# Human Origins and Palaeo Environments (HOPE)

**Source**: https://www.brookes.ac.uk/research/units/hss/groups/human-origins-and-palaeo-environments
**Parent**: https://www.brookes.ac.uk/engage-and-innovate/consultancy

Group Leader(s):
[Professor Adrian Parker](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/profiles/staff/adrian-parker)

Contact:

[agparker@brookes.ac.uk](mailto:agparker@brookes.ac.uk)

[+44 (0)1865 483753](tel:+44 (0)1865 483753)

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[About us](#research-about)
[Research impact](#research-impact)
[Leadership](#research-leadership)
[Membership](#research-team)
[Projects](#research-projects)

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## About us

The Human Origins and Palaeo Environments (HOPE) Research Group is an international group exploring the interface of climate changes and landscape dynamics in diverse global systems. Our strength is in investigating human-environment interactions and past climate dynamics and responses. HOPE team members possess a broad range of skills and expertise including: climate change, geoarchaeology, palaeobotany, biological anthropology, archaeology and organic geochemistry. These core cross-cutting, interdisciplinary research strengths underpin our research outputs. They allow us to drive forward novel methodological techniques in Quaternary science, such as pollen geochemistry, sedaDNA, tephrochronology and lithic analysis. Our world-leading research draws upon our numerous productive international and national partnerships, including analytical facilities and academic collaborators.

### Part of

- [School of Social Sciences](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/about-brookes/structure-and-governance/faculties-and-schools/social-sciences "School of Social Sciences")
- [Centre for Environment and Society (CES)](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/research/units/hss/centres/centre-for-environment-and-society)

### Related courses

- [Anthropology (BA (Hons) / BSc (Hons))](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/anthropology)
- [Geography (BA (Hons) / BSc (Hons))](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/geography)

## Research impact

Over the past 10 years, collaboration with academic partners, societies and external organisations has underpinned our research at Oxford Brookes. Today we engage with a wide variety of international partners from commercial organisations, print and broadcast media, national, international heritage bodies and museums, tourism and community groups. The geographical range and diversity of our projects continues to grow internationally and we are currently engaged in working relationships with a number of partners including the British Geological Survey, Ministry of Heritage and Culture (MOHC) in Oman, the Department of Antiquities in Jordan, Sharjah Archaeology Authority, MoD Cultural Property Protection Working Group and the Oman Botanic Gardens.

Co-production of knowledge involves staff directly developing research with organisations. This has led to improved knowledge and management of the landscape and environment, whether natural or cultural. Our research also reaches beyond traditional users and impacts on the professional and commercial sectors.

In Jordan, for example, research by Bill Finlayson and Sam Smith is leading capacity building for Jordanian researchers, building cultural resource management capacity in the Department of Antiquities including the creation of a research centre. This is enabling increased interest in prehistory within Jordan, which is helping to support the growth of tourism (local and international) in southern Jordan. This project was shortlisted for the Newton Prize set by the UK government's Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

## Leadership

### Professor Adrian Parker

- [+44 (0)1865 483753](tel:+44 (0)1865 483753)
- [agparker@brookes.ac.uk](mailto:agparker@brookes.ac.uk)

Professor in Geography

[View profile  for Adrian Parker](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/profiles/staff/adrian-parker)

### Professor Simon Underdown

- [+44 (0)1865 483718](tel:+44 (0)1865 483718)
- [sunderdown@brookes.ac.uk](mailto:sunderdown@brookes.ac.uk)

Interim Deputy Head of School for Strategy and Development and Professor of Biological Anthropology

[View profile  for Simon Underdown](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/profiles/staff/simon-underdown)

