Prof. Derek Hamilton
Derek Hamilton
Professor
As a prehistoric archaeologist, I mix together scientific dating techniques (primarily radiocarbon) with stable and radiogenic isotope analysis, and add a healthy dose of Bayesian statistics to develop robust models for palaeodiet in people and animals, which are underpinned by generational chronological frameworks.
I use these models to explore questions relating to:
- Archaeology of contact and colonization, particularly in late-prehistoric/Roman north-west Europe
- Movement and Mobility in prehistoric societies
- Archaeology of Households and Communities
- Human-Environment interaction through the development of regional social and environmental histories
My personal research interests lie in and around the 1st millennium BC in north-west Europe, but I regularly work with researchers in other regions and time periods, as the techniques are widely applicable.
RESEARCH PROJECTS
- Beyond Walls: Reassessing Iron Age and Roman Encounters in Northern Britain
- The application of δ13C, δ15N, δ34S, 87Sr/86Sr, and δ18O isotopic analyses to investigate population mobility in ‘Middle’ Iron Age Wessex
- Setting Artefacts Free: an independent chronology for British Iron Age brooches
- Living on Water: Early Iron Age Lake-dwelling Communities in Scotland