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Details for Professor Richard Harrison

Personal details
Name Professor Richard Harrison
Job title Emeritus Professor
Department Department of Anthropology and Archaeology University of Bristol
Contact details This expert can be contacted via the University of Bristol Public Relations Office.

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work+44 (0)117 331 8092
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Qualifications M.A.(Cantab.), Ph.D.(Harvard), F.S.A., PhD
Professional details
Keywords European prehistory
Bell Beakers
Bronze Age
pastoralism
Palaeo-economics
Horse-Raising
Areas of expertise I study later European Prehistory, especially that of Spain, Portugal and western and central Europe, and began with an enthusiasm for Bell Beaker problems. I am especially interested in the links between the Mediterranean and Atlantic worlds, but I am still fascinated by Beaker matters.

For many years my research has centred on field projects and excavations designed to obtain first-class data to model palaeo-economic changes and patterns of intensification in the Copper and Bronze Ages of Spain and Portugal. This work established the dynamism and local autonomy of societies with a low population density and shows unexpected routes to stability, through specialised horse breeding, for hunting, and secondary products exploitation.
Further projects will explore other aspects of prehistoric society, using the aDNA preserved in ancient skeletons to determine patterns of kinship, immigration and residence.