Skip to main content
Home
Department Of Physics text logo
  • Research
    • Our research
    • Our research groups
    • Our research in action
    • Research funding support
    • Summer internships for undergraduates
  • Study
    • Undergraduates
    • Postgraduates
  • Engage
    • For alumni
    • For business
    • For schools
    • For the public
Menu
Atomic and Laser Physics
Credit: Jack Hobhouse

Prof Christopher Ramsey

Professor of Archaeological Science

Research theme

  • Accelerator physics
  • Climate physics
  • Instrumentation

Sub department

  • Atomic and Laser Physics
christopher.ramsey@physics.ox.ac.uk
Telephone: 01865285215
School of Archaeology
  • About
  • Publications

Feeding Medieval England. A Long ‘Agricultural Revolution’, 700–1300

Oxford University Press, 2025

Authors:

Mark MCKERRACHER, Helena HAMEROW, Amy BOGAARD, Mike Charles, Emily FORSTER, Matilda Holmes, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Elizabeth STROUD, Richard Thomas

Abstract:

The population of England grew steeply in the Middle Ages, especially between the tenth and thirteenth centuries. This volume investigates how medieval farmers managed to produce the large harvests needed to sustain this growth, growth that in turn fuelled a major expansion of towns and markets. New evidence is presented for the development of the medieval farming regimes that shaped the English landscape in ways still visible today. Medieval farming is a contentious topic, not least because of the different approaches taken by historians, archaeologists and geographers and no consensus has been reached about the cultivation regimes that underpinned medieval cereal production. This volume presents a new perspective on this question, based on the results of a project that analysed the remains of medieval crops, arable weeds, livestock and pollen from hundreds of excavations. The new evidence that this generated reveals the conditions in which medieval crops were grown and how land use changed between the late Roman period and the Black Death. The authors relate the results to archaeological and written evidence for farms and farming, bringing an ecological perspective to the debate about the so-called medieval 'agricultural revolution'. The 'cerealisation' of England emerges as a regionally varied process lasting several centuries, whose overall impact was nevertheless revolutionary.

ISODATE – software for stable isotope dendrochronology

Dendrochronologia Elsevier 93 (2025) 126385

Authors:

Darren Davies, Neil Loader, Danny McCarroll, Daniel Miles, Christopher Bronk Ramsey

Abstract:

ISODATE is a complete dating package for stable oxygen isotope dendrochronology that offers a user-friendly workspace for processing, crossmatching and precisely dating stable isotope chronologies. ISODATE provides the first standardisation of approach for isotope laboratories and the heritage sector for dating and the reporting of dates. The software produces downloadable figures and CSV files containing series alignments and statistical results. The application is freely and publicly available online (isodate.swansea.ac.uk). A manual and guided example accompanies the software. It is hoped that community-led refinements and additional reference chronologies will be added to ISODATE as the technique develops and is adopted more widely.
More details from the publisher
Details from ORA
More details

Localised land-use and maize agriculture by the pre-Columbian Casarabe Culture in Lowland Bolivia

The Holocene SAGE Publications (2025)

Authors:

Joseph Hirst, Marco Raczka, Umberto Lombardo, Ezequiel Chavez, Lorena Becerra-Valdivia, McKenzie Bentley, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Miros Stavros James Charidemou, Suzanne Maclachlan, Francis E Mayle

Abstract:

<jats:p> Multiple pre-Columbian (pre-1492 CE) archaeological sites now challenge the traditional portrayal of Amazonia as a ‘pristine wilderness’. This is especially true within the forest-savanna mosaic landscapes of lowland Bolivia, where the pre-Columbian Casarabe Culture constructed hundreds of settlement mounds, integrated with a dense causeway-canal network – one of the most complex, stratified societies yet discovered in Amazonia. Excavations at previous sites indicate that this culture sustained itself by practicing large-scale, maize-based agriculture. However, the Casarabe Culture’s mounds have also been found within the riparian forests abutting major river systems, where their inhabitants could have benefitted from greater access to forest resources and local fish species. To determine whether these differences influenced how the Casarabe Culture utilised the landscape, we conducted palaeoecological analysis on the sediments collected from <jats:italic>Laguna Loma Suarez</jats:italic> (LLS), an oxbow lake situated adjacent to a monumental habitation mound within these riparian forests. Our analysis reveals that, despite significant differences in natural resource availability, the Casarabe Culture continued to cultivate maize locally around LLS for over a millennium, between 280 BCE and 1130 CE, with anthropogenic fires largely restricted to the open savannas. Our record also suggests that the Casarabe Culture possibly delayed either forest recovery or natural forest encroachment until after the nearby settlement mound was abandoned. These findings, when compared with those of other sites in the region, show that maize was an important crop in pre-Columbian times, irrespective of major differences in natural resource availability across the complex forest-savanna mosaic settings of Amazonian Bolivia. </jats:p>
More details from the publisher
More details

