Office: Laver 316

Alex Pryor is a specialist in isotope analysis of archaeological bones and teeth (Sr, O, C, N, S). His research focuses on the European Upper Palaeolithic but he also works in more recent contexts as an isotope specialist. Topics of particular interest include the mobility and subsistence of humans and the animals they interacted with, first as Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers and later as Holocene farmers. Species of particular interest include woolly mammoth, horse, reindeer, wolf and fox. Alex also has additional specialisms in the study of charred plant remains (particularly related to evidence for plant foods), and the application of dental cementum thin section analysis to reconstruct age and season of death of animals.

Dr Pryor is currently involved in four major on-going research projects and is collaborating on a number of other smaller research ventures (see research tab).

Research supervision:

Dr Pryor supervises students in the following areas:

• Strontium isotope studies of human and animal mobility (laser ablation and solution-based methods)
• Application of stable isotope analysis in archaeological contexts (C, N, S, O)
• Palaeolithic Archaeology
• Hunter-gatherer use of fire
• Experimental archaeology