M M Alexander
Biographic Data
| ID | 37648 |
|---|---|
| NAME | M M Alexander |
| GIVEN NAMES | M M |
| FAMILY NAME | Alexander |
| SIGNATURE | ALEXANDER M M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of York |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8000-3639 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 37 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 217 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 37 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
From Roman suburbium to medieval city
This work examines the interaction between humans and animals in urban environments in north-eastern Iberia from the Roman period to the end of the Middle Ages. We present a zooarchaeological study of the faunal remains found in Sotstinent Navarro, Barcelona, an archaeological site excavated as part of a rescue project. The zooarchaeological evidence presented and analysed here provides insight into the diet and provisioning of the city over time…
Studying frontier societies
What about the delta (ẟ13C)? A case for brackish fish in Mediterranean palaeodietary isotopic baselines
Seventeen new ẟ 13 C and ẟ 15 N values reported from freshwater and estuarine fishes from the Levant. • Demonstration of the wide range (-27.97‰ to -10.87‰) of ẟ 13 C values encountered in ancient Mediterranean aquatic ecosystems. • Improved data available for constructing isotopic baselines and interpreting human palaeodiet. While a lot of paleodietary studies in the Mediterranean region have reported ẟ 13 C and ẟ 15 N values for humans, similar…
The first biomolecular evidence of leopards (Panthera pardus, Linnaeus, 1758) from the Roman era reveals the participation of African big cats in provincial amphitheatres
More than what we eat
Starch granules and other plant tissues are commonly found as part of the microdebris assemblage analysed within dental calculus. These are often interpreted as evidence of past diets. However, many of the starch granules extracted from dental calculus are intact, and do not show evidence of alterations as a result of being processed for consumption. This research examines if plant material can accidently enter the mouth while being processed for…
To the field of stars
The Camino de Santiago emerged in the first half of the 9th century CE following the reported discovery of the remains of the Apostle St James by the bishop of Iria-Flavia, Teodomiro. Since then, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims have walked from different parts of the Iberian Peninsula, Europe, and further afield to Santiago de Compostela's Cathedral. This route was particularly important to the populations of Navarre and Aragon, two kingdoms in…
Isotopic evidence for human mobility in late antique Bulla Regia (Tunisia)
This paper represents the first isotopic study on late antique human mobility in North Africa, using the urban site of Bulla Regia in Tunisia as a case study. We also present the first values for bioavailable 87 Sr/ 86 Sr in northern Tunisia, analysing 63 plant and snail samples, as well as a simple method for the pre-processing of plants in the field to facilitate their export. Bulla Regia was a prominent Roman and late antique town situated on …
Bulla Regia II
This paper reports the preliminary results from three seasons of excavations in the Christian cemetery by the Tunisian-British Bulla Regia Archaeological Project. In 2017–2019, excavations in, and around, the Late Antique church in the western cemetery uncovered a complex funerary landscape with a variety of different tomb types, including mosaic caisson tombs, simple masonry tombs, amphora tombs, and earthen graves and multiple funerary mensae .…
Grim up North? Exploring the diet of urban populations in post-medieval Greater Manchester, England, using stable isotope analysis
Historical evidence suggests that social status played a major role in all aspects of society in eighteenth-nineteenth century England. We present an insight into how socioeconomic status affected the dietary habits of two post-medieval urban populations from Greater Manchester, northwest England. Stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope ratios were measured in humans from Cross Street Unitarian Chapel (middle class:n = 90) in Manchester …
Integrating spatial and legacy data to understand archaeological sites in their landscape. A case study from Unguja Ukuu, Zanzibar
Spatial analysis is paramount for understanding, monitoring, and conserving ancient settlements and cultural landscapes. Advancing remote sensing and prospection techniques are expanding the methodological frame of archaeological settlement analysis by enabling remote, landscape‐scale approaches to mapping and investigation. Whilst particularly effective in arid lands and areas with sparse or open ground cover, such as vegetation and buildings, t…
Marine fish in the Czech lands in the Middle and Early Modern Ages
Human and animal subsistence in northern Iberia during the Late Chalcolithic-Bronze Age
Measuring the impact of parchment production on skin collagen stable isotope (δ 13 C and δ 15 N) values
