Mission & Scope
The SNU Archaeological Science Labs are devoted to the study of human interactions with past environments. There are multiple spaces focusing on the analysis of different materials: the Archaeobotany Lab, the Zooarchaeology Lab, the Archaeometry Lab, the Archaeological Materials Lab, the Palaeolithic Materials lab, and the wet chemistry lab. In this webspace the work of the Archaeobotany and wet chemistry lab are focused on though we hope to expand to include tabs for the other labs as we build the webspace.
The Archaeobotany and Wet Chemistry labs are looking at the analysis of archaeological plant remains from around the world, spanning the Palaeolithic to recent historic periods. The labs were renovated and reopened in March 2022, and are under the direction of Assoc. Professor Jennifer Bates.
The spaces are excellently equipped for the analysis of plant remains (seeds, wood charcoal, phytoliths, starch grains, and pollen). The wet chemistry facilities allow for the extraction of phytoliths, diatoms and other microfossils, and for the preparation of geochemistry samples.
With our extensive range of microscopes and equipment we are able to support the analysis of other archaeological and historic materials using transmitted, reflected, high powered Keyence microscopy and (coming soon) SEM.
The labs house comparative collections of seeds, wood, charcoal, phytoliths and pollen, with a specific foci in South Asia and East Asia and a baseline for basic analysis worldwide. Our projects are predominantly in South and East Asia but we welcome anyone working in other areas to join us in collaborations.
Projects
Most Recent Publications by Lab Members
Bates, J., 2025. The origins of agriculture in the Bronze Age Indus civilization. Cambridge University Press, New York, NY.
Bates, J., 2025. What’s in a name? The messy taxonomy of Oryza sp. and how it has impacted our archaeobotanical modelling of rice domestication. Quaternary Environments and Humans 3, 100080. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.qeh.2025.100080
Bates, J., Morrison, K.D., Madella, M., Hill, A.C., Whitehouse, N.J., Abro, T., Ajithprasad, P., Anupama, K., Casile, A., Chandio, A., Chatterjee, S., Gangopadhyay, K., Hammer, E., Haricharan, S., Hazarika, M., Korisettar, R., Kumar, A., Lancelotti, C., Pappu, S., Parque, O., Petrie, C.A., Premathilake, R., Selvakumar, V., Sen, S., Spate, M., Trivedi, M., Veesar, G.M., Vinayak, V., 2025. Early to Mid-Holocene land use transitions in South Asia: A new archaeological synthesis of potential human impacts. PLOS ONE 20, e0313409. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0313409
Bates, J., Singh, V.K., Singh, R.N., Singh, M., Mohan, B., Chakradhari, S., Conte, M., Gankhuyag, O., James, N., Jollu, R., Konar, S., Kumar, S., Pandey, A.K., Pangyu, K., Singh, A.P., Singh, A., Singh, S.K., Singh, U., 2025. Hoofprints in the yard: The discovery of bovid, caprid and (large) feline/canid tracks in an external courtyard from the early Iron Age of Tokwa, India. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 66, 105327. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2025.105327
Key, A., Clark, J., Lauer, T., Bates, J., Sier, M.-J., Nichols, C., Martín-Ramos, C., Cebeiro, A., Williams, E., Kim, S., Stileman, F., Mika, A., Pope, M., Bridgland, D., Redhouse, D., Leonardi, M., Smith, G.M., Proffitt, T., 2025. Hominin glacial-stage occupation 712,000 to 424,000 years ago at Fordwich Pit, Old Park (Canterbury, UK). Nature Ecol Evol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02829-x
Riris, P., Silva, F., Crema, E., Palmisano, A., Robinson, E., Siegel, P.E., French, J.C., Jørgensen, E.K., Maezumi, S.Y., Solheim, S., Bates, J., Davies, B., Oh, Y., Ren, X., 2024. Frequent disturbances enhanced the resilience of past human populations. Nature 629, 837–842. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07354-8
Events, Outreach & Social Media
Prof. Bates's awarded Excellence Prize in Career Support Program Idea Contest for International STEM Researchers, by Korea Institute for Science and Technology Human Resources Development, KIRD. https://www.kird.re.kr/notificationSpace/notice/ce02a609-6818-4376-b1f0-38850b4f4a72
IWGP Groningen - July 2025
https://archaeobotany.org/iwgp2025/
IMPR Barcelona - July 2025
https://impr2025.imf.csic.es/
Joint Conference of IAS, ISPQS, HCS, Raipur - March 2025
https://www.manandenvironment.org/upcoming-conference.html
World Neolithic Congress - November 2024
https://www.worldneolithiccongress.org/
Domestication Earth workshop - September 2024
https://www.gea.mpg.de/100923/domesticating-earth-the-beginnings-of-agriculture-revisited
EASAA Leipzig - September 2024 http://easaa.org/conferences/leipzig-2024/
SAA New Orleans - April 2024 https://www.saa.org/annual-meeting
Fieldwork Photos:
Tokwa 2023-2024
SNU Archaeological Labs 