School of Archaeology and Anthropology

An Emeritus Professor with the ANU School of Archaeology and Anthropology whose work has changed the way we think about early human life has been honoured with a prestigious science prize.

Archaeologist Peter Bellwood's research explored how farming spread around the globe, the formation of Polynesian culture and human adaptation to island environments.

Pregnant women exposed to natural disasters such as volcanoes are more likely to give birth prematurely, according to a new study by scholars from the ANU School of Archaeology and Anthropology.

The study looked at pregnant women who've been evacuated from villages near Mount Sinabung volcano in Indonesia, which has been active since 2010.

The study, led by Dr Geoff Kushnick from ANU, showed that along with an increased likelihood of pre- and early-term birth, the babies of those women evacuated were also born shorter.

If you've ever wondered how your beloved pet pooch came to look so different from its wild relatives, biologists now have another piece of the puzzle. 

A new study, led by Dr Laura Wilson from the ANU School of Archaeology and Anthropology looked closely at six pairs of domestic and wild animals. The findings challenge a popular theory for why domesticated animals look the way they do. 

"This has been a topic of interest since Charles Darwin's time," Dr Wilson said.  

By Evana Ho
 

Utsav Gupta was heading down the path he’d set for himself since high school. The Delhi native was working in a conglomerate in India as an associate IT consultant, having studied engineering in university. 

“In high school I was good in science and maths, so the most relevant choice was engineering,” Utsav explains. “It’s always the case with a lot of people in India; they end up choosing engineering because it’s considered a safer choice that provides you with a job.”

In high school, Elise Jakeman really loved history.

“I was a massive history geek,” she confirms, “however, I felt a bit removed from what I was reading and studying. I didn’t feel that, by reading other people’s accounts of historical events, I was really able to participate in it myself.”

Her interest in both history and wanting to explore it in a hands-on way led her to doing archaeology at ANU.

“I’m a Canberra kid, so that was part of the choice,” Elise says. “But ANU is also the best option for studying archaeology in Australia.”

The artists behind the exhibition ‘Unearthed’ are more accustomed to plying their trade with trowels, microscopes, and a good notebook rather than paints and canvases. 

That’s because the featured artists are students and staff in archaeology and anthropology at ANU.

CW: Animal deaths 

In histories of world archaeology the Pacific and Island Southeast Asia are essentially absent. This project seeks nothing less than to create a new sub-field within Pacific archaeology: the serious study of its history from its beginnings in the speculations of early European and American explorers on the origins of Pacific peoples, to its growth spurt and professionalisation following World War II.

Despite many generations of archaeological fieldwork in Britain’s southwestern peninsula and Cornwall’s central role in later prehistoric exchange networks, the prehistory of the southeastern part of the county has not been exposed to the same amount of modern archaeological investigation. The Southeast Kernow Archaeological Survey (SEKAS) project aims to develop a better understanding of the prehistoric landscape of this region which links the metal-rich uplands to the English Channel.

The Skeletal Biology and Forensic Anthropology Research Group conducts research in three main biological anthropology research areas: bioarchaeology, forensic anthropology, and biology of the human skeleton. Our research in bioarchaeology is primarily focused on Southeast-Asian and European populations, aiming to reconstruct ancient human lifeways, behaviour, health, and disease by studying human skeletal remains from archaeological contexts. Our forensic focus is on developing new and more accurate methods of identifying (e.g.