Lecturer in Computational Analysis of Long-Term Human Cultural and Biological Dynamics
Fellow of Fitzwilliam College
Enrico Crema is accepting applications for PhD students.
Enrico Crema is available for consultancy.
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research
Downing Street
Cambridge CB2 3ER
Websites:
Biography:
My research interest focuses on the use and development of computational and quantitative methods, in particular the use of agent-based simulations and spatial statistics. I applied these techniques to a variety of research themes, including the study of long-terms changes in settlement patterns, the reconstruction of prehistoric population dynamics, and the statistical inference of cultural transmission modes using archaeological data. I am particular interested in the theoretical and methodological cross-fertilization between biology and archaeology within a cultural evolutionary framework.
Research Interests
- Computational and Quantitative Archaeology
- Cultural Evolution
- Human settlement and landscape ecology
- Spatial Analysis
- Prehistoric Demography
- Japanese Prehistory
Teaching
I am involved in the teaching of the following courses:
- A2 Archaeology in Action
- A12 From Data to Interpretation
- BAN4 Theory and Practice in Biological Anthropology
- BAN5 Major topics in Human Evolutionary Studies
- G02 Core Archaeology
Other Professional Activities
I am member of the editorial board of Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports and Frontiers in Digital Archaeology; I peer reviewed for American Antiquity, Antiquity; Anthropological and Archaeological Sciences; Current Anthropology;Environmental Archaeology;Frontiers in Digital Archaeology; Journal of Anthropological Archaeology; Journal of Archaeological Science; Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports; Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory; Nature Communications; Nature: Scientific Reports; Open Quaternary; Papers of the Institute of Archaeology; PLOS ONE; Proceedings of the Computer Applications in Archaeology Conference; Quaternary International; Trends in Ecology & Evolution; World Archaeology; the National Science Foundation, and edited volumes for Ubiquity Press and Springer.
Keywords
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Key Publications
Journal Articles
Crema, E.R., Bevan, A., Shennan, S.(2017). Spatio-temporal approaches to archaeological radiocarbon dates. Journal of Archaeological Science 87, 1-9. DOI:10.1016/j.jas.2017.09.007
Bortolini, E., Pagani, L., Crema, E.R., Sarno, S., Barbieri, C., Boattini, A., Sazzini, M., Silva, S.G. da, Martini, G., Metspalu, M., Pettener, D., Luiselli, D., Tehrani, J.J., (2017). Inferring patterns of folktale diffusion using genomic data. PNAS 201614395. DOI:10.1073/pnas.1614395114
Biagetti, S., Merlo, S., Adam, E., Lobo, A., Conesa, F.C., Knight, J., Bekrani, H., Crema, E.R., Alcaina-Mateos, J., Madella, M., (2017). High and Medium Resolution Satellite Imagery to Evaluate Late Holocene Human–Environment Interactions in Arid Lands: A Case Study from the Central Sahara. Remote Sensing 9, 351. DOI:10.3390/rs9040351
Ribéreau-Gayon, A., Rando, C., Schuliar, Y., Chapenoire, S., Crema, E.R., Claes, J., Seret, B., Maleret, V., Morgan, R.M., (2017). Extensive unusual lesions on a large number of immersed human victims found to be from cookiecutter sharks (Isistius spp.): an examination of the Yemenia plane crash. International Journal of Legal Medicine 131, 423-432, DOI:10.1007/s00414-016-1449-6
Crema, E.R., Kandler, A., Shennan, S., (2016) Revealing patterns of cultural transmission from frequency data: equilibrium and non-equilibrium assumptions. Scientific Reports 6, 39122. DOI:10.1038/srep39122
Crema, E.R. ,Habu, J., Kobayashi, K., Madella, M. (2016). Summed Probability Distribution of 14C Dates Suggests Regional Divergences in the Population Dynamics of the Jomon Period in Eastern Japan. PloS ONE 11(4): e0154809, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0154809
Biagetti, S., Alcaina-Mateos, J., Crema, E.R. (2016). A matter of ephemerality. The study of Kel Tadrart campsites via quantitative spatial analysis. Ecology and Society 21 (1): 42, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-08202-210142
Manning, K., College S., Crema, E.R., Shennan, S., Timpson, A. (2016). The Cultural Evolution of Neolithic Europe. EUROEVOL Dataset 1: Sites, Phases and Radiocarbon Data, Journal of Open Archaeology Data, 5: e2, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/joad.40
Fort, J., Crema, E.R. Madella, M. (2015) Modeling Demic and Cultural Diffusion: An Introduction, Human Biology, 87 (3), 141-149.
Crema, E.R., Lake, M. (2015) Cultural Incubators and Spread of Innovation (2015), Human Biology, 87 (3), 151-168.
Manning, K, Timpson, A., Shennan, S., Crema, E.R. (2015) Size Reduction in Early European Domestic Cattle Relates to Intensification of Neolithic Herding Strategies. PLOS ONE 10(12): e0141873.
Shennan, S., Crema, E.R., Kerig, T. (2015). Isolation-by-distance, homophily, and "core" vs. "package" cultural evolution models in Neolithic Europe. Evolution and Human Behaviour. 36 (2), 103-109.
Manning, K, Timpson, A., College, S. Crema, E.R., Edinborough, K., Kerig, T., Shennan, S. (2014). The chronology of culture. A comparative assessment of European Neolithic dating methods. Antiquity, 88. 1065-1080.
Timpson, A., Colledge, S., Crema, E.R., Edinborough, K., Kerig, T., Manning, K., Thomas, M.G., Shennan, S. (2014). Reconstructing regional demographies of the European Neolithic using ‘dates as data’: a new case-study using an improved method. Journal of Archaeological Science, 52, 549–557.