Parchment is one of the most abundant resources in archives across the world and is a unique time-sensitive material through which centuries of livestock economies, trade and craft can be explored. We examine the impact of structural and chemical modifications during production to δ13C and δ15N values in the skin, particularly the removal of cutaneous keratins and lipids and the conversion of amide functional groups into carboxyl groups via alkal…
Stable isotope analysis and differences in diet and social status in northern Medieval Christian Spain (9th–13th centuries CE)
Beyond faith
Objectives During the Middle Ages, Portugal witnessed unprecedented socioeconomic and religious changes under transitioning religious political rule. The implications of changing ruling powers for urban food systems and individual diets in medieval Portugal is poorly understood. This study aimed to elucidate the dietary impact of the Islamic and Christian conquests. Materials and Methods Radiocarbon dating, peptide mass fingerprinting (ZooMS) and…
The zooarchaeological identification of a 'Morisco' community after the Christian conquest of Granada (Spain, early 16th century)
This article presents the results of the zooarchaeological analysis of an assemblage dating to the second quarter of the 16th century that was discovered on the current university campus of Cartuja, on the outskirts of Granada (Andalusia, Spain). During the Middle Ages, this area was largely used for agricultural purposes, including as estates owned by high officials of the Nasrid dynasty, the last Islamicate polity in the Iberian Peninsula. The …
Investigating infant feeding strategies at Roman Bainesse through Bayesian modelling of incremental dentine isotopic data
We present the first study employing Bayesian modelling of isotopic measurements on dentine increments (five human upper first molars) to address Romano-British infant feeding practices at Bainesse (UK). The stable carbon and nitrogen isotope results modelled to 6-month intervals with novel OsteoBioR software revealed some common patterns, with weaning not starting before the age of 6 months and higher animal protein consumption after the age of …
Diversity in Labrador Inuit sled dog diets
Sled dogs were an integral part of Labrador Inuit life from the initial expansion and settlement of northeastern Canada to the present day. Tasked with pulling sleds and assisting people with other subsistence activities in the winter, dogs required regular provisioning with protein and fat. In this paper, we conduct stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratio analysis of the skeletal remains of dogs (n = 35) and wild fauna (n = 68) from sites locat…
A multidisciplinary approach to investigate the osteobiography of the Roman Imperial population from Muracciola Torresina (Palestrina, Rome, Italy)
The New Jim Crow
Landscapes of (re)conquest
The ‘Landscapes of (Re)Conquest’ project investigates the dynamics of medieval frontier societies in South-west Europe through the lens of the cultural landscape. It compares diverse regional borderlands in Spain, created by successive waves of Islamic and Christian conquests, with the Pyrenean frontier on either side of the Albigensian Crusade and aims to reconnect the castles of frontier authorities with their associated territories from a heri…
Archives of human-dog relationships
Among Indigenous populations of the Arctic, domestic dogs (Canislupus familiaris) were social actors aiding in traction and subsistence activities. Less commonly, dogs fulfilled a fur-bearing role in both the North American and Siberian Arctic. Examples of garments featuring dog skins were collected during the 19th-20th centuries and are now curated by the National Museum of Denmark. We sequenced the mitochondrial genomes of macroscopically ident…
The medieval population of Leopoli-Cencelle (Viterbo, Latium)
A tale of two villages
A multidisciplinary approach to investigate the osteobiography of the Roman Imperial population from Muracciola Torresina (Palestrina, Rome, Italy)
The New Jim Crow
Diet, society, and economy in late medieval S pain
This article investigates the diets of neighboring Christians and Muslims in late medieval Spain (here 13th–16th centuries) through the analysis of the stable isotopes of carbon (δ 13 C) and nitrogen (δ 15 N) in adult human and animal bone collagen. Twenty‐four Christians and 20 Muslims are sampled from two adjacent and contemporaneous settlements in the township of Gandía on the Mediterranean coast, together with the remains of 24 animals. Stati…
Economic and socio-cultural consequences of changing political rule on human and faunal diets in medieval Valencia (c. fifth-fifteenth century AD) as evidenced by stable isotopes
This paper explores the impact of changing religious political rule on subsistence within a single city through time using stable isotope analysis of human and animal bone collagen. The diet and economy of the medieval city of Valencia (Spain) are examined over a 1000-year period during successive periods of Visigothic, Muslim and Christian rule. Bulk stable isotope analysis of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) was carried out on 67 humans and 47…
High status diet and health in Medieval Lisbon
This paper presents the first bioarchaeological study of Islamic diet and lifeways in medieval Portugal. Stable isotopes of δ13C and δ15N and osteological and paleopathological analyses are combined to explore the diet and health status of 27 humans buried within São Jorge Castle, Lisbon (eleventh to twelfth century), interpreted as a high status population. Human isotopic data are considered alongside an animal baseline comprised of 30 specimens…
