Profile

Biography

I am a geoarchaeologist with particular interest in the examination of human-environment interactions in prehistory. I obtained my undergraduate degree in Archaeology and Anthropology from the University of Cambridge in 2006, followed by an MSc in Geoarchaeology from the University of Reading in 2007. I returned to Cambridge for my PhD in 2008, where my research focused on the geoarchaeological analysis (primarily using soil micromorphology) of site formation processes during the Middle and Later Stone Age at the Haua Fteah, Libya, and the potential of these processes for inferring environmental controls on the occupation of Late Pleistocene North Africa.

I joined the Department of Archaeology at York in September 2011 as a Research Associate on the ERC-funded DISPERSE project, investigating the landscapes and environments utilised by hominin populations during their dispersals from East Africa into Saudi Arabia.

Research

Overview

My research interests centre on the interactions between human populations and their environment, particularly in the relationship between environmental change and the dispersal of hominin populations within, and out of, Africa. I have work most extensively in Mediterranean and semi-arid environments, utilising geoarchaeological techniques, both at a site and landscape scale to trace environmental change through archaeological site stratigraphies. I am particularly interested in exploring the relationships between the archives of environmental change which are contained within archaeological sites, and the changes in the surrounding landscape which would have been tangible to the populations who inhabited them.

Current projects

Dynamic Landscapes, Coastal Environments and Hominin Dispersals (DISPERSE) - University of York and the Institut de Physique du Globe, Paris

Cultural Transformations and Environmental Transitions in North African Prehistrory (TRANS-NAP) - University of Cambridge, Queen's University, Belfast and Birkbeck College, University of London

Adaptations to Marginal Environments in the Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa (AMEMSA) - Universities of Cambridge and Toronto

Publications

Full publications list

Stewart, B.A., G.I. Dewar, M.W. Morley, A. Parker, R.H. Inglis, M. Wheeler, Z. Jacobs and R.G. Roberts. (In Press) Afromontane foragers in late Pleistocene Lesotho: recent work at Melikane Rockshelter. Quaternary International. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2011.11.028

Inglis, R.H. (2011) Review of Land and People: Papers in Memory of John G. Evans. Archaeological Review from Cambridge 26(2).

Rambeau, C., B. Finlayson, S. Smith, S. Black, R. Inglis, and S. Robinson. (2011). Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction at Beidha, Southern Jordan (ca. 18,000-8,500 BP): Implications for human occupation during the Natufian and Pre-Pottery Neolithic in Mithen. S & E. Black (eds). Water, Life & Civilisation: Climate, Environment and Society in the Jordan Valley. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p245-268.

Barker, G., A. Antoniadou, S. Armitage, I. Brooks, I. Candy, K. Connell, N. Drake, L. Farr, E. Hill, C. Hunt, R. Inglis, S. Jones, C. Lane, G. Luccharini, J. Meneely, J. Morales, G. Mutri, A. Prendergast, R. Rabett, H. Reade, T. Reynolds, N. Russell, D. Simpson, B. Smith, C. Stimpson, M. Twati, and K. White. (2010) ‘The Cyrenaican Prehistory Project 2010: the fourth season of investigations of the Haua Fteah cave and its landscape, and further results from the 2007-2009 fieldwork’’. Libyan Studies 41: 63-88

Hunt, C, J. Davison, R. Inglis, L. Farr, T. Reynolds, D. Simpson, G. Barker and H. el-Rishi, (2010) Site formation processes in caves: the Holocene sediments of the Haua Fteah, Cyrenaica, Libya. Journal of Archaeological Science 37(7):1600-1611.

Barker, G., A. Antoniadou, H. Barton, I. Brooks, I. Candy, N. Drake, L. Farr, C. Hunt, A. A. Ibrahim, R. Inglis, S. Jones, J. Morales, I. Morley, G. Mutri, R. Rabett, T. Reynolds, D. Simpson, M. Twati & K. White (2009) The Cyrenaican Prehistory Project 2009: the third season of investigations of the Haua Fteah cave and its landscape, and further results from the 2007-2008 fieldwork. Libyan Studies 40: 55-94.

Inglis, R.H. & A. J. E. Pryor (eds), (2009) ‘Beyond Determinism? Engagement and Response in Human-Environment Interactions’. Archaeological Review from Cambridge 24(2).

Barker, G, L. Basell, I. Brooks, C. Cartwright, F. Cole, J. Davison, L. Farr, R. Grün, R. Hamilton, C. Hunt, R. Inglis, Z. Jacobs, T. Legge, V. Leitch, J. Morales, I. Morley, M. Morley, S. Pawley, A. Pryor, R. Roberts, T. Reynolds, H. el-Rishi, D. Simpson, M. Twati & M. van der Veen (2008) ‘The Cyrenaican Prehistory Project 2008: the second season of investigations of the Haua Fteah cave and its landscape, and further results from the initial 2007 fieldwork.’ Libyan Studies 39:175-223.

Inglis, R (2008) Review of Carlos Cordova, Millennial Landscape Change in Jordan: Geoarchaeology & Cultural Ecology. Archaeological Review from Cambridge 23(1): 173-175.

External activities

Memberships

Society for Libyan Studies

Quaternary Research Association

Society for Africanist Archaeologists

Council for British Research in the Levant

Invited talks and conferences

Invited Talks

Inglis, R. H. (2012) 80,000 years of dust? Site formation and environmental change during the MSA and LSA at the Haua Fteah, Libya. Palaeolithic and Quaternary Seminar Series, Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford. February 2012.

Inglis, R. H. (2011) Scales of Environmental Reconstruction in Rockshelters: The Middle-Upper Palaeolithic at the Haua Fteah, Libya. Palaeolithic-Mesolithic Discussion Group, University of Cambridge. May 2011.

Recent Conference Presentations

Inglis, R. H., C. French, C. Hunt, T. Reynolds, and G. Barker (2011) Occupation, Changing Environments and Rockshelter Site Formation Processes in Middle to Upper Palaeolithic Libya: A Micromorphological Perspective from the Haua Fteah, Cyrenaica. INQUA 2011, Bern, Switzerland. July 2011.

Inglis, R. H., C. French, C. Hunt, T. Reynolds, and G. Barker (2010) Site Formation Processes, Occupation and Changing Environments in Middle to Upper Palaeolithic Libya: A Micromorphological Perspective from the Haua Fteah, Cyrenaica. SAfA/PanAfrican Congress. Dakar, Senegal. November 2010.

Inglis, R. H., K. Connell, C. Hunt, T. Reynolds, L. Farr, S. Jones and G. Barker (2010) Cultural Transformations and Environmental Transitions in North African Prehistory: 200,000 Years of Occupation and Environment in Northern Libya. African Studies of the United Kingdom Biennial Conference, University of Oxford. September 2010.

Inglis. R.H. (2010) Site Formation and Changing Environments at the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic Transition: Soil Micromorphology at the Haua Fteah, Libya. International Working Meeting for Soil Micromorphology, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. May 2010.