined the patterns and processes responsible for the rate of wood decay over a variety of different time scales (PhD research undertaken by Dr. Robert Smith).
• Characterising waterlogged burial environments for in situ preservation of organic archaeological remains: this research comprised multi-disciplinary studies of waterlogged burial environments in order to characterise their biological and physico-chemical preservation status. Stratigraphic (soil profile) molecular biological studies have been employed in this study, which has enhanced our understanding of the importance of microbial communities in degradation processes (PhD research undertaken by Isabel Douterelo Soler)

Teaching

Modules taught

• 16160 : World Archaeology
• 16161 : British Archaeology (leader)
• 16162 : Archaeology - History, Theory and Method (leader)
• 16280 : Field Study and GIS
• 16265 : Archaeology Field Method and Procedure (leader)
• 16266 : Environmental Archaeology (leader)
• 16366 : Wetland Archaeology (leader)
• 16367 : Hunter-gatherer to Farmer (leader)
• 16488 : Wetland Landscapes
• 20512 : Human Landscape Interactons

Selected Recent Publications

Lillie, M.C., Smith, R., Reed, J. & R. Inglis. 2008. 'South-West Scottish Crannogs: using in situ studies to assess preservation in wetland contexts'. Journal of Archaeological science 35: 1886-1900.

Lillie, M.C. and S. Ellis [eds.] 2007. Wetland Archaeology & Environments: Regional issues, Global Perspectives. Oxford: Oxbow Books.