Direct evidence from lipid residue analysis for the routine consumption of millet in Early Medieval Italy
Paleodiet in the Iberian Peninsula
Finding Britain's last hunter-gatherers
In the last decade, our knowledge of the transition from foraging, fishing, and hunting to agricultural food production has been transformed through the molecular analysis of human remains. In Britain, however, the lack of Late Mesolithic human remains has limited our understanding of this dietary transition. Here, we report the use of a novel strategy to analyse otherwise overlooked material to identify additional human remains from this period.…
New insights into Neolithic milk consumption through proteomic analysis of dental calculus
There has long been debate over the origins of dairy consumption within European populations. Whilst it was previously assumed that lactase persistence (LP) was under positive selection following the advent of agriculture, recent genetic studies of prehistoric human remains have revealed LP may have only emerged in Europe in the last 4000 years. These findings stand in contrast to organic residue analysis of Neolithic pottery indicating the utili…
Investigating infant feeding strategies at Roman Bainesse through Bayesian modelling of incremental dentine isotopic data
We present the first study employing Bayesian modelling of isotopic measurements on dentine increments (five human upper first molars) to address Romano-British infant feeding practices at Bainesse (UK). The stable carbon and nitrogen isotope results modelled to 6-month intervals with novel OsteoBioR software revealed some common patterns, with weaning not starting before the age of 6 months and higher animal protein consumption after the age of …
Multidisciplinary investigations of the diets of two post-medieval populations from London using stable isotopes and microdebris analysis
Archives of human-dog relationships
Among Indigenous populations of the Arctic, domestic dogs (Canislupus familiaris) were social actors aiding in traction and subsistence activities. Less commonly, dogs fulfilled a fur-bearing role in both the North American and Siberian Arctic. Examples of garments featuring dog skins were collected during the 19th-20th centuries and are now curated by the National Museum of Denmark. We sequenced the mitochondrial genomes of macroscopically ident…
Integrating spatial and legacy data to understand archaeological sites in their landscape. A case study from Unguja Ukuu, Zanzibar
Spatial analysis is paramount for understanding, monitoring, and conserving ancient settlements and cultural landscapes. Advancing remote sensing and prospection techniques are expanding the methodological frame of archaeological settlement analysis by enabling remote, landscape‐scale approaches to mapping and investigation. Whilst particularly effective in arid lands and areas with sparse or open ground cover, such as vegetation and buildings, t…
The zooarchaeological identification of a 'Morisco' community after the Christian conquest of Granada (Spain, early 16th century)
This article presents the results of the zooarchaeological analysis of an assemblage dating to the second quarter of the 16th century that was discovered on the current university campus of Cartuja, on the outskirts of Granada (Andalusia, Spain). During the Middle Ages, this area was largely used for agricultural purposes, including as estates owned by high officials of the Nasrid dynasty, the last Islamicate polity in the Iberian Peninsula. The …
A sixteenth-century turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) from Puerto Real, Hispaniola
Hair as a Window on Diet and Health in Post-Medieval London
Isotopic analysis of bone for dietary reconstruction has been routinely practised in archaeology since the 1970s (Vogel and Van der Merwe 1977) and provides a long-term average of the diet over the last 10-30 years before death (Hedges et al. 2007). Unlike bone, however, hair grows incrementally (~1cm a month for human hair), providing time series information, and offering a valuable window on diet during the final months before death (White 1993…
Grim up North? Exploring the diet of urban populations in post-medieval Greater Manchester, England, using stable isotope analysis
Historical evidence suggests that social status played a major role in all aspects of society in eighteenth-nineteenth century England. We present an insight into how socioeconomic status affected the dietary habits of two post-medieval urban populations from Greater Manchester, northwest England. Stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope ratios were measured in humans from Cross Street Unitarian Chapel (middle class:n = 90) in Manchester …
Marine fish in the Czech lands in the Middle and Early Modern Ages
Human and animal subsistence in northern Iberia during the Late Chalcolithic-Bronze Age
Stable isotope analysis and differences in diet and social status in northern Medieval Christian Spain (9th–13th centuries CE)
Beyond faith