## Membership

Staff members
Research students
Collaborators

- Staff
- Students
- Collaborators

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### Staff

| Name | Role | Email |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Dr Wes Fraser](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/profiles/staff/wes-fraser) | Associate Professor in Physical Geography | [wfraser@brookes.ac.uk](mailto:wfraser@brookes.ac.uk) |
| [Dr Selin Nugent](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/profiles/staff/selin-nugent) | Assistant Director - Centre for AI, Culture and Society | [snugent@brookes.ac.uk](mailto:snugent@brookes.ac.uk) |
| [Professor Adrian Parker](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/profiles/staff/adrian-parker) | Professor in Geography | [agparker@brookes.ac.uk](mailto:agparker@brookes.ac.uk) |
| [Dr Gareth Preston](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/profiles/staff/gareth-preston) | Research Fellow | [gpreston@brookes.ac.uk](mailto:gpreston@brookes.ac.uk) |
| [Dr Sam Smith](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/profiles/staff/sam-smith) | Associate Professor in Anthropology | [samsmith@brookes.ac.uk](mailto:samsmith@brookes.ac.uk) |
| [Professor Simon Underdown](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/profiles/staff/simon-underdown) | Interim Deputy Head of School for Strategy and Development and Professor of Biological Anthropology | [sunderdown@brookes.ac.uk](mailto:sunderdown@brookes.ac.uk) |
| [Dr Joseph (Joe) Williams](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/profiles/staff/joseph-williams) | Programme Lead in Anthropology and Geography, Senior Lecturer in Physical/Environmental Geography | [josephwilliams@brookes.ac.uk](mailto:josephwilliams@brookes.ac.uk) |

