Overview

Naomi researches and teaches on human-animal-environment interactions over the last 10,000 years, exploring how they inform on the structure, ideology and impact of societies, past and present. She is particularly interested in reconstructing the bio-cultural histories of introduced and locally extinct / endangered species (e.g. fallow deer, chickens, rabbits, hares, cats, dogs and wolves).   

Her approach, which is set out in her 2014 book Beastly Questions: Animal Answers to Archaeological Issues, is to work across the Arts-Science spectrum. She integrates archaeological evidence with data from biomolecular analyses (especially DNA and isotopes) and discussions from anthropology, cultural geography, (art) history and linguistics. Together these sources of information represent a powerful tool not only for understanding ancient cultures but also for contextualizing modern problems facing humanity.

Naomi’s work always seeks to demonstrate the value of Arts/Humanities-led research, particularly for communicating important, and often difficult, issues in a creative, palatable format. To this end, she collaborates closely with a range of non-academic organizations worldwide.

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Research

Naomi was trained as an animal bones specialist and began her research career studying the Norman Conquest of Britain from a zooarchaeological perspective. She subsequently expanded the temporal and geographical range of her research and now explores global human-animal-environment inteactions over the last 10,000 years.

She co-directs the Centre for Human-Animal-Environment (HumAnE) Bioarchaeology and is currently leading a Wellcome Trust-funded Collaborative Award project - From 'Feed the Birds' to 'Do Not Feed the Animals' and linked Research Enrichment Project.

Previous projects include:

• Exploring the Easter E.g. – Shifting Baselines and Changing Perceptions of Cultural and Biological ‘Aliens’ 

• Archaeologies of the Norman Conquest 

• Causing a Flap: using chicken-based research to transform education, poultry production and human well-being

• Going Places: Empowering Women, Enhancing Heritage and Increasing Chicken Production in Ethiopia 

• Scientific and Cultural Perceptions of Human-Chicken Interactions 

• Fallow Deer and European Society: 6000 BC – AD 1600 

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Publications

_{Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.}

| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2007 |

2024

• Baker KH, Gray HWI, Lister AM, Spassov N, Welch AJ, Trantalidou K, De Cupere B, Bonillas E, De Jong M, Çakırlar C. (2024) Ancient and modern DNA track temporal and spatial population dynamics in the European fallow deer since the Eemian interglacial, Sci Rep, volume 14, no. 1, DOI:10.1038/s41598-023-48112-6. [PDF]
• Sykes N. (2024) The 10,000- year biocultural history of fallow deer and its implications for conservation policy, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, volume 121, pages 1-8, DOI:10.1073/pnas.2310051121.
• Davis I, Sykes N, Hochmuth M, Outram A, Roffet-Salque M. (2024) A photographic atlas for European freshwater and migratory fish remains and key considerations for their analysis, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, DOI:10.1002/oa.3284.

2023

• Fiddaman SR, Dimopoulos EA, Lebrasseur O, du Plessis L, Vrancken B, Charlton S, Haruda AF, Tabbada K, Flammer PG, Dascalu S. (2023) Ancient chicken remains reveal the origins of virulence in Marek’s disease virus, Science, volume 382, no. 6676, DOI:10.1126/science.adg2238.
• Jamieson A, Carmagnini A, Howard-McCombe J, Doherty S, Hirons A, Dimopoulos E, Lin AT, Allen R, Anderson-Whymark H, Barnett R. (2023) Limited historical admixture between European wildcats and domestic cats, Current Biology, volume 33, no. 21, pages 4751-4760.e14, DOI:10.1016/j.cub.2023.08.031.
• Sykes N. (2023) Debates and emerging issues in 2022, World Archaeology, volume 54, no. 3, pages 363-364, DOI:10.1080/00438243.2022.2206196.
• Miller H, Symmons R, Lamb A, Evans J, Duffy J, Fox T, Grant M, Hancox H, Heikkila R, Page M. (2023) Reconstructing Human-Animal-Environment Relationships at the Edge of the Roman World, Isotope Research in Zooarchaeology, University Press of Florida, 94-115, DOI:10.5744/florida/9780813069418.003.0005.

2022

• Sykes N. (2022) Fallow deer the unprotected biocultural heritage of barbuda, Barbuda: Changing Times, Changing Tides, 79-90, DOI:10.4324/9781003347996-5.
• Peters J, Lebrasseur O, Irving-Pease EK, Paxinos PD, Best J, Smallman R, Callou C, Gardeisen A, Trixl S, Frantz L. (2022) The biocultural origins and dispersal of domestic chickens, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, volume 119, no. 24, DOI:10.1073/pnas.2121978119. [PDF]
• Sykes N, Doherty S. (2022) Redefining the timing and circumstances of the chicken's introduction to Europe and north-west Africa, Antiquity: a quarterly review of archaeology, DOI:10.15184/aqy.2021.90.

