Dr Louise Martin, Institute of Archaeology, University College, London, UK
Louise Martin is Reader in Zooarchaeology at the UCL Institute of Archaeology. Her research focuses on: i) the reconstruction of hunting practices in prehistoric western Asia, and ii) the appearance and expansion of Neolithic livestock pastoralism in the wider Middle East region. She uses zooarchaeological, palaeoecological and ethological approaches in these research agendas, increasingly combined with animal isotope studies and ecological modelling. Louise has led zooarchaeological research for many field-research projects in the Middle East and adjacent area, including the Azraq Basin Project, Black Desert Project, and Kharaneh IV project (all focusing on Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic occupation in the Jordanian steppe/desert), the Natufian settlement of Wadi Hammeh 27 (Jordan Highlands), the Roots of Agriculture in Southern Arabia project (RASA) (Hadramaut, Yemen), and the Catalhoyuk Research Project and Boncuklu hoyuk Project (Neolithic, Central Turkey). Currently Louise is Principal Investigator on the Leverhulme Trust funded project Hunting Strategies in Prehistoric Jordan (2013-2017), aimed at reconstructing wildlife seasonal mobility in late Pleistocene/early Holocene Jordan to examine how faunal distributions underpinned human occupation and hunting in steppe/desert areas. Louise joined the Palaeodeserts project as a faunal analyst, with particular attention on the recovery of animal bones from our Holocene archaeological sites.
