People

Charles French

Professor in Geoarchaeology;
Head of the Division of Archaeology;
Director of the McBurney Geoarchaeology Laboratory

Office: 1.3, West Building
Phone: +44 (0) 1223 333533
Fax: +44 (0) 1223 333503
Email: caif2@cam.ac.uk

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Research interests

For more than the past two decades his main research interests have centred around the application of archaeological techniques and micromorphological analytical techniques to the interpretation of buried landscapes, the processes responsible for the degradation of landscapes, and more recently on the interpretation of the use of domestic space on settlement sites. Particular emphasis is placed on the recognition of formation processes and human impact on landscapes, especially deforestation, agriculture, soil erosion, dewatering and desertification.

He also acts as an environmental archaeology consultant and micromorphologist for numerous contracting units in many parts of southern and eastern England. Regions and countries of special research interest currently include the East Anglian fenlands and the river systems that drain into them, the chalk downlands of Wessex, the Channel Islands, central Bosnia, northwestern India, southern Patagonia and Peru.

Topics

Interpretation of past landscapes and land-use change Micromorphological analysis of soils/sediments and archaeological settlement contexts

Current research projects

He is currently involved with a number of research projects: multi-disciplinary investigations of Neolithic/Bronze Age environmental change in the Avon River basin around Durrington Walls, and the Kennet valley around Avebury; geomorphological and micromorphological investigations of Holocene erosion and palaeosol sequences in the southern Sicily, the Sava River basin of northern Bosnia, the island of Herm (Channel Islands), coastal and steppe regions of southern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego in Chile, and the River Ica valley of southern Peru, as well as more site specific investigations of settlement sites of the Harappan period sites in Haryana and Rajasthan provinces of northern India.