2021

• Ameen C, Benkert H, Fraser T, Gordon R, Holmes M, Johnson W, Lauritsen M, Maltby M, Rapp K, Townend T. (2021) In search of the ‘Great Horse’: A zooarchaeological assessment of horses from England (AD 300- 1650), International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, DOI:10.1002/oa.3038.
• Doherty SP, Foster A, Best J, Hamilton‐Dyer S, Morris J, Sadler P, Skelton C, Smallman R, Woldekiros H, Thomas R. (2021) Estimating the age of domestic fowl (Gallus gallus domesticus L. 1758) cockerels through spur development, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, volume 31, no. 5, pages 770-781, DOI:10.1002/oa.2988. [PDF]

2020

• Vahdati Nasab H, Nikzad M, Jayez M, Hashemi M, Knapp Z, Sykes N, Zareh Khalili M, Ilkhani Moghaddam H, Bakhtiari Nasab F, Olszewski DI. (2020) Komishan Cave: A Mesolithic and Later Settlement on the Southeastern Shore of the Caspian Sea, Iran, Ancient Near Eastern Studies, volume 57, pages 97-125, DOI:10.2143/ANES.57.0.3288614.
• Sykes N. (2020) Hunting and Hunting Landscapes, Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, Springer Nature, 5430-5448, DOI:10.1007/978-3-030-30018-0_2119.
• Pigière F, Henrard D, Sykes N, Suarez-Gonzalez N, Sonet G. (2020) The introduction of the European fallow deer to the northern provinces of the Roman Empire: A multi-proxy approach to the Herstal skeleton (Belgium), Antiquity, volume 94, no. 378, pages 1501-1519, DOI:10.15184/aqy.2020.207.
• Evin A, Lebrun R, Durocher M, Ameen C, Larson G, Sykes N. (2020) Building three-dimensional models before destructive sampling of bioarchaeological remains: a comment to Pálsdóttir et al. (2019), R Soc Open Sci, volume 7, no. 3, DOI:10.1098/rsos.192034. [PDF]
• Sykes N, Beirne P, Horowitz A, Jones I, Kalof L, Karlsson E, King T, Litwak H, McDonald RA, Murphy LJ. (2020) Humanity's Best Friend: A Dog-Centric Approach to Addressing Global Challenges, Animals (Basel), volume 10, no. 3, DOI:10.3390/ani10030502. [PDF]

2019

• Sykes N, Spriggs M, Evin A. (2019) Beyond curse or blessing: the opportunities and challenges of aDNA analysis, World Archaeology, volume 51, no. 4, pages 503-516, DOI:10.1080/00438243.2019.1741970.
• Ward C, Baker K, Hall R, Hoelzel AR, Sykes N. (2019) In view and under foot: the hidden story of fallow deer, knuckle-bone floors and British estates, Post-Medieval Archaeology, volume 53, no. 2, pages 157-171, DOI:10.1080/00794236.2019.1654732.
• Woldekiros HS, D'Andrea AC, Thomas R, Foster A, Lebrasseur O, Miller H, Roberts J, Sykes N. (2019) Archaeological and biometric perspectives on the development of chicken landraces in the Horn of Africa, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, volume 29, no. 5, pages 728-735, DOI:10.1002/oa.2773.
• Fages A, Hanghøj K, Khan N, ...et al..., Sykes N, Outram AK, Librado P, Orlando L. (2019) Tracking Five Millennia of Horse Management with Extensive Ancient Genome Time Series, Cell, volume 177, DOI:10.1016/j.cell.2019.03.049. [PDF]
• Miller H, Chenery C, Lamb AL, Sloane H, Carden RF, Atici L, Sykes N. (2019) The relationship between the phosphate and structural carbonate fractionation of fallow deer bioapatite in tooth enamel, Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom, volume 33, no. 2, pages 151-164, DOI:10.1002/rcm.8324. [PDF]