Objectives During the Middle Ages, Portugal witnessed unprecedented socioeconomic and religious changes under transitioning religious political rule. The implications of changing ruling powers for urban food systems and individual diets in medieval Portugal is poorly understood. This study aimed to elucidate the dietary impact of the Islamic and Christian conquests. Materials and Methods Radiocarbon dating, peptide mass fingerprinting (ZooMS) and…
Diversity in Labrador Inuit sled dog diets
Sled dogs were an integral part of Labrador Inuit life from the initial expansion and settlement of northeastern Canada to the present day. Tasked with pulling sleds and assisting people with other subsistence activities in the winter, dogs required regular provisioning with protein and fat. In this paper, we conduct stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratio analysis of the skeletal remains of dogs (n = 35) and wild fauna (n = 68) from sites locat…
The medieval population of Leopoli-Cencelle (Viterbo, Latium)
A multidisciplinary approach to investigate the osteobiography of the Roman Imperial population from Muracciola Torresina (Palestrina, Rome, Italy)
To the field of stars
The Camino de Santiago emerged in the first half of the 9th century CE following the reported discovery of the remains of the Apostle St James by the bishop of Iria-Flavia, Teodomiro. Since then, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims have walked from different parts of the Iberian Peninsula, Europe, and further afield to Santiago de Compostela's Cathedral. This route was particularly important to the populations of Navarre and Aragon, two kingdoms in…
Bulla Regia II
This paper reports the preliminary results from three seasons of excavations in the Christian cemetery by the Tunisian-British Bulla Regia Archaeological Project. In 2017–2019, excavations in, and around, the Late Antique church in the western cemetery uncovered a complex funerary landscape with a variety of different tomb types, including mosaic caisson tombs, simple masonry tombs, amphora tombs, and earthen graves and multiple funerary mensae .…
Possible Efficacy of a Creek Folk Medicine through Skin Absorption
Diet, society, and economy in late medieval S pain
This article investigates the diets of neighboring Christians and Muslims in late medieval Spain (here 13th–16th centuries) through the analysis of the stable isotopes of carbon (δ 13 C) and nitrogen (δ 15 N) in adult human and animal bone collagen. Twenty‐four Christians and 20 Muslims are sampled from two adjacent and contemporaneous settlements in the township of Gandía on the Mediterranean coast, together with the remains of 24 animals. Stati…
A sixteenth-century turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) from Puerto Real, Hispaniola
Hair as a Window on Diet and Health in Post-Medieval London
Isotopic analysis of bone for dietary reconstruction has been routinely practised in archaeology since the 1970s (Vogel and Van der Merwe 1977) and provides a long-term average of the diet over the last 10-30 years before death (Hedges et al. 2007). Unlike bone, however, hair grows incrementally (~1cm a month for human hair), providing time series information, and offering a valuable window on diet during the final months before death (White 1993…
Finding Britain's last hunter-gatherers
In the last decade, our knowledge of the transition from foraging, fishing, and hunting to agricultural food production has been transformed through the molecular analysis of human remains. In Britain, however, the lack of Late Mesolithic human remains has limited our understanding of this dietary transition. Here, we report the use of a novel strategy to analyse otherwise overlooked material to identify additional human remains from this period.…
Le nouveau Jim Crow
Michelle Alexander enseigne le droit à l'Université d'Etat de l'Ohio, après une carrière d'avocate spécialisée dans les civil rights , aussi bien dans les milieux activistes de défense des libertés fondamentales (elle a dirigé le Racial Justice Project de l'ACLU - American Civil Liberties Union - en Californie du Nord) que dans un cabinet d'avocats où elle était spécialisée dans les actions de groupe contre des cas de discriminations raciales et …
Direct evidence from lipid residue analysis for the routine consumption of millet in Early Medieval Italy
The medieval population of Leopoli-Cencelle (Viterbo, Latium)
A tale of two villages
A multidisciplinary approach to investigate the osteobiography of the Roman Imperial population from Muracciola Torresina (Palestrina, Rome, Italy)
New insights into Neolithic milk consumption through proteomic analysis of dental calculus
There has long been debate over the origins of dairy consumption within European populations. Whilst it was previously assumed that lactase persistence (LP) was under positive selection following the advent of agriculture, recent genetic studies of prehistoric human remains have revealed LP may have only emerged in Europe in the last 4000 years. These findings stand in contrast to organic residue analysis of Neolithic pottery indicating the utili…
Economic and socio-cultural consequences of changing political rule on human and faunal diets in medieval Valencia (c. fifth-fifteenth century AD) as evidenced by stable isotopes
