Department of Archaeology

McBurney Laboratory

Research projects

The McBurney Lab houses a large group of researchers engaged in a variety of projects world-wide. A map of projects conducted by lab members can be seen here.

The current post-doctoral research projects of the laboratory centre on three major themes: first, the micromorphology of various archaeological contexts, primarily urban centres in the Near East and the UK; second, the micromorphology of buried soil sequences from prehistoric landscapes in the UK and the southern Mediterranean region; third, the establishment of the Holocene sequence of lanscape evolution in Southern patagonia through paleopedological and pollen studies. These projects often involve researchers and institutions in different countries as partners and have been or are currently funded by a variety of institutions such as AHRB, NERC, the EEC, Leverhulme Trust, British Academy, English Heritage, the McDonald Institute, and Chile Projects and various developers for contract archaeological units.

On-going and past Phd and MPhil projects focus on various regions and issues in archaeology. These projects use micromorphology, physical and chemical analyses and GIS as methods, and most have considerable and integral ethnographic and experimental elements.

Summary list of current doctoral and post-doctoral research projects

• Micromorphological and botanical investigation of occupation sequences and floor deposits in four early urban tell sites on a transect across the major geo-botanical zones in the Near East: Abu Salabikh in Iraq, Saar in Bahrain, Tell Brak in Syria and Catalhoyuk in Turkey ( The Catalhoyuk Project), through Dr. Wendy Matthews. Funded by the NERC and in collaboration with Kew Gardens, this project has successfully completed its first 3 year phase, and receiving further funding from the McDonald Institute and the Leverhulme Trust
• Micromorphological studies of Neolithic soils and domestic structures at Botai, Kazakhstan; Neolithic structures in Cuween, Orkney; medieval floor deposits in Ely, Wisbech, Peterborough and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK; funded by the McDonald Institute, University of Glasgow, Leverhulme Trust and various archaeological units
• Micromorphological and erosion study of north-central Sicily around Troina
• Micromorphological and erosion study of highland Dharmar region of Yemen
• Hydrological monitoring programme with associated micromorphological and geochemical analyses with respect to buried Neolithic and Bronze Age landscapes in advance of long-term gravel extraction at Willingham/Over, Cambridgeshire; funded by English Heritage
• Neolithic and Bronze Age transitional landscapes in the Cranborne Chase area of Dorset, England; funded by AHRB, the McDonald Institute and a private donor ( The Wyke Down Project)
• Micromorphological investigations of land use and site histories at Neolithic sites in Britain. ( Beckhampton, Dunragit)
• The micromorphology of cave sites in tropical island South East Asia; funded by the British Academy (CSEAS) & AHRB. (The Niah Cave Project)
• Micromorphological studies of palaeosols and archaeological contexts at a variety of rescue archaeological sites for the contract archaeological units operating in the region, especially the Cambridge Archaeological Unit; funded by various developers and English Heritage
• Micromorphological and landscape studies at The Szashalombatta Bronze Age tell site, Hungary, in collaboration with the Emergence of European Communities Project
• Subsistence strategies in Andean Peru
• Landscape-civilization interactions over time on various sites in Neuchatel, Switzerland; funded contracts from the Canton of Neuchatel
• Micromorphological and ethnographic study of house floors in rural Rajasthan, India
• Neolithic landscapes in the Bellary District, south India
• Micromorphological study of Neolithic 'ashmounds' in South India
• Micromorphological study of occupation deposits on a Chalcolithic period (Ahar Culture) site in S. Rajasthan, India
• Micromorphological study of house floors in Viking Age and Medieval rural sites in the Orkney Islands, Outer Hebrides and Iceland
• Landscape and prehistoric occupation of Sicily
• Manuel Arroyo-Kalin: Formation of Terras Pretas (anthropogenic dark earths) in the Central Amazon region
• Manuel Arroyo-Kalin: Micromorphological study of cave deposits in the tropical karst of Central Brazil
• Manuel Arroyo-Kalin and Charly A. I. French: Micromorphological study of cave deposits in Southern Patagonia, Chile
• Manuel Arroyo-Kalin and Charly A. I. French: Micromorphological study of mid Holocene shell middens in Southern Patagonia, Chile
• Micromorphological and chemical investigations into the preservation of wetland archaeological sites, with special reference to iron oxide