2018

• Beglane F, Baker K, Carden RE, Hoelzel AR, Lamb AL, Fhionnghaile RM, Miller H, Sykes N. (2018) Ireland's fallow deer: their historical, archaeological and biomolecular records, PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY SECTION C-ARCHAEOLOGY CELTIC STUDIES HISTORY LINGUISTICS LITERATURE, volume 118, pages 141-165, DOI:10.3318/PRIAC.2018.118.01. [PDF]
• Irving-Pease EK, Frantz LAF, Sykes N, Callou C, Larson G. (2018) Rabbits and the Specious Origins of Domestication, Trends in Ecology & Evolution, volume 33, no. 3, pages 149-152, DOI:10.1016/j.tree.2017.12.009.
• Sykes N. (2018) Biogeography, The Encyclopedia of Archaeological Sciences, Wiley, 1-4, DOI:10.1002/9781119188230.saseas0062.
• Shaw J, Sykes N. (2018) New directions in the archaeology of medicine: deep-time approaches to human-animal-environmental care, World Archaeology, volume 50, no. 3, pages 365-383, DOI:10.1080/00438243.2018.1574393.
• Sykes N, Conneller C, Schofield J, Semple S, Spriggs M. (2018) Celebrating archaeology and the archaeology of celebrations, World Archaeology, volume 50, no. 2, pages 201-209, DOI:10.1080/00438243.2018.1530517.
• Thomas R, Sykes N, Doherty S, Smith D. (2018) Ring depressions in cattle horncores as indicators of traction use – a cautionary note, International Journal of Paleopathology, volume 22, pages 140-142, DOI:10.1016/j.ijpp.2018.07.002.
• Lauritsen M, Fowler T, Allen R, Alves JM, Ameen C, Irving-Pease E, Larson G, Murphy LJ, Outram AK, Pilgrim E. (2018) Celebrating Easter, Christmas and their associated alien fauna, World Archaeology, DOI:10.1080/00438243.2018.1515655. [PDF]

2017

• Colonese AC, Lucquin A, Guedes EP, Thomas R, Best J, Fothergill BT, Sykes N, Foster A, Miller H, Poole K. (2017) The identification of poultry processing in archaeological ceramic vessels using in-situ isotope references for organic residue analysis, Journal of Archaeological Science, volume 78, pages 179-192, DOI:10.1016/j.jas.2016.12.006.
• Baker KH, Gray HWI, Ramovs V, Mertzanidou D, Akın Pekşen Ç, Bilgin CC, Sykes N, Hoelzel AR. (2017) Strong population structure in a species manipulated by humans since the Neolithic: the European fallow deer (Dama dama dama), Heredity, volume 119, no. 1, pages 16-26, DOI:10.1038/hdy.2017.11.
• Perdikaris S, Bain A, Grouard S, Baker K, Gonzalez E, Hoelzel AR, Miller H, Persaud R, Sykes N. (2017) From Icon of Empire to National Emblem: New Evidence for the Fallow Deer of Barbuda, Environmental Archaeology, volume 23, no. 1, pages 47-55, DOI:10.1080/14614103.2017.1349027.
• Sykes N. (2017) Fair game: exploring the dynamics, perception and environmental impact of ‘surplus’ wild foods in England 10kya–present, World Archaeology, volume 49, no. 1, pages 61-72, DOI:10.1080/00438243.2016.1269666. [PDF]
• Loog L, Thomas MG, Barnett R, Allen R, Sykes N, Paxinos PD, Lebrasseur O, Dobney K, Peters J, Manica A. (2017) Inferring Allele Frequency Trajectories from Ancient DNA Indicates That Selection on a Chicken Gene Coincided with Changes in Medieval Husbandry Practices, Molecular Biology and Evolution, volume 34, no. 8, pages 1981-1990, DOI:10.1093/molbev/msx142. [PDF]

2016

• Jones R, Miller H, Sykes N. (2016) Is it time for an elemental and humoral (re)turn in archaeology?, Archaeological Dialogues, volume 23, no. 2, pages 175-192, DOI:10.1017/s1380203816000210.
• Miller H, Sykes N. (2016) Zootherapy in Archaeology: The Case of the Fallow Deer (Dama dama dama), Journal of Ethnobiology, volume 36, no. 2, pages 257-276, DOI:10.2993/0278-0771-36.2.257.
• Sykes N. (2016) Fiona Beglane . Anglo-Norman parks in medieval Ireland. 2015. xii+227 pages, 66 b&w illustrations. Dublin: Four Courts; 978-1-84682-569-9 hardback £50, Antiquity, volume 90, no. 349, pages 266-267, DOI:10.15184/aqy.2015.210.
• Valenzuela A, Baker K, Carden RF, Evans J, Higham T, Hoelzel AR, Lamb A, Madgwick R, Miller H, Alcover JA. (2016) Both introduced and extinct: The fallow deer of Roman Mallorca, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, volume 9, pages 168-177, DOI:10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.06.038. [PDF]
• Bowen F, Carden RF, Daujat J, Grouard S, Miller H, Perdikaris S, Sykes N. (2016) Dama Dentition: A New Tooth Eruption and Wear Method for Assessing the Age of Fallow Deer (Dama dama), International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, volume 26, no. 6, pages 1089-1098, DOI:10.1002/oa.2523. [PDF]
• Sykes N, Ayton G, Bowen F, Baker K, Baker P, Carden RF, Dicken C, Evans J, Hoelzel AR, Higham TFG. (2016) Wild to domestic and back again: the dynamics of fallow deer management in medieval England (c. 11th-16th century AD), Science and Technology of Archaeological Research, volume 2, no. 1, pages 113-126, DOI:10.1080/20548923.2016.1208027.