## Projects

Active projects

- Active projects

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### Active projects

| Project title and description | Investigator(s) | Funder(s) | Dates |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **[Analysis of sustainability and reorganisation of Arabian coastal Neolithic socio-ecological systems](http://www.agence-nationale-recherche.fr/Project-ANR-16-CE03-0007)**  This project focuses on the environments and mobility of coastal human communities during the Arabian Neolithic (8200 - 4800 BP) and builds on the existing collaborations Parker and Preston have established with the French Archaeological Mission in the UAE, since 2012. We are developing an integrated approach incorporating evidence from Neolithic occupation sites and their immediate surroundings to wider regional contexts. Neolithic Eastern Arabia offers an abundance of stratified archaeological data (preserved in shell middens), excellent preservation of coastal environmental archives (lagoons, sabkhas), and climate records preserved in speleothems and lake archives. | [Dr Jean-Francois Berger](https://univ-lyon2.academia.edu/JeanFrancoisBerger),   [Sophie Mery](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/profiles/external/sophie-mery),  [Professor Adrian Parker](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/profiles/staff/adrian-parker),  [Dr Gareth Preston](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/profiles/staff/gareth-preston) | [ANR](https://anr.fr/ "Agence Nationale de la Recherche") | From: November 2016  Until: December 2021 |
| **[Rewriting the Prehistory of Jordan](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/research/units/hss/projects/rewriting-the-prehistory-of-jordan)**  The prehistoric archaeology of Jordan provides evidence of some of the most momentous achievements in the human past. From traces of the initial forays by our ancient ancestors who left Africa many millions of years ago, though the beginnings of agriculture and settled village life and culminating in the remains of some of the world’s first towns and temples, Jordan’s prehistory is of global significance. Within Jordan, however, prehistoric archaeology is given far less attention than the archaeology of later periods such as the famous cities of Roman Jerash or Nabatean Petra. Too often prehistoric archaeology in Jordan seems to be the preserve of international researchers and is only of marginal interest or benefit to local communities. Presently Jordan’s rich prehistoric heritage is threatened and under-utilised resource. | [Dr Sam Smith](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/profiles/staff/sam-smith) | [AHRC](https://ahrc.ukri.org/ "Arts and Humanities Research Council") | From: February 2019  Until: January 2022 |
| **[Barqa Epipalaeolithic](http://faynanheritage.org/the-palaeolithic/barqa)**  Within the dune fields known as the Barqa, located to the south of Faynan, a huge scatter of stone tools and their manufacturing debris have been found. These were left by Epipalaeolithic hunter-gatherers, who repeatedly returned to this location between 20,000 and 11,500 years ago. During that period, the area around Barqa appears to have been a wetland environment. Its fresh water would have supported a diverse range of plants and animals, making the area especially attractive for hunter-gatherers. | [Dr Sam Smith](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/profiles/staff/sam-smith) |  |  |
| **Human-Disease Co-Evolution in Deep Time**  Working with a close group of international collaborators on sites in Oman, UAE, Jordan, South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe we’re exploring the co-evolution of humans and disease and how patterns of human-disease interaction in the past can be used to reconstruct human evolutionary patterns and processes. Especially the role played by diseases in shaping the adaptive environment during human evolution and the impact of disease exchange during contact between hominin species. Using a range of cutting edge techniques from ancient DNA to modern hunter-gather microbiome analysis our work is shining a light on the central relationship between humans, health and disease during our evolutionary history. | [Professor Simon Underdown](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/profiles/staff/simon-underdown) |  |  |
| **[A chronological investigation of palaeoenvironmental change in Wadi Iddayyah, United Arab Emirates](https://www.thebfsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/2018_G_Preston_Wadi_Iddayyah.pdf)**  Fluvial systems offer considerable potential to address the current gaps in knowledge that exist in our understanding of Late Pleistocene climate change and associated early human demographics in Arabia, with evidence from some key periods limited to just a handful of spatially dispersed, terrestrial records. This project presents new independent, age-constrained, empirical data of Arabian climate change and landscape response from sites identified along a previously unexplored ~30 km section of Wadi Iddayyah, United Arab Emirates. The system is the main drainage feature within the Jebel Faya anticline, which has provided the earliest evidence of anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) identified in Arabia to date (~125 ka). The implications of this work in terms of human occupation and movement across the landscape is the focus of the Co-Is current PhD research. | [Dr Gareth Preston](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/profiles/staff/gareth-preston),   [Kira Raith](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/profiles/staff/kira-raith) | [IASA](https://www.theiasa.com/ "International Association for the Study of Arabia") |  |
| **[Ecosystem resilience and recovery from the Permo-Triassic crisis](http://www.betr-palaeo.org/permo-triassic-transition.html)**  The principal aims of Eco-PT is to determine the cause of the Permo-Triassic mass extinction, especially in terrestrial settings and investigate the nature of ecosystem rebuilding in its aftermath. Projects include seeking sulphur isotopic evidence for atmospheric impact of the Siberian Traps eruptions in terrestrial settings in North China, investigating the nature of the crisis in shallow-marine to terrestrial transitional settings, using proxies for ozone cover to see if UV radiation played a role in the crisis and climate modelling of the super-greenhouse world. Macroevolutionary and macroecological recovery process will investigate a number of factors such as trends in trait changes and morphospace occupation. | [Dr Wes Fraser](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/profiles/staff/wes-fraser) | [NERC](https://nerc.ukri.org/ "Natural Environment Research Council") | From: January 2017  Until: December 2021 |
| **[Excavating the roots of the tree of life: revealing a billion year fossil record for the euglenids](http://gotw.nerc.ac.uk/list_full.asp?pcode=NE%2FR001324%2F1&cookieConsent=A)**  This research investigates euglenid fossils from throughout the geological column and, by demonstrating which possess the characteristic euglenid wall structure, provide a continuous fossil record for the euglenids. This will place euglenids as one of the few groups of early divergent eukaryotes with a deep fossil record (and the first of the SuperGroup Excavates). This is important because it will provide evidence for the timing and nature of the diversification of the earliest eukaryotes. It will also provide an important fossil calibration point for molecular biologists that undertake molecular clock studies. Furthermore, we are addressing a highly topical research area and our findings will fuel current controversies concerning whether the eukaryotes evolved in the ocean or in fresh water and how and when euglenids acquired their secondary endosymbiotic green alga. | [Dr Wes Fraser](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/profiles/staff/wes-fraser),  [Professor Charles Wellman](https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/biosciences/people/aps-staff/academic/charles-h-wellman) | [NERC](https://nerc.ukri.org/ "Natural Environment Research Council") | From: November 2017  Until: June 2021 |
| **[Solar irradiance and vegetation dynamics at the K/Pg boundary](http://gotw.nerc.ac.uk/list_full.asp?pcode=NE%2FT000392%2F1)**  Over the past decade, our research programme has demonstrated that the chemical composition of the pollen and spore wall is regulated by the amount of light the parent plant receives. This allows us to use the chemical changes in spores and pollen grains to track sunshine through time. By collecting high resolution samples across a broad latitudinal range we will be able to constrain the temporal and spatial dynamics of the dust cloud, testing for the first time the proposed major kill mechanism. New records of K/Pg vegetation as represented in the pollen and spore record are used to generate broad predictions about how vegetation responded to this iconic global extinction event. Specifically we will be able to test if key plant traits such as genome size or pollination strategy (wind of insect pollinated) were associated with extinction and/ or survivorship across the K/Pg in North America. | [Dr Wes Fraser](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/profiles/staff/wes-fraser),  [Dr Barry Lomax](https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/biosciences/people/barry.lomax) | [NERC](https://nerc.ukri.org/ "Natural Environment Research Council") | From: November 2019  Until: October 2022 |
| **Chironomid Assemblage of Devils Lake, Wisconsin, USA**  Collation and interpretation of the chironomid assemblage preserved within the sediment core of Devils Lake. It will provide further insights into the local terrestrial and aquatic environment over the past 20,000 years. | [Dr Joseph (Joe) Williams](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/profiles/staff/joseph-williams) |  |  |
| **Long-Term Environmental Change in the Ecuadorian Tropical Andes - Volcán Cayambe**  The project investigates catchment level response to long-term environmental changes in the highly sensitive Tropical Andes biodiversity hotspot. The overall aim of this work is to provide site-specific studies of proglacial change, the associated rates and processes, and the specific linkages and feedbacks across glacier, terrestrial, and freshwater systems. Initial research was conducted in 2019. | [Dr Joseph (Joe) Williams](https://www.brookes.ac.uk/profiles/staff/joseph-williams) |  |  |

## News

Uncover evidence of human occupation in Arabia from up to 210,000 years ago

[## OBU academic creates a unique snapshot of the 15th Century human diet

Rare faecal sample in South Africa.](https://radar.brookes.ac.uk/radar/items/c409b9aa-b1d9-4341-9011-adafc89cc4ea/1/ "OBU academic creates a unique snapshot of the 15th Century human diet ")

[Excavating the roots of the tree of life](https://radar.brookes.ac.uk/radar/items/4e12c922-9a3d-45bb-be06-77665686b61b/1/ "Excavating the roots of the tree of life")

## Recent publications

### 2021

- Forbes, M., Cohen, T., Jacobs, Z., Marx, S., Barber, E., Dodson, J., Zamora, A., Cadd, H., Francke, A., Constantine, M., Mooney, S., Short, J., Tibby, J., **Parker, A**., Cendón, D., Peterson, M., JonTyler, J., Swallow, E., Woodward, C. 2021. Comparing interglacials in eastern Australia: A multi-proxy investigation of a new sedimentary record. *Quaternary Science Reviews*, 252, p.106750.

### 2020

- Parker, A.G., Morley, M.W. Armitage, S.J., Engel, M. Parton, A., Preston, G.W., Russ, H., Drechsler, P. (2020) Palaeoenvironmental and sea level changes during the Holocene in Eastern Saudi Arabia and their implications for Neolithic populations. Quaternary Science Reviews 249, p.106618.
- Nugent, S.E., 2020. Pastoralism and Emergent Complex Settlement in the Middle Bronze Age, Azerbaijan: isotopic analyses of mobility strategies in transformation. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 171(1), pp.120-141.
- Skourtanioti, E., Erdal, Y.S., Frangipane, M., Restelli, F.B., Yener, K.A., Pinnock, F., Matthiae, P., Özbal, R., Schoop, U.D., Guliyev, F. and Akhundov, T., Lyonnet, B, EL Hammer, EL, Nugent, S.E., Burri, M., Neumann, G.U., Penske, S., Ingman, T., Krause, J. 2020. Genomic History of Neolithic to Bronze Age Anatolia, Northern Levant, and Southern Caucasus. Cell, 181(5), pp.1158-1175.
- Parton, A. and Bretzke, K., (2020). The PalaeoEnvironments and ARchaeological Landscapes (PEARL) project: Recent findings from Neolithic sites in Northern Oman. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy, 31(1), pp.194-201.
- Parton, A., Clark-Balzan, L., Parker, A.G., Preston, G.W., Sung, W.W., Breeze, P.S., Leng, M., Groucutt, H., White, T., Alsharekh, A., Petraglia, M.B. (2019) Middle-Late Quaternary Palaeoclimate Variability from Lake and Wetland Deposits in the Nefud Desert, Northern Arabia. Quaternary Science Reviews 202,78-97.
- Wulf, S., Keller, J., Satow, C., Gertisser, R., Kraml, M., Grant, K.M., Appelt, O., Vakhrameeva, P., Koutsodendris, A., Hardiman, M. and Schulz, H., 2020. Advancing Santorini’s tephrostratigraphy: New glass geochemical data and improved marine-terrestrial tephra correlations for the past∼ 360 kyrs. Earth-Science Reviews, 200, p.102964.
- Satow, C., Grant, K.M., Wulf, S., Schulz, H., Mallon, A., Matthews, I. and Lowe, J., 2020. Detection and characterisation of Eemian marine tephra layers within the sapropel S5 sediments of the Aegean and Levantine Seas. Quaternary, 3(1), p.6.

