Professor Paul Halstead
Telephone: 0114 22 22905
E-Mail: P.Halstead@Sheffield.ac.uk
Dr Paul Halstead is the Head of the Graduate School
Dr Paul Halstead, BA, MA, PhD and Professor of Archaeology. I am a zooarchaeologist, with research interests in early farming societies and Bronze Age redistributive systems of Greece and the Mediterranean. Current research projects include excavation and faunal analysis in Greece and ethnoarchaeological studies in Greece and Spain.
I am a member of the Sheffield Centre for Aegean Archaeology (SCAA).
Current research projects
Excavation at Neolithic Paliambela-Kolindrou, Pieria, northern Greece. I am working with Prof Kostas Kotsakis of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki on excavation at Paliambela-Kolindrou of a Neolithic site that comprises both compact `tell´ and `flat-extended´ forms of settlement. Excavations since 2000 on and off the `tell´ component have uncovered Early Neolithic pit-dwellings, burnt Middle Neolithic houses, Middle Neolithic enclosure ditches and Late Neolithic circuit walls (periboloi) similar to those at the classic site of Dimini. Zooarchaeological analysis here focuses on exploring patterns of carcass consumption and discard within the site. Excavation at Paliambela is funded by INSTAP, local and regional government, the Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace, and the Universities of Thessaloniki and Sheffield.
Post-excavation study of Late Neolithic Makrigialos, Pieria, northern Greece. Manthos Besios and Maria Pappa of the Greek Archaeological Service conducted one of the largest prehistoric excavations in Greece for nearly a century at this 50 hectare `flat-extended´ site. Rescue excavations over 6 hectares exposed enclosure ditches, round huts, rectangular houses and a series of large borrow pits and yielded some of the richest ceramic, faunal and lithic assemblages known from the Neolithic of Greece. Sheffield staff and students have been involved in study of ceramics (Dr Elli Hitsiou, Dimitris Vlachos), human bone (Dr Sevi Triantaphyllou), animal bone (Dr Paul Halstead), bone tools (Dr Valasia Isaakidou), plant remains (Dr Tania Valamoti) and geomorphology (Dr Nancy Krahtopoulou). Synthesis of stratigraphic, ceramic and faunal evidence suggests that early LN borrow pit 212 contains debris from consumption on a massive scale, apparently over several months and involving commensality on a community-wide or even regional level. This commensality played a key role in negotiating social inclusion and exclusion at a range of scales from individual upwards (Pappa et al. 2004). Dental microwear analysis suggests that some animals discarded in Pit 212 may have been fattened up prior to consumption (Mainland and Halstead 2005a). An ecological perspective on conspicuous consumption in early farming societies is explored in Halstead (2004).
Animal management and consumption at the Late Bronze Age `Palace of Nestor´, Pylos, Messinia, southwestern Greece. With Dr Valasia Isaakidou of the University of Nottingham, I am examining faunal remains from Carl Blegen´s excavations in the 1950s and 1960s at the Mycenaean `Palace of Nestor´. This is part of a larger post-excavation project at Pylos by Sharon Stocker and Prof Jack Davis of the University of Cincinnati. One unexpected discovery was that burnt sacrifice of bones stripped of their meat – well documented in Archaic and Classical Greece – was already practiced in the Late Bronze Age at Pylos (Isaakidou et al. 2002). Current work is focusing on analysis of a series of less dramatic deposits of discarded bone. The species and age composition of these deposits is very different both from the sacrificial remains and from the written Linear B records of animal management and consumption found in the palace, confirming previous indications (e.g., Halstead 1992; 2002; 2003) that the Linear B texts provide a highly selective account of Mycenaean animal exploitation and farming.
Ethnoarchaeology of arable and pastoral farming in the Mediterranean. Using oral history research in various parts of rural Greece, southern France and northern Spain, I am exploring decision-making and practices of recent farmers and herders, with the ultimate aim of informing interpretation of the historical and archaeological records. Topics explored include direct and indirect storage of grain crops as risk-buffering strategies (Halstead 1990a), woodland management (Halstead 1998a), management of livestock for milk (Halstead 1998b), ploughing with draught cattle (Halstead 1995), pastoralism and household herding (Halstead 1990b; 1996), and `share-cropping´ in both arable and pastoral farming (Halstead 1998c; 1999a; 1999b; 2001).
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