Crema, E.R., Edinborough, K., Kerig, T., Shennan, S. (2014) An Approximate Bayesian Computation approach for inferring patterns of cultural evolutionary change. Journal of Archaeological Science, 50, 160-170.
Bevan, A., Crema, E.R. (2014) Une modélisation géographiquement explicite d’interaction culturelle. Dialectes crétois modernes, archéologie de l'âge de bronze. Les Nouvelles de l’Archéologie, 135, 45-50
Crema E.R. (2014). A simulation model of fission-fusion dynamics and long-term settlement change. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory , 21, 385-404.
Mannino, M. A., Thomas, K.D., Crema E.R., and Leng, M.J. (2014). A matter of taste? Mode and periodicity of marine mollusc exploitation on the Mediterranean island of Favignana (Ègadi Islands, Italy) during its isolation in the early Holocene, Archaeofauna: International Journal of Archaeozoology, 23, 133-147.
Crema, E.R., Kerig, T., Shennan, S. (2014). Culture, Space, and Metapopulation: a simulation-based study for evaluating signals of blending and branching in archaeology. Journal of Archaeological Science, 43, 289-298.
Eve, S., Crema, E.R. (2014). A House with a View? Multi-model inference, visibility fields, and point process analysis of a Bronze Age settlement on Leskernick Hill (Cornwall, UK). Journal of Archaeological Science, 43, 267-277.
Crema E.R. (2013). Cycles of change in Jomon settlement: a case study from Eastern Tokyo Bay. Antiquity, 87, 1169-1181
Crema, E.R., (2012) Modelling temporal uncertainty in archaeological analysis. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory,19, 440-461.
Crema, E.R. and Nishino M. (2012). Spatio-temporal distributions of Middle to Late Jomon pithouses in Oyumino, Chiba (Japan). Journal of Open Archaeology Data, 1 (2) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/4f8eb4078284b
Lake, M. and Crema E.R. (2012). The cultural evolution of adaptive-trait diversity when resources are uncertain and finite, Advances in Complex Systems, 15, 1150013.
Crema, E.R., Bevan, A. and Lake, M. (2010). A probabilistic framework for assessing spatiotemporal point patterns in the archaeological record. Journal of Archaeological Science, 37, 1118-1130.
Mulazzani, S., Boussoffara, R., Aouadi, N., Azzarà, V., Belhouchet, L., Boujekben, A., Crema, E.R., Curci, A., Del Grande, C., Maini, E., Mannino, M., Mazzanti, C., Scaruffi, S. (2008). Entre Sahara et Méditterranée. Le peuplement de Sebkhet Halk el menjel (Tunisie Orientale) penadant l’Holocène (Campagnes 2002-2005). Africa, XXI, 189-212.
Edited Special Issues
Fort, J., Crema, E.R. Madella, M. (2015) Modeling Demic and Cultural Diffusion, Human Biology, 87 (3).
Book Chapters
Edinborough, K., Crema, E.R., Kerig, T., Shennan, S. (2015) An ABC of lithic arrowheads: A case study from southeastern France. In Brink, K., Hydén, S., Jennbert, K., Larsson,L., Olausson, D. (Eds.) Neolithic Diversities. Perspectives from a conference in Lund, Sweden, Acta Archaeologica Lundensia, Series in 8o, No. 65. Lund, pp. 213-223
Crema, E.R. (2015). Time and probabilistic reasoning in Settlement Analysis. In Barceló, J.A., Bogdanovic, I. (Eds.) Mathematics in Archaeology, CRC Press, pp. 314-334.
Crema E.R. (2015). Modeling settlement rank-size fluctuations. In Wurzer, G. Kowarik, K. and Reschreiter, H. (eds.) Agent-based modeling and Simulation in Archaeology. Advances in Geographic Information Science, Springer, pp.161-181.
Bevan, A, Crema, E.R., Li, Xiuzhen, and Palmisano, A. (2013). Intensities, Interactions and Uncertainties: Some New Approaches to Archaeological Distributions. In Bevan, A. and Lake, M. (eds.) Computational Approaches to Archaeological Space. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press. 27-52.
Crema, E.R. and Bianchi, E. (2013). Looking for patterns in the noise: non-site spatial analysis at Sebkha Kalbia (Tunisia). In Mulazzani, S. (Ed.) Le Capsien de hergla (Tunisie). Culture, environnement et économie. Frankfurt: Africa Magna Verlag, pp. 385-395.
Crema, E.R., (2011). Aoristic approaches and voxel models for spatial analysis. In: Jerem, E.,Redo, F. & Szeverényi, V. (Eds.) On the road to reconstructing the past. Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology. Proceedings of the 36th International Conference, Budapest, April 2-6, 2008. Budapest: Archeolingua, pp.179-186.
Mulazzani, S., Boussoffara, R., Azzarà, V., Belhouchet, L., Boldrin, M. Boujekben, A., Crema, E.R., Mannino, M.A., Del Grande C., Mazzanti C., Scaruffi, S. (2008). Between the Sahara and the Mediterranean: a study of the Middle Holocene communities of the Sebkhet Halk al Menzel (Tunisia). The first three Campaigns 2002-2004, In Menozzi O., Di Marzio M. L., Fossataro D. (Eds.) SOMA 2005 Proceedings of the IX Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology, Chieti (Italy), 24- 26 February 2005. BAR International Series, n. 1793, Oxford: Archaeopress, pp 383-390.