2015

• Sykes N. (2015) Worldviews in Transition: The Impact of Exotic Plants and Animals on Iron Age/Romano-British landscapes, Landscapes, volume 10, no. 2, pages 19-36, DOI:10.1179/lan.2009.10.2.19.
• Sykes N. (2015) Nerissa Russell. Social zooarchaeology: humans and animals in prehistory. xii+548 pages, 2 tables. 2012. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press; 978-0-521-76737-8 hardback $99 & £ 65; 978-0-521-14311-0 paperback $49 & £ 33, Antiquity, volume 87, no. 335, pages 285-286, DOI:10.1017/s0003598x0004881x.
• Sykes NJ, White J, Hayes TE, Palmer MR. (2015) Tracking animals using strontium isotopes in teeth: the role of fallow deer (Dama dama) in Roman Britain, Antiquity, volume 80, no. 310, pages 948-959, DOI:10.1017/s0003598x00094539. [PDF]
• Peters J, Lebrasseur O, Best J, Miller H, Fothergill T, Dobney K, Thomas RM, Maltby M, Sykes N, Hanotte O. (2015) Questioning new answers regarding Holocene chicken domestication in China, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, volume 112, no. 19, DOI:10.1073/pnas.1503579112. [PDF]

2014

• Sykes N. (2014) Hunting and Hunting Landscapes, Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, Springer Nature, 3592-3611, DOI:10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_2119.
• Miller H, Carden RF, Evans J, Lamb A, Madgwick R, Osborne D, Symmons R, Sykes N. (2014) Dead or alive? Investigating long-distance transport of live fallow deer and their body parts in antiquity, Environmental Archaeology, volume 21, no. 3, pages 246-259, DOI:10.1179/1749631414y.0000000043.
• Sykes N. (2014) The Rhetoric of Meat Apportionment: Evidence for Exclusion, Inclusion, and Social Position in Medieval England, Animals and Inequality in the Ancient World, University Press of Colorado, 353-374, DOI:10.5876/9781607322863.c017.
• Sykes N. (2014) Beastly Questions Animal Answers to Archaeological Issues, Bloomsbury Publishing.

2013

• Madgwick R, Sykes N, Miller H, Symmons R, Morris J, Lamb A. (2013) Fallow deer (Dama dama dama) management in Roman South-East Britain, Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, volume 5, no. 2, pages 111-122, DOI:10.1007/s12520-013-0120-0.
• Sykes N, Carden RF. (2013) Were Fallow Deer Spotted (OE *pohha/*pocca) in Anglo-Saxon England? Reviewing the Evidence for Dama dama dama in Early Medieval Europe, Medieval Archaeology, volume 55, no. 1, pages 139-162, DOI:10.1179/174581711x13103897378483.

2012

• Sykes N. (2012) A social perspective on the introduction of exotic animals: the case of the chicken, World Archaeology, volume 44, no. 1, pages 158-169, DOI:10.1080/00438243.2012.646104.

2011

• Sykes N, Carden RF, Harris K. (2011) Changes in the size and shape of fallow deer—evidence for the movement and management of a species, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, volume 23, no. 1, pages 55-68, DOI:10.1002/oa.1239.
• Sykes NJ, Baker KH, Carden RF, Higham TFG, Hoelzel AR, Stevens RE. (2011) New evidence for the establishment and management of the European fallow deer (Dama dama dama) in Roman Britain, Journal of Archaeological Science, volume 38, no. 1, pages 156-165, DOI:10.1016/j.jas.2010.08.024.

2010

• Sykes N. (2010) Deer, Land, Knives and Halls: Social Change in Early Medieval England, The Antiquaries Journal, volume 90, pages 175-193, DOI:10.1017/s0003581510000132.

2007

• Sykes N, Symmons R. (2007) Sexing cattle horn‐cores: problems and progress, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, volume 17, no. 5, pages 514-523, DOI:10.1002/oa.891.
• Sykes NJ. (2007) The Norman Conquest a zooarchaeological perspective, British Archaeological Reports Limited.

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