Niklas Hausmann

Biography

I started studying archaeology at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität (CAU) Kiel, Germany, where I did my BSc in Prehistoric and Historic Archaeology as well as Geosciences in 2011. My research there was mainly focused on Neolithic sites in Germany and Jordan. However, I wrote my thesis about the mesolithic hunter-gatherer site Satrup LA 2 which involved analysing Kongemosian and Ertebølle lithic technology as well as a diversified faunal assemblage.

This led me to the University of York. Here I completed an MA in Mesolithic Studies. My dissertation focused on the intense lithic analysis of the late Boreal site Duvensee 13 and spatial variations of different production processes on site. After finishing my MA, I became part of the DISPERSE project under Geoff Bailey, in which I plan to write my PhD in the next few years.

Apart from this I have gained experience in excavating on various sites in and outside of Europe. I had also the chance to be taught to perform extensive geophysical surveys using geomagnetics, seismics, georadar, resistivity, and gravitational surveys.

Research

My PhD is part of the DISPERSE Project under Geoff Bailey. We work together with Saudi colleagues on the archipelago Farasan Islands in the southern Red Sea. These islands are about 40 km off the Saudi Arabian coastline and are the location of over 3000 shell middens that date into the earliest Neolithic period in that area. My research is focused on the isotopic composition of the most prominent shells within these shell middens. In the past excavation seasons we were able to properly excavate about 20 sites and survey more than 1000 all around the islands. Using the Strombus fasciatus shell, I hope to gain an environmental proxy for sea surface temperature (SST) and general humidity. The seasonal change in SST can tell us a lot about when people gathered shells and what kind of strategies (if any) were behind the construction of the shell mounds. With the abundance of Strombus f. shells, there is an incredible high density of samples per layer and we can get a very close look on early neolithic coastal exploitation in times when not all of Saudi Arabia might have been a desert.

Research Interests

Shell Middens

Quaternary Geology and Geoarchaeology

Climate Change

Mesolithic of Northern Europe

Lithic Industries

Early Neolithic of Southwest Asia

Coastal Exploitation