This paper explores the impact of changing religious political rule on subsistence within a single city through time using stable isotope analysis of human and animal bone collagen. The diet and economy of the medieval city of Valencia (Spain) are examined over a 1000-year period during successive periods of Visigothic, Muslim and Christian rule. Bulk stable isotope analysis of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) was carried out on 67 humans and 47…
Paleodiet in the Iberian Peninsula
Multidisciplinary investigations of the diets of two post-medieval populations from London using stable isotopes and microdebris analysis
High status diet and health in Medieval Lisbon
This paper presents the first bioarchaeological study of Islamic diet and lifeways in medieval Portugal. Stable isotopes of δ13C and δ15N and osteological and paleopathological analyses are combined to explore the diet and health status of 27 humans buried within São Jorge Castle, Lisbon (eleventh to twelfth century), interpreted as a high status population. Human isotopic data are considered alongside an animal baseline comprised of 30 specimens…
Diversity in Labrador Inuit sled dog diets
Sled dogs were an integral part of Labrador Inuit life from the initial expansion and settlement of northeastern Canada to the present day. Tasked with pulling sleds and assisting people with other subsistence activities in the winter, dogs required regular provisioning with protein and fat. In this paper, we conduct stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratio analysis of the skeletal remains of dogs (n = 35) and wild fauna (n = 68) from sites locat…
A multidisciplinary approach to investigate the osteobiography of the Roman Imperial population from Muracciola Torresina (Palestrina, Rome, Italy)
The New Jim Crow
Landscapes of (re)conquest
The ‘Landscapes of (Re)Conquest’ project investigates the dynamics of medieval frontier societies in South-west Europe through the lens of the cultural landscape. It compares diverse regional borderlands in Spain, created by successive waves of Islamic and Christian conquests, with the Pyrenean frontier on either side of the Albigensian Crusade and aims to reconnect the castles of frontier authorities with their associated territories from a heri…
Archives of human-dog relationships
Among Indigenous populations of the Arctic, domestic dogs (Canislupus familiaris) were social actors aiding in traction and subsistence activities. Less commonly, dogs fulfilled a fur-bearing role in both the North American and Siberian Arctic. Examples of garments featuring dog skins were collected during the 19th-20th centuries and are now curated by the National Museum of Denmark. We sequenced the mitochondrial genomes of macroscopically ident…
Measuring the impact of parchment production on skin collagen stable isotope (δ 13 C and δ 15 N) values
Parchment is one of the most abundant resources in archives across the world and is a unique time-sensitive material through which centuries of livestock economies, trade and craft can be explored. We examine the impact of structural and chemical modifications during production to δ13C and δ15N values in the skin, particularly the removal of cutaneous keratins and lipids and the conversion of amide functional groups into carboxyl groups via alkal…
Stable isotope analysis and differences in diet and social status in northern Medieval Christian Spain (9th–13th centuries CE)
Beyond faith
Objectives During the Middle Ages, Portugal witnessed unprecedented socioeconomic and religious changes under transitioning religious political rule. The implications of changing ruling powers for urban food systems and individual diets in medieval Portugal is poorly understood. This study aimed to elucidate the dietary impact of the Islamic and Christian conquests. Materials and Methods Radiocarbon dating, peptide mass fingerprinting (ZooMS) and…
The zooarchaeological identification of a 'Morisco' community after the Christian conquest of Granada (Spain, early 16th century)
This article presents the results of the zooarchaeological analysis of an assemblage dating to the second quarter of the 16th century that was discovered on the current university campus of Cartuja, on the outskirts of Granada (Andalusia, Spain). During the Middle Ages, this area was largely used for agricultural purposes, including as estates owned by high officials of the Nasrid dynasty, the last Islamicate polity in the Iberian Peninsula. The …
Investigating infant feeding strategies at Roman Bainesse through Bayesian modelling of incremental dentine isotopic data
We present the first study employing Bayesian modelling of isotopic measurements on dentine increments (five human upper first molars) to address Romano-British infant feeding practices at Bainesse (UK). The stable carbon and nitrogen isotope results modelled to 6-month intervals with novel OsteoBioR software revealed some common patterns, with weaning not starting before the age of 6 months and higher animal protein consumption after the age of …
Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (27 works) · Geography (23 works) · Archaeology (22 works) · Biology (16 works) · Ecology (14 works) · Isotope Analysis in Ecology (13 works) · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies (11 works) · History (10 works) · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies (9 works) · History (9 works)