Professor Alan Outram

Alan Outram is Professor of Archaeological Science and a bioarchaeologist and palaeoeconomist who specialises in zooarchaeology (the analysis of archaeological animal bones and understanding past human/animal relations). Some of his most significant work has been on tracing the domestication of the horse in Central Asia, and studying the development of steppe pastoral societies in Kazakhstan. He is also well known as a specialist in bone taphonomy, particularly fracture and fragmentation analysis.

His recent book, Subsistence and Society in Prehistory: New Directions in Economic Archaeology is available for order.

He is currently actively researching on or writing up four major research projects:
'Pegasus' (ERC funded, led by Ludovic Orlando) builds on the latest advances in the analysis of ancient DNA molecules to gather new genomic, epigenomic and metagenomic information from ancient horses. This will be integrated with archaeozoological, isotopic and historical data to enhance our understanding of an animal that perhaps most impacted human history.
'Warhorse: The Archaeology of a Military Revolution?' (AHRC funded, with Oliver Creighton and Rob Liddiard) will conduct the first ever systematic archaeological study of warhorses in the Middle Ages, including their physical remains, material culture and the landscapes used for their breeding and training. Comprehensively examining the full range of evidence from the late Anglo-Saxon to the early Tudor period (c. AD 800-1550), we will produce new understandings about a beast that was an unmistakable symbol of social status closely bound up with aristocratic, knightly and chivalric culture as well as a decisive weapon on the battlefield.
'The End of the Journey: The Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene Colonisation of South America' (ERC funded, led by Jose Iriarte) looking at the last terra incognita (other than Antartica) to be colonised by humans, a process that took place amidst one of the most significant climatic, environmental, and subsistence regime shifts in human history, which contributed to the extinction of megafauna (the most recent substantial extinction event in the geological record), plant domestication, and today’s remarkable diversity of indigenous South American groups.
'Pastoralists Lost: Pioneer equine and ruminant herders of the Central Asian Steppes and their role in early horse husbandry' (AHRC/DFG funded, with Cheryl Makarewicz and Alex Pryor) which investigates early experimentation with horse husbandry and its intersection with developments in ruminant livestock husbandry in northeastern Kazakhstan, a crucible of human innovation in the steppe where horses were brought under human control over five thousand years ago.

As well as teaching zooarchaeology at undergraduate and masters' level he also covers many other aspects of archaeological science. He also teaches modules on hunter-gatherers and early farmers where he combines anthropological and archaeological approaches. He has, for 20 years, led many of our students on a fieldschool in South Dakota, excavating on an early agricultural village site.

Alan is the editor-in-chief of Routledge journal Science and Technology of Archaeological Research (STAR) and co-director of the 'Centre for Human-Animal-Environment (HumAnE) Bioarchaeology' at Exeter, along with Naomi Sykes.

Biography:

Professor Outram read for his BA in Archaeology at Durham University and, having developed a fascination for the archaeology of animal bones, went on to take an MSc in Environmental Archaeology and Palaeoeconomics at the University of Sheffield. He returned to Durham to undertake his PhD under the supervision of Peter Rowley-Conwy. The title of his thesis was "The Idenitification and Palaeoeconomic Context of Prehistoric Bone Marrow and Grease Exploitation". The research combined zooarchaeological analysis with experimental work.

Following his PhD, Alan worked in professional archaeology for about one year, firstly in Stoke-on-Trent and then for Canterbury Archaeological Trust. He has since been an academic at Exeter for the past 25 years and is now Professor of Archaeological Science.

He is co-director of the 'Centre for Human-Animal-Environment (HumAnE) Bioarchaeology' at Exeter, along with Naomi Sykes.

Editorial Positions:

Editor-in-chief of Routledge journal Science and Technology of Archaeological Research (STAR).

An emeritus Executive Editor of World Archaeology (a Routledge journal)

Honours and Honorary Positions:

In April 2019 Alan was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Al-Farabi Kazakh National University "in recognition of outstanding activity in scientific and intellectual development".

Adjunct Professor of Anthropology, Augustana University, Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Memberships of Societies and Professional Bodies:

Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA)
Member of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (MCIfA)
Member of the Association for Environmental Archaeology
Member of the International Council for Archaeozoology
Member of the Prehistoric Society
Member of the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology
Member of the Society for American Archaeology
Member of the European Association of Archaeologists
Honorary Life Member of the Stoke-on-Trent City Museum Archaeological Society

Research supervision:

Professor Outram supervises research students in the following subject areas:

Zooarchaeology, bioarchaeology (broadly defined including forensic applications), palaeoeconomics, experimental archaeology, hunter-gatherer, pastoralist and early farming societies. Geographical areas of particular interest include Europe, Central Asia and N. America.