Department of Archaeology
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Staff

Dr A R Millard, B.A., D.Phil.

Personal web pages

Telephone: +44 (0) 191 33 41147
Deputy Director of Combined Honours
Telephone: +44 (0) 191 334 3006
Room number: ER273

Contact (email at a.r.millard@durham.ac.uk)

Biography

I am a Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, but currently spend half my time as Deputy Director of Combined Honours.

My first degree was in chemistry at Oxford, but whilst studying for that I discovered the delights of archaeology, going digging at weekends. I managed to combine these interests when I found a place for my undergraduate project and doctoral work in the Research Laboratory for Archaeology at Oxford. My D.Phil. explored the uptake of uranium into bone in order to improve the basis of uranium-series dating of bone, and a post-doctoral project explored wider issues of the effect of groundwater hydrology on the decay and preservation of bones.

In 1995 I came to Durham a Lecturer, where my research has broadened to cover the chemistry of bones and teeth applied to archaeological problems, and Bayesian statistics applied to archaeology, particularly to the analysis of scientific dating techniques, and with wider applications in Quaternary science. My research is a mixture of work conducted alone and collaborative projects with a range of scholars within Durham (I have collaborated with colleagues in Archaeology, History, Earth Sciences, Geography and Mathematics) and external to Durham (including Leiden, Groningen, Cambridge, Sheffield, British Geological Survey).

Bayesian statistics in archaeology and Quaternary science

Radiocarbon wigglematch calibration

Bayesian statistics, as applied to dating in archaeology, allows the combination of different types of dating methods, substantial improvements in the resolution of dates, and the assigning of dates to events previously considered undateable. My contribution in this area has been to extend the method from its initial application to radiocarbon dates, to application to a wide variety of other dating methods, including uranium-series, luminescence and ESR dating. This has been applied to a major re-evaluation of the dating evidence for hominid fossils in the timeframe 500,000 to 50,000 years ago. I have also worked on the development of novel methods to interpolate the age of events identified in palaeoenvironmental sequences from sediment cores. The Bayesian statistical paradigm has a wide range of potential applications in archaeology, which has led me to work on estimating age-at-death of humans and sheep, and on predicting the location of archaeological sites in the landscape. Through MSc students in Statistics at Sheffield I have also been involved in work on mathematical models for changes in nitrogen isotopes with weaning, and the analysis of uncertainty in chronologies constructed from ancient near eastern King Lists. I have co-supervised PhD students working on modelling the Mousterian-Aurignacian transition in Europe using radiocarbon dates, and on estimating the uncertainty in luminescence dates.

Chemistry of archaeological bones and teeth

My bone and tooth chemistry research mixes technique development, theoretical studies, and archaeological application in collaboration with period specialists. Past work has examined age of weaning using nitrogen isotope ratios, developing a mathematical model and examining its application to a 19th century population from London. A major project examined migration into and around Britain using strontium and oxygen isotope ratios measured in Anglo-Saxon and Viking remains. More recent projects have examined migration of Crusaders and their horses, and diet and migration in the Dutch middle Neolithic. PhD topics in this area that I have supervised include the application of isotope techniques to investigate the diet and migration of 18th-19th century populations, the link between diet and DISH (a disease of the skeleton), comparing the diets of Christians and Muslims in medieval Spain, and the migration of the animals hunted by Upper Palaeolithic humans.

PhD students

I welcome enquiries from potential PhD students in any of the above areas, or in related topics.

Research Groups

Research Projects

  • Charcoal production in Medieval Iceland
  • Indigenous or incomers? A mobility study of people with pre-Columbian venereal syphilis at Hull Magistrates Court
  • Migrations of Crusaders
  • Re-examination of the chronology of Pleistocene hominid sites circa 500,000-50,000 years ago
  • Statistical models for dating and correlating long environmental records

Research Interests

  • Applications of computers and statistics in archaeology
  • Chemical and biochemical methods in archaeology
  • Scientific dating techniques

Indicators of Esteem

Selected Publications

Books: edited

  • Buck, CE & Millard, AR 2003. Tools for Constructing Chronologies: Crossing Disciplinary Boundaries. Lecture Notes in Statistics. London: Springer. (Additional information)
  • Millard, A. R. 2001. Proceedings of Archaeological Sciences '97. British Archaeological Reports International Series. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. (Additional information)

Edited works: contributions

  • Millard, A.R. 2006. A Bayesian approach to ageing sheep from toothwear. In Recent advances in ageing and sexing animal bones. Ruscillo-Cosmopoulos, D. Oxford: Oxbow Books. 145-154. (Additional information)
  • Millard, A. R. 2005. What can Bayesian statistics do for archaeological predictive modelling? In Predictive modelling for archaeological heritage management: a research agenda. van Leusen, P. M. & Kamermans, H. Amersfoort: Rijkdienst voor het Oudheidkundig Bodemonderzoek. Nederlandse Archeologische Rapporten 29: 169-182. (Additional information)
  • Buck, C. & Millard, A. 2003. Preface: Towards joined up thinking in chronology building. In Tools for Constructing Chronologies: Crossing Disciplinary Boundaries. Buck, C. & Millard, A. London: Springer Verlag. V-XIV. (Additional information)
  • Millard AR 2003. Taking Bayes Beyond Radiocarbon: Bayesian Approaches to Some Other Chronometric Methods. In Tools for Constructing Chronologies: Crossing Disciplinary Boundaries. Buck CE & Millard AR London: Springer Verlag. 231-248. (Additional information)
  • Millard, AR 2001. Deterioration of bone. In Handbook of Archaeological Sciences. Brothwell, D & Pollard, M Chichester: Wiley. 633-643. (Additional information)
  • Millard AR 2000. A model for the effect of weaning on nitrogen isotope ratios in humans. In Perspectives in Amino Acid and Protein Geochemistry. Goodfriend, GA Collins, MJ Fogel, ML Macko, SA & Wehmiller, JF New York: Oxford University Press. 51-59. (Additional information)

Journal papers: academic

Journal papers: professional

  • Millard, A. 2007. Review of the BABAO Conference 2006. British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology Annual Review 8: 36-38. (Additional information)

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