Xuan Truong Research Assistantship
Current Research
I am currently part of a number of internationally funded archaeological projects (SUNDASIA, Shanidar Project), where I am researching questions of Cultural Palaeoecology, doing Palaeoenvironmental Reconstruction using Molluscs and using Radiocarbon Dating methods to develop chronostratigraphic sequences for cave sequences in North Africa (Haua Fteah), Iraqi Kurdistan (Shanidar Cave) and Vietnam (SUNDASIA Project). I am also exploring and developing methods of using terrestrial land snails for dating Cave sequences and shell middens.
Fundings
SUNDASIA: Human Adaptation to Coastal Evolution: Late Quaternary evidence from Southeast Asia. AHRC/GCRF & Xuan Truong Construction Enterprise. Principle Investigator: Dr Ryan Rabett, Queens University Belfast. Co Investigators: Dr Fiona Coward, University of Bornmouth, Dr. Tran Tan Van, Vietnam Institute of Geosciences and Mineral Resources. www.facebook.com/sundasia
Shanidar Project: Leverhulme Trust RPG-2013-105; British Academy -SRG1819\191503; Rust Foundation, McDonald Institute). How resilient were Neanderthals and Modern Humans in Southwest Asia to Climate Change? Reinvestigating Shanidar Cave, Iraqi Kurdistan. Principle Investigators: Prof. Graeme Barker, University of Cambridge; Prof. Chis Hunt. Liverpool John Moores University; Dr. Tim Reynolds, UCL-Birkbeck)
Expertise
– Experience in AMS 14Cdating, especially relating to molluscs.
– Extensive use of various freely available programmes such as Oxcal and Calib for calibration and modelling and construction of radiocarbon models for publication.
– Construction of extensive radiocarbon chronologies using both Bayesian modelling and other approaches.
– Extensive experience in general archaeomalachology, particularly for the Southern Mediterranean and North African regions and North Vietnam; a working familiarity with Mesolithic and Neolithic mollusc material from sites in Ireland and use of Tilia to create publishable diagrams.
– Interpretation of cores and environmental mollusc assemblages from Pleistocene and Holocene environments.
– Climate reconstruction and environmental analysis using Mollusc assemblages across a wide variety of sites and time periods.
– Extensive experience in Post excavation and field work archaeology relating to finds analysis, recording, preparation and storage, experience working with hominin bones (Human and Neanderthal) in post excavation contexts.
– Practical experience in both wet and dry sieving archaeological material during active excavations and in post excavation.
– Sorting and analysis of archaeological material at both a specialist and general level ((ERC- TRANS-NAP, ERC-FRAGSUS, Eusperides Project (Society for Libyan Studies/British Academy), SHANIDAR PROJECT).
– Field Archaeology: Excavation, survey, sampling and recording, section drawing.
– Environmental Subsampling archaeological sequences (Pollen, Molluscs and Micro-morphs).
10 Most relevant publications (up to 2020)
First author publications
Hill E.A., Lubell D., McLaughlin T.R. (2019)Re-evaluation of radiocarbon dates using Helix melanostoma shell at two Capsian sites – Aïn Misteheyia and Kef Zoura D – In the Télidjène Basin of eastern Algeria.Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 28, 102004.ISSN 2352-409X,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2019.102004.
Hill E.A., Reimer, P.J., Hunt, C.O., Prendergast, A.L., Barker, G. (2017) Radiocarbon Ecology of the Land Snail Helix melanostoma in North Eastern Libya. Radiocarbon 59, 5, 1-22. DOI:10.1017/RDC.2017.49
Hill, E.A., Hunt, C.O., Lucarini, G., Mutri, G., Barker, G., (2015) Gastropod piercing during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene of the Haua Fteah, Libya. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 4, 320-325. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.09.003
Co-author publications
Pomeroy, E., Hunt, C.O., Reynolds, T., Abdulmutalb, D., Asouti, E., Bennett, P., Bosch, M., Burke, A., Farr, L., Foley, R., French, C., Frumkin, A., Goldberg, P., Hill, E.A., Kabukcu, C., Lahr, M.M., Lane, R., Marean, C., Maureille, B., Mutri, G., Miller, C., Ali Mustafa, K., Nymark, K., Pettitt, P., Sala, N., Sandgathe, D., Stringer, C., Tilby, E., Barker G.W. (in review) The Evolution of Hominin Mortuary Behaviour: Debating new data from Shanidar Cave. Evolutionary Anthropology.
Reynolds, T., Farr, L., Hill, E.A., Hunt, C., Jones, S., Gratuze, B., Nymark, A., Abdulmutalb, D., Barker, G. (2018) Shanidar Cave and the Baradostian, a Zagros Aurignacian Industry. L’Anthropologie 122, 137–148.
Hunt, C.O., Hill, E.A. (2017) ‘Caves and Molluscs’ eds. Michael J. Allen. Molluscs in Archaeology: Methods Approaches and Applications. Studying Scientific Archaeology 3. Oxbow Books. 100-110.
Hunt, C.O., Hill. E.A., Reynolds, T.R., Abdulmutalb, D., Farr, L., Lane, R., Szabo, K., Barker, G. (2016) An Incised Shell Object from Baradostian (Early Upper Palaeolithic) Layers in Shanidar Cave, Iraqi Kurdistan. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 14, 318-322.
Jacobs, Z., Li, B., Farr, L., Hill, E.A., Hunt, C., Jones, S., Rabett, R., Reynolds, T., Roberts, R.G., Simpson, D., Barker, G. (2016) The Chronostratigraphy of the Haua Fteah Cave (Cyrenaica, Northeast Libya) — Optical Dating of Early Human Occupation During Marine Isotope Stages 4, 5 and 6. Journal of Human Evolution 105, 69–88.
Hunt, C.O., Gilbertson, D.D., Hill, E. A., Simpson, D. (2015) Sedimentation, Re-Sedimentation and Chronologies in Archaeologically-Important Caves: Problems and Prospects. Journal of Archaeological Science 56, 109-116. DOI:10.1016/j.jas.2015.02.030
Douka, K., Jacobs, Z., Lane, C., Grün, R., Farr, L., Hunt, C.O., Hill, E.A. Inglis, R.H., Reynolds, T., Albert, P., Aubert, M., Cullen, V., Kinsley, L., Roberts, R.G., Tomlinson. E.L., Wulf, S., Barker, G.W (2014) The Chronostratigraphy of the Haua Fteah Cave (Cyrenaica, Northeast Libya). Journal of Human Evolution 66, 39-63.; DOI:10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.10.001
ARCHAEOLOGY & PALAEOECOLOGY • School of Natural & Built Environment 