CV

Education

• 2013 Ph.D in Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, UCL.
• 2007 MSc in GIS and Spatial Analysis in Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, UCL.
• 2006 Laurea Magistrale in Storia Orientale, Dipartimento di Storia e Lingue Orientali, University of Bologna.

Employment

• Current - Associate Professor in Computational Analysis of Long-Term Human Cultural and Biological Dynamic, Department of Archaeology, Univesity of Cambridge
• 2016-2020 Lecturer in Computational Analysis of Long-Term Human Cultural and Biological Dynamic, Department of Archaeology, Univesity of Cambridge
• 2016 McDonald Anniversary Research Fellow, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Univesity of Cambridge
• 2014-2016 Research Fellow (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship, NiCoSS Project), Department of Humanities, Universitat Pompeu Fabra
• 2013-2014 Research Associate (EUROEVOL Project), Institute of Archaeology, UCL

Research Projects and Collaborations

• Current Projects
  • 2019-2024 Demography, Cultural change, and the Diffusion of Rice and Millet during the Jomon-Yayoi transition in prehistoric Japan (ENCOUNTER) Project, ERC Starter Grant (PI)
  • 2017-2021 Crops, pollinators and people: the long-term dynamics of a critical symbiosis (BuckBee) Project, Leverhulme Research Grant (Co-I, PI: Prof. Martin Jones)
  • 2021-2023 ArchBiMod – Agent-Based Modelling to assess the quality and bias of the archaeological record, Marie Sklodowska-Curie IF (Host Supervisor; PDRA: Dr. Alfredo Cortell-Nicolau)
  • 2023-2025 EHSCAN – Exploring Early Holocene Saharan Cultural Adaptation and Social Networks through socio-ecological Inferential Modelling, Marie Sklodowska-Curie/ UKRI IF (Host Supervisor; PDRA: Dr. Rocco Rotunno)
• Collaborations
  • LandCover6K (Archaeology/history-based LU, WP-LU8)
  • 2022-2024 GINI – The Global Dynamics of Inequality Project / “The Creation and Division of Wealth and the Long-term Consequences of Inequality: Views from Archaeology Project. National Science Foundation (Scott Ortman, PI; Amy Bogaard, co-PI; Tim Kohler, co-PI)

Teaching

• Courses Taught/Coordinated
  • A11/B5 From Data to Interpretation (Coordinator)
  • B12 Culture Evolves (Coordinator)
  • A2 Archaeology in Action (Guest Lecturer)
  • B1 Humans in Biological Perspective (Guest Lecturer)
  • B6 Major Topics in Human Evolutionary Studies (Guest Lecturer)
• Current PhD Students
  • Leah Brainerd (main supervisor)
  • Christiane-Marie Cantwell (advisor, main supervisor: Dr Alessandro Launaro)
  • Sergio Russo (advisor, main supervisor: Prof. Augusta MacMahon)
  • Alexes Mes (main supervisor)
  • Charles Simmons (main supervisor)
  • Finn Stileman (advisor, main supervisor: Dr. Alastair Key)
  • Andriana Xenaki (advisor, main supervisor: Dr Yannis Galanakis)
• Past PhD student
  • Helen Alderson (advisor,main supervisor: Dr Elizabeth DeMarrais)
  • Rachel Blevis (main supervisor)
  • Friederike Jürcke (advisor, main supervisor: Dr Cameron Petrie)
  • Marta Krzyzanska (main supervisor)
  • Joