Kristen Wroth

Areas of Interest

Paleoethnobotany; The Middle Paleolithic in France; Phytoliths; Paleoenvironmental reconstruction; Micromorphology

Research Interests & Fieldwork

I am studying the intersection between environmental change and hominin behavioral adaptation during the Middle Paleolithic in southwestern France. My research focuses on the use of phytoliths as markers of both past vegetation communities and specific types of Neanderthal behaviors (e.g. fire use), and on the contextualization of phytolith assemblages through micromorphological analysis of the sediments into which they have become incorporated.

Projects

Old Stone Age Project at La Ferrassie, Dordogne, France

Sangro Valley Project, Abruzzo, Italy

San Vincenzo-Stromboli Archaeological Project, Sicily, Italy

Dickinson Excavation Project and Archaeological Survey, Mycenae, Greece

Publications

Wroth, Kristen N., Dan Cabanes, John M. Marston, Vera Aldeias, Dennis Sandgathe, Alain Turq, Paul Goldberg, and Harold L. Dibble. Neanderthal plant use and pyrotechnology: phytolith analysis from Roc de Marsal, France. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences online before print. Link.

Technical Reports

Turq, A., Harold L. Dibble, Laurent Bruxelles, Norbert Mercier, Laurent Chiotti, Guillaume Guérin, Marine Frouin, Paul Goldberg, Jean-Jacques Hublin, Virginie Sinet-Matiot, Shannon P.  MacPherron, B. Maureille, Teresa. E. Steele, Dennis Sandathe, Stéphane Madelaine, Sarah Talamo, Vera Aldeias, Matthew Magnani, Christelle Lahaye, Kristen N. Wroth, Kate Britton. 2013. Annual Government Report of La Ferrassie.

Conference Presentations

“Using Nutritional Ecology and Energetic Modeling to Reexamine the Role of Plants in Neanderthal Diet in Southwest France” (with Anna Goldfield) Paper presented at the 40th Annual Meeting of the Society of Ethnobiology, 2017.

“Micromorphology and Phytolith Analysis at Roc de Marsal, Southwest France” (with Dan Cabanes, Paul Goldberg, Dennis Sandgathe, and Vera Aldeias) Poster presented at the 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2015.

“A Microarchaeological Reconstruction of Neanderthal Behavioral Complexity at Roc de Marsal, SW France” (with D. Cabanes, P. Goldberg, D. Sandgathe, and V. Aldeias) Poster presented at 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2015.