### 2019

- Burtenshaw, P., Finlayson, B., El-Abed, O. and Palmer, C., 2019. The DEEPSAL Project: Using the Past for Local Community Futures in Jordan. Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites, 21(2), pp.69-91.
- Quinn, C.P., Goodale, N., Andrefsky, W., Kuijt, I. and Finlayson, B., 2019. Lithic Technological Organization and Hafting in Early Villages. American Antiquity, 84(4), pp.708-727.
- Jardine PE, Kent M, Fraser WT & Lomax BH (2019) Ginkgo leaf cuticle chemistry across changing pCO2 regimes. Paläontologische Zeitschrift 93, 549-558.
- Jardine PE, Fraser WT, Gosling WD, Roberts CN, Eastwood WJ & Lomax BH (2019) Proxy reconstruction of ultraviolet-B irradiance at the Earth's surface and its relationship with solar activity and ozone thickness. The Holocene 30(1), 155-161.
- Jardine PE, Gosling WD, Lomax BH, Julier ACM & Fraser WT (2019) Chemotaxonomy of domesticated grasses: a pathway to understanding the origins of agriculture. Journal of Micropalaeontolgy 38, 83-95.
- Julier ACM, Jardine PE, Adu-Bredu S, Coe AL, Fraser WT, Lomax BH, Malhi Y, Moore S & Gosling WD (2019) Variability in modern pollen rain from moist and wet tropical forest plots in Ghana, West Africa. Grana 58, 45-62.
- Pogge von Strandmann PAE, Fraser WT, Hammond SJ, Tarbuck G, Wood IG, Oelkers EH & Murphy MJ (2019) Experimental determination of Li isotope behaviour during basalt weathering. Chemical Geology 517, 34-43.
- Vougioukalakis, G.E., Satow, C.G. and Druitt, T.H., 2019. Volcanism of the South Aegean volcanic arc. Elements, 15(3), pp.159-164.
- Rifkin, R.F., Vikram, S., Ramond, J.B., Rey-Iglesia, A., Brand, T.B., Porraz, G., Val, A., Hall, G., Woodborne, S., Le Bailly, M., Potgieter, M., Underdown, S.J., 2020. Multi-proxy analyses of a mid-15th century Middle Iron Age Bantu-speaker palaeo-faecal specimen elucidates the configuration of the ‘ancestral’sub-Saharan African intestinal microbiome. Microbiome, 8, pp.1-23.
- Houldcroft, C.J., Rifkin, R.F. and Underdown, S.J., 2019. Human biology and ancient DNA: exploring disease, domestication and movement. Annals of Human Biology 46, 95-98.
- McLauchlan, K.K., Lascu, I., Mellicant, E., Scharping, R.J. and Williams, J.J., 2019. Influences of forested and grassland vegetation on Late Quaternary ecosystem development as recorded in lacustrine sediments 2. Geosphere, 22, p.23.
- Khider, D., Emile‐Geay, J., McKay, N.P., Gil, Y., Garijo, D., Ratnakar, V., Alonso‐Garcia, M., Bertrand, S., Bothe, O., Brewer, P. Bunn, A., Williams, J. 2019. PaCTS 1.0: a crowdsourced reporting standard for paleoclimate data. Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 34(10), pp.1570-1596.

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