Meet the team
The FeedSax project was undertaken by a multi-disciplinary team of archaeologists from the Universities of Oxford and Leicester.
Prof. Helena Hamerow
Professor of Early Medieval Archaeology, University of Oxford
Helena was Principal Investigator of FeedSax, with overall responsibility for the management of the project and a particular focus on the archaeology of early medieval settlements - especially the integration of the bioarchaeological results of the project with the wider settlement and artefactual archaeology of the period.
Prof. Amy Bogaard
Professor of Neolithic and Bronze Age Archaeology, University of Oxford
Amy led the archaeobotanical side of the project, which included analytical microscopy of charred plant remains, statistical interrogation of archaeobotanical data, and stable isotope analysis of crop remains as a proxy for growing conditions.
Dr Mike Charles
Senior Research Fellow in Environmental Archaeology, University of Oxford
Mike led the landscape research elements of FeedSax, which used data from pollen cores with GIS (Geographic Information Systems) technology to produce the first national models of land-use for early medieval England.
Dr Richard Thomas
Professor in Archaeology, University of Leicester
Richard led the zooarchaeological aspects of the project, which included the examination of cattle long bones for signs of stress-related pathologies (as an index of heavy ploughing), and the study of stable isotopes and oral pathologies from cattle and sheep bones remains, as proxies for diet.
Prof. Christopher Bronk Ramsey
Professor of Archaeological Science, University of Oxford
Christopher, a leading expert in radiocarbon dating and Bayesian statistics, had oversight of FeedSax's extensive radiocarbon dating programme.
Dr Emily Forster
Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Oxford
Emily worked on the landscape and palynological aspects of the project, acquiring new pollen cores and re-examining older samples. She used these data along with sophisticated GIS (Geographic Information Systems) technology to produce the first nationwide models of early medieval land-use in England.
Dr Matilda Holmes
Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Leicester
Matty worked on the zooarchaeological aspects of FeedSax, studying in particular palaeopathological indicators in cattle and sheep remains, integrated with wider syntheses of faunal data from medieval England.
Dr Mark McKerracher
Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Oxford
Mark worked on the archaeobotanical side of the project, examining charred plant macrofossils under the microscope, garnering environmental data from excavation reports, and applying statistical analyses to the findings. He also had responsibility for administrative and digital aspects of the project, including the website and database.
Dr Elizabeth Stroud
Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Oxford
Liz's work spanned both the archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological aspects of FeedSax. She undertook stable isotope analyses of both animal bones and plant remains to elucidate, respectively, the livestock diets and the arable environments of early medieval farming.
Dr Samantha Neil
Laboratory Technician in Stable Isotope Analysis, University of Oxford
Sam provided crucial laboratory support for the project's stable isotope programme. She was responsible for the preparation of bone and plant samples, and for the cataloguing and recording of sample identification data.
Tina Roushannafas
Technical assistant, University of Oxford
Tina provided technical support to the FeedSax project's archaeobotanical programme and virtual conference.