Staff profile

BA. in Natural Sciences specialising in Botany 1997, Trinity College Dublin

Ph.D in Geography at Coventry University 2001 “Quaternary Vegetation History of the Médoc Region, S.W. France”

Charlotte specialises in the use of plant macrofossils for the reconstruction of palaeoenvironments. Her current research interests include human palaeoecology, particularly in relation to lakes and lake settlements. She is also investigating the climatic and vegetation history of S.W. Ireland over the last 12,000 years.

The Environmental Archaeology service is managed by Dr Charlotte O’Brien. Charlotte has a doctorate in palaeoecology and 15 years’ experience in the analysis of plant remains. She is proficient in environmental sampling strategies and has analysed palaeo- and archaeobotanical remains from sites in the UK and abroad. Particular skills include plant macrofossil analysis, pollen analysis, wood and charcoal identification and vegetation surveying. 

Journal Article

• Reid, V., Milek, K., O'Brien, C., Sveinbjarnarson, Ó. G., & Noble, G. (2023). The role of geoarchaeology in the interpretation of fragmented buildings and occupation surfaces: The case of coastal settlements in northeast Scotland. Geoarchaeology, https://doi.org/10.1002/gea.21990
• Reid, V., Milek, K., O'Brien, C., Sneddon, D., & Strachan, D. (2023). Revealing the invisible floor: Integrated geoarchaeological analyses of ephemeral occupation surfaces at an early medieval farmhouse in upland Perthshire, Scotland. Journal of Archaeological Science, 159, Article 105825. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2023.105825
• Innes, J., Mitchell, W., O’Brien, C., Roberts, D., Rutherford, M., & Bridgland, D. (2021). A Detailed Record of Deglacial and Early Post-Glacial Fluvial Evolution: The River Ure in North Yorkshire, UK. Quaternary, 4(1), Article 9. https://doi.org/10.3390/quat4010009
• Howard, A., Carney, J., Greenwood, M., Keen, D., Mighall, T., O'Brien, C., & Tetlow, E. (2011). The Holme Pierrepont Sand and Gravel and the timing of Middle and Late Devensian floodplain aggradation in the English Midlands. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 122(3), 419-431. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pgeola.2011.03.009
• Innes, J., Bridgland, D., Mitchell, W., Rutherford, M., O'Brien, C., & Long, A. (2009). Late Devensian environments in the Vale of Mowbray, North Yorkshire, UK: evidence from palynology. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 120(4), 199-208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pgeola.2009.08.007
• Mighall, T., Timpany, S., Blackford, J., Innes, J., O'Brien, C., O'Brien, W., & Harrison, S. (2008). Vegetation change during the mesolithic and Neolithic on the Mizen Peninsula, Co.Cork, south-west Ireland. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, 17(6), 617-628. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-007-0136-4
• O'Brien, C., Selby, K., Ruiz, Z., Brown, A., Dinnin, M., Caseldine, C., …Stuijts, I. (2005). A sediment-based multiproxy palaeoecological approach to the environmental archaeology of lake dwellings (crannogs), Central Ireland. Holocene, 15(5), 707-719. https://doi.org/10.1191/0959683605hl845rp
• Brown, A., Hatton, J., O'Brien, C., Selby, K., Langdon, P., Stuijts, I., & Caseldine, C. (2005). Vegetation, landscape and human activity in Midland Ireland: mire and lake records from the Lough Kinale-Derragh Lough area, Central Ireland. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, 14(2), 81-98. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-005-0063-1
• Selby, K., O'Brien, C., Brown, A., & Stuijts, I. (2005). A multi-proxy study of Holocene lake development, lake settlement and vegetation history in central Ireland. Journal of Quaternary Science, 20(2), 147-168. https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.891
• Jones, R., O'Brien, C., & Coope, G. (2004). Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of the Younger Dryas in Jersey, UK Channel Islands, based on plant and insect fossils. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 115(1), 43-53. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0016-7878%2804%2980033-6
• O'Brien, C., & Jones, R. (2003). Early and Middle Pleistocene vegetation history of the Medoc region, southwest France. Journal of Quaternary Science, 18(6), 557-579. https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.779
• Mighall, T., Tizzoni, M., Cucini Tizzoni, C., & O'Brien, C. (2003). The impact of Iron Age mining on vegetation: palaeolecological evidence from Campolungo, Bienno, Lombard Alps, Northern Italy

Report

• Long, A., O'Brien, C., Rutherford, M., Wynne, S., Davis, S., & Innes, J. (2005). A1 palaeoecological survey. [No known commissioning body]