Nellie Phoca-Cosmetatou
Telephone: +44 (0)1223 764702 Fax: +44 (0)1223 764710 E-mail: nehp100@cam.ac.uk POSITIONS
Lecturer in Human Evolution
Nellie Phoca-Cosmetatou
Telephone: +44 (0)1223 764702 Fax: +44 (0)1223 764710 E-mail: nehp100@cam.ac.uk POSITIONS |
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RESEARCH INTERESTS
My research is on early prehistory (Palaeolithic), archaeozoology (hunting strategies) and human reactions to past climate change.
My work focuses on the evolution of subsistence strategies and human reactions to climate change, with a special emphasis on the interplay between human mobility, settlement and subsistence in relation to environmental changes. I use my zooarchaeological expertise to explore the interaction between society and the environment across a variety of geographical regions within Southern Europe, such as mountains, lakes and islands, in a variety of economic settings, both hunter-gatherer and agricultural, spanning from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic.
Key topics: Palaeolithic, Late Upper Palaeolithic of Southern Europe, Archaeozoology, Environmental Archaeology, Hunting Strategies Neolithic (SE) Europe, Island Archaeology.
I have been working on Late Glacial (15,000 - 10,000BP) human subsistence changes in the Italian and Iberian peninsulas. I have been focusing on the notion of specialised hunting, using the ibex (wild goat) as a case study, as well as on settlement patterns in Northeast Italy.
My new project examines the changes in subsistence and settlement patterns during the transition from the Last Glacial Maximum (20,000 BP) to the climatic warming of the Late Glacial, and the significance of the loss of the Adriatic plain with the rise of sea levels. The Italian site of Grotta Paglicci forms the centre of this work.
My interest in environmental archaeology and animal bones have taken me to the Neolithic of Greece where I am involved in two smaller projects centring round the interaction of terrestrial and aquatic economies: one on the Aegean islands (Ftelia, Mykonos) and one on mainland lake settlements (Dispilio, Kastoria).
CURRENT PROJECTS
Human responses to environmental instability: re-assessing the nature of Late Glacial human subsistence strategies across Southern Europe (20,000 – 10,000 BP)
- Comparative study of human settlement and subsistence across Southern Europe, with main focus on Italy, through the study of faunal assemblages
- Settlement and subsistence in Northeast Italy - Grotta Paglicci and the Last Glacial Maximum occupation of the ancient Adriatic plain
- Digital database of Upper Palaeolithic Mediterranean faunal assemblages
Sites and economies in their landscape: terrestrial resources in aquatic settings, Neolithic Greece: study of the role of the terrestrial economy in coastal (Ftelia, Mykonos; Katsambas, Crete) and lake-settlement (Dispilio, Kastoria) sites during the Middle and Late Neolithic (5300- 4600BC).
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Book
Phoca-Cosmetatou, N. (ed.) (2011a). The first Mediterranean islanders: initial occupation and survival strategies. Oxford: Oxford University School of Archaeology Monographs.
Peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters
Phoca-Cosmetatou, N. (2011b). Introduction: the first Mediterranean islanders, in (ed.) N. Phoca-Cosmetatou, The first Mediterranean islanders: initial occupation and survival strategies, 17-29. Oxford: Oxford University School of Archaeology Monographs.
Phoca-Cosmetatou, N. (2011c). Initial occupation of the Cycladic islands in the Neolithic: strategies for survival, in (ed.) N. Phoca-Cosmetatou, The first Mediterranean islanders: initial occupation and survival strategies, 77-97. Oxford: Oxford University School of Archaeology Monographs.
Phoca-Cosmetatou, N. (2011c). Initial occupation of the Cycladic islands in the Neolithic: strategies for survival, in (ed.) N. Phoca-Cosmetatou, The first Mediterranean islanders: initial occupation and survival strategies, 77-97. Oxford: Oxford University School of Archaeology Monographs.
Phoca-Cosmetatou, N. (in press a). Hunter-gatherer mobility in the alpine region of Northeast Italy during the Late Glacial, in (eds.) C. Tozzi, J. De Grossi Mazzorin and C. Minniti, Atti del 6° Convegno Nazionale di Archeozoolologia (Parco dell’Orecchiella 21-24 maggio 2009).
Phoca-Cosmetatou, N. (in press b). The animal bones, in (ed.) N. Galanidou, Neolithic Katsambas: the House and burial Rockshelter- the Stylianos Alexiou excavations. Philadelphia: INSTAP Academic Press.
