Christina M Carolus

Postdoctoral Scholar at the Spatial and Historical Network Dynamics Laboratory (SAHND) at The Pennsylvania State University. Recent Ph.D. at Yale University and research affiliate of the BioArCh Research Centre, University of York (UK). 2015 UC Berkeley graduate (B.A. Anthropology).

Interests include human-environmental and human-animal interaction, paleoethnobotanical and zooarchaeological methods, paleoecology, domestication processes, foodways, identity, trade and exchange, archaeological theory and ethics, archaeological scientific methods development, and cultural heritage issues. The full scope encompasses a range of other areas within the human, material, and environmental sciences.

My archaeological research is mainly paleoethnobotanical in orientation. It has included projects in Belize, the Central and Southern Andes, and Polynesia, but currently focuses on several projects across central and eastern Eurasia (Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan). The Mongolian steppe forms the geographical core of my  research.

I am former co-director a multi-year archaeological project situated in the Gobi-steppe of southeastern Mongolia, where I conducted excavations and specialized paleoethnobotanical research concerning the relationships between emergent social complexity, dietary/subsistence economic transitions (e.g. introduction of plant and animal domesticates), and paleoecological shifts within Mongolia from the Late Neolithic through the Xiongnu Period. My dissertation research employed a targeted set of multiscalar analyses (macrobotanical analysis, stable isotopic analysis, lipid residue analysis, and paleoproteomics) on a range of materials in order to investigate these complex relationships.

I am currently the director of the Khulunbuir Archaeology Project, which centers on the site of Khairt Suuryn in northeastern Mongolia. Khairt Suuryn represents one of a few known Iron Age semi-subterranean settlements and has yielded new archaeobotanical evidence of early agriculture and aquatic resource exploitation on the Mongolian steppe.

Other recent research focuses on archaeological chemistry as applied to materials sourcing, faunal analysis, and methods development. This includes the use of x-ray fluorescence-based geochemistry to source lithic farming implements used by several of West Asia's earliest known agricultural communities (see Frahm and Carolus 2022). It also includes stable and radiogenic isotope-based analysis and sourcing of bone, carbonized plant remains, and ancient textiles from sites across Eurasia, as well as projects designed to expand ZooMS reference databases for central and eastern Eurasia.

Personal website: christinacarolus.com
Supervisors: Dr. William Honeychurch, Dr. Ellery Frahm, Dr. Jessica Hendy, Dr. Oliver Craig, Dr. John "Mac" Marston, Dr. Ann Underhill, and Dr. Jessica Thompson