Contact info
I have a joint appointment in Geography and Anthropology and direct the Quaternary Isotope Paleoecology Lab. My research is focused on human adaptation and resilience to climate change and natural resource unpredictability in prehistory, and how our understanding of past human response to environmental change informs current thinking about these issues. I combine archaeology and biogeochemistry to investigate changes in diet, mobility, and settlement systems in the period spanning the end of the last ice age to the arrival of farming.
My other research interests include the initial domestication of livestock, diffusion of domesticates across Eurasia, the transition from hunting to herding, seasonality and human mobility, multispecies archaeology, and advancing methodologies in zooarchaeology and stable isotope analysis. I am an active advocate of open access publishing and online data and research sharing. I co-founded and moderate the blog TrowelBlazers, which highlights women in the fields of archaeology, paleontology, and geology. I am also an editor-in-chief of the open access journal for Quaternary science, Open Quaternary.
Education
- Ph. D. (2012), University of Cambridge, Archaeology
- M. Phil. (2009), University of Cambridge, Archaeological Science
- B. Sc. (2008), Rutgers University, Evolutionary Anthropology and Paleoecology
Of Note
Senior Teaching Fellowship, Center for Teaching and Learning, UGA, 2025-2026
Administrative Fellow in Inclusive Excellence, Franklin College UGA, 2024-2026
M.G. Michael Award, UGA, 2023
Willson Center Fellowship, UGA 2021
Active Learning Summer Institute, UGA 2019
Southeastern Conference Faculty Travel Award, UGA 2017-2018
Faculty Leadership Institute Fellow, UGA 2017
President’s Venture Fund, UGA 2015
Sarah H. Moss Fellowship, Center for Teaching and Learning, UGA 2015
Lilly Teaching Fellowship, Center for Teaching and Learning, UGA 2015-2016
Online Learning Fellow, Franklin College, UGA 2014
Course Instruction
Research
Pilaar Birch, S.E., Metzger, M., Ridder, E., Falconer, S., and P. Fall. Domestic herbivore mobility and herd management at Bronze Age Politiko-Troullia, Cyprus. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. DOI:10.1007/s12520-025-02226-2. OA
Pilaar Birch, S.E., Metzger, M., Ridder, E., Porson, S. Falconer, S.E., and P.L. Fall. Herd management and subsistence practices as inferred from isotopic analysis of animals and plants at Bronze Age Politiko-Troullia, Cyprus. PLOS ONE DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0275757
Pilaar Birch, S.E. and Szpak, P. 2022. “Current Developments and Future Directions in Archaeological Science” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119 (43) e2212490119. DOI: 10.1073/PNAS.2212490119
Pilaar Birch, S.E., Boz, B., and B. Erdoğu. 2021. “Isotope paleodietary analysis of humans from Chalcolithic Uğurlu, Gökçeada Island, Turkey” Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 39: 103136 DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.103136
Pilaar Birch, S.E., Atici, L., and Erdoğu, B. 2019. “Spread of domestic animals across Neolithic Western Anatolia and into Southeast Europe: New stable isotope evidence from Uğurlu Höyük, Gökçeada, Turkey” PLOS ONE. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0222319
Pilaar Birch, S.E., Scheu, A., Buckley M. and C. Çakırlar. 2018. “Combined osteomorphological, isotopic, aDNA and ZooMS analyses of sheep and goat remains from Neolithic Ulucak, Turkey” Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. DOI: 10.1007/s12520-018-0624-8
Pilaar Birch, S.E. 2018. “Seasonal mobility and multispecies interactions in the Mesolithic northeastern Adriatic.” in S.E. Pilaar Birch (ed.), Multispecies Archaeology. Archaeological Orientations Series. London: Routledge.
Pilaar Birch, S.E. and Vander Linden, M. 2017. “A long hard road... Reviewing the evidence for environmental change and population history in the eastern Adriatic and western Balkans during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene.” Quaternary International. DOI:10.1016/j.quaint.2016.12.035
Pilaar Birch, S.E. 2017. “From the Aegean to the Adriatic: Exploring the Earliest Neolithic Island Fauna” Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology.
Pilaar Birch, S.E. & P.T. Miracle. 2017 “Human response to climate change in the Northern Adriatic during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene” G. Monks (ed.), Climate Change and Human Responses: A Zooarchaeological Perspective. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology Series. New York: Springer.
Pilaar Birch, S.E. 2017. “Neolithic subsistence at Vela Špilja on the island of Lošinj, Croatia” D. Serjeantson, P. Rowley-Conwy and P. Halstead (eds.), Economic Zooarchaeology: Studies in Hunting, Herding and Early Agriculture. Oxford: Oxbow. Chapter 30.
Pilaar Birch, S.E., Miracle, P.T., Stevens, R.E. & T.C. O’Connell. 2016.“Reconstructing late Pleistocene/early Holocene migratory behavior of ungulates using stable isotopes and its effects on forager mobility” PLOS ONE 11(6): e0155714. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0155714.
Pilaar Birch, S.E. 2015. “Diversity and demographics of zooarchaeologists: Results from a digital survey” Ethnobiology Letters 6(2): 59-67.
Pilaar Birch, S.E. and R.W. Graham. 2015. “A stable isotope data repository as part of Neotoma, a paleoecological database” BioScience 65(10): 953. DOI: 10.1093/biosci/biv133
Pilaar Birch, S.E. & P.T. Miracle. 2015. “Subsistence continuity, change, and environmental adaptation at the site of Nugljanska, Istria, Croatia” Environmental Archaeology 20(1):30-40.
Pilaar Birch, S.E. 2013. “Using social media for research dissemination: The Digital Research Video Project” Internet Archaeology 35.
Pilaar Birch, S.E. 2013. “Stable isotopes in zooarchaeology” Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 5: 81-83.