Phoca-Cosmetatou, N. (accepted). Subsistence specialisation as a modern human behaviour: some faunal considerations, in (eds.) P. Pettitt et al., Studies in European Middle and Upper Palaeolithic Archaeology. Oxford: Oxbow Books.
Phoca-Cosmetatou, N. 2009. Specialisation & diversification: a tale of two subsistence strategies from Late Glacial Italy. Before Farming [online version] 2009/3 article 2, 1-29.
[ PDF entitled “2009_phocacosmetatou_bf_200932”]
Phoca-Cosmetatou, N. 2008a. Economy and occupation in the Cyclades during the Late Neolithic: the example of Ftelia, Mykonos, in (eds.) N.J. Brodie, J. Doole, G. Gavalas and C. Renfrew, Horizon: a colloquium on the prehistory of the Cyclades, 37-41. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
[ PDF entitled “2008Horizon_NPC”]
Phoca-Cosmetatou, N. 2005a. Landscape use in Northeast Italy during the Upper Palaeolithic. Preistoria Alpina 41: 23-49.
[http://www.mtsn.tn.it/pubblicazioni/7/41/03_MUSEO_vol_phoca.pdf]
Phoca-Cosmetatou, N. 2005b. Bone weathering and food procurement strategies: assessing the reliability of our behavioural inferences, in (ed.) T. O’Connor, Biosphere to lithosphere: new studies in vertebrate taphonomy, 135-145. Oxford: Oxbow Books.
[ PDF entitled “2005BiosphereLithosphere_NPC”]
Phoca-Cosmetatou, N. 2004a. Site function and the ‘ibex-site phenomenon’: myth or reality? Oxford Journal of Archaeology 23(3): 217-242.
[http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118772747/abstract]
Phoca-Cosmetatou, N. 2004b. A zooarchaeological reassessment of the habitat and ecology of the ibex (‘Capra ibex’), in (eds.) R.C.G.M. Lauwerier and I. Plug, ?he future from the past: archaeozoology in wildlife conservation and heritage management, 64-78. Oxford: Oxbow Books.
[ PDF entitled “2004FutureFromPast_NPC” ]
Phoca-Cosmetatou, N. 2003a. Subsistence changes during the Late Glacial? The example of ibex exploitation in Southern Europe, in (eds.) M. Patou-Mathis and H. Bocherens, Le rôle de l’ environnement dans les comportements des chasseurs-cueilleurs préhistoriques, 39-54. Oxford: BAR International Series 1105.
[ PDF entitled “2003UISPP_NPC” ]
Phoca-Cosmetatou, N. 2003b. Ibex exploitation: the case of Klithi, or the case of the Upper Palaeolithic?, in (eds.) E. Kotjabopoulou, Y. Hamilakis, P. Halstead, C. Gamble and P. Elefanti, Zooarchaeology in Greece: recent advances, 161-173. London: British School at Athens Studies 9.
[ PDF entitled “2003ZOG_NPC” ]
Non peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters
Phoca-Cosmetatou, N. 2008b. The terrestrial economy of a lake settlement: the faunal assemblage from the first phase of occupation of Middle Neolithic Dispilio (Kastoria, Greece). Anaskamma 2: 47-68.
[ http://anaskamma.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/02-phoca.pdf ]
Phoca-Cosmetatou, N. 2006a. Research report: human responses to environmental instability- reassessing the nature of Late Glacial (15,000 – 10,000 years ago) human subsistence changes. Papers of the British School at Rome 74: 382-383.
Phoca-Cosmetatou, N. 2002. The faunal remains from Ftelia: a preliminary report, in (ed.) A. Sampson, The Neolithic settlement at Ftelia, Mykonos, 221-226. Rhodes: University of the Aegean.
[ PDF entitled “2002Ftelia_NPC” ]
Book Reviews
Phoca-Cosmetatou, N. 2006b. Review of “Animals in the Neolithic of Britain and Europe, edited by D. Serjeantson and D. Field (Oxbow Books 2006. Neolithic Studies Group Seminar Papers 7)”. The Prehistoric Society (Published November 2006, http://www.prehistoricsociety.org).
[ http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prehistoric/reviews/06_11_serjeantson.htm ]
Phoca-Cosmetatou, N. 2004c. Review of “Landscape archaeology in southern Epirus, Greece 1. The Nikopolis project, edited by J. Wiseman and K. Zachos (Hesperia Supplement 32, American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Athens: 2003)”. Journal of Quaternary Science 19 (6): 619-621.
[ http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/109595959/abstract ]