Landscape evolution of the Bolivian Amazon controlled by uplift events dated 13,000, 10,000 and 6000 cal yr BP

Quaternary Science Reviews Elsevier 352 (2025) 109197

Authors:

U Lombardo, L Becerra-Valdivia, Ga Butiseacă, C Bronk Ramsey, J Ibañez-Insa, H Veit, F Mayle

Abstract:

The Llanos de Moxos in the Bolivian Amazon, the second largest South American wetland, hosts many endemic species and a rich archaeological record that spans the entire Holocene. Despite its ecological and archaeological importance, very little is known about its Holocene environmental history. A growing body of evidence suggests that neotectonics played an important role in shaping its modern landscape and controlling past flooding dynamics, but the chronology and vertical displacements of past tectonic events are still largely unknown. Here, we present new data from a core taken at Lake Oceano, a large ria lake in the northern part of the Llanos de Moxos. To identify changes in the lithology and environment, we performed a battery of analyses, such as XRF scanning, mineralogy, granulometry, C/N and C and N stable isotopes, and also built an age-depth model using eighteen radiocarbon dates obtained from accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) determinations. Based on the sedimentology and chemical analyses, we identified three major disturbances in the lake sedimentation that we interpret as positive tectonic events (i.e., tectonic uplifts). The first identified event occurred at approximately 13,400 cal yr BP and led to the formation of the lake by blocking the river course. A second uplift event took place around 10,000 cal yr BP, accompanied by a significant change in the geochemistry of the lake sediments. Furthermore, we have verified a third event at 6000 cal yr BP, previously recognized as responsible for the onset of Lake Rogaguado (aprox. 100 km NE of Lake Oceano), one of the largest lakes in South America. Overall, we show that ria lakes can provide key sedimentary archives to reconstruct the past timing and intensity of tectonic events. We discuss the interplay between tectonics and climate, highlighting the connection between tectonics and the region's flood history, with crucial implications for the interpretation of both archaeological and palaeoecological records throughout the Holocene.
More details from the publisher
More details

Maize monoculture supported pre-Columbian urbanism in southwestern Amazonia

Nature Nature Research 639:8053 (2025) 119-123

Authors:

Umberto Lombardo, Lautaro Hilbert, McKenzie Bentley, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Kate Dudgeon, Albert Gaitan-Roca, José Iriarte, Andrés G Mejía Ramón, Sergio Quezada, Marco Raczka, Jennifer G Watling, Eduardo Neves, Frank Mayle

Abstract:

The Casarabe culture (500–1400 ce), spreading over roughly 4,500 km2 of the monumental mounds region of the Llanos de Moxos, Bolivia, is one of the clearest examples of urbanism in pre-Columbian (pre-1492 ce) Amazonia. It exhibits a four-tier hierarchical settlement pattern, with hundreds of monumental mounds interconnected by canals and causeways. Despite archaeological evidence indicating that maize was cultivated by this society, it is unknown whether it was the staple crop and which type of agricultural farming system was used to support this urban-scale society. Here, we address this issue by integration of remote sensing, field survey and microbotanical analyses, which shows that the Casarabe culture invested heavily in landscape engineering, constructing a complex system of drainage canals (to drain excess water during the rainy season) and newly documented savannah farm ponds (to retain water in the dry season). Phytolith analyses of 178 samples from 18 soil profiles in drained fields, farm ponds and forested settings record the singular and ubiquitous presence of maize (Zea mays) in pre-Columbian fields and farm ponds, and an absence of evidence for agricultural practices in the forest. Collectively, our findings show how the Casarabe culture managed the savannah landscape for intensive year-round maize monoculture that probably sustained its relatively large population. Our results have implications for how we conceive agricultural systems in Amazonia, and show an example of a Neolithic-like, grain-based agrarian economy in the Amazon.
More details from the publisher
Details from ORA
More details
More details

Pagination

  • Current page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • Page 4
  • Page 5
  • Page 6
  • Page 7
  • Page 8
  • Page 9
  • …
  • Next page Next
  • Last page Last

Footer Menu

  • Contact us
  • Giving to the Dept of Physics
  • Work with us
  • Media

User account menu

  • Log in

Follow us

FIND US

Clarendon Laboratory,

Parks Road,

Oxford,

OX1 3PU

CONTACT US

Tel: +44(0)1865272200

University of Oxfrod logo Department Of Physics text logo
IOP Juno Champion logo Athena Swan Silver Award logo

© University of Oxford - Department of Physics

Cookies | Privacy policy | Accessibility statement

Built by: Versantus

  • Home
  • Research
  • Study
  • Engage
  • Our people
  • News & Comment
  • Events
  • Our facilities & services
  • About us
  • Current students
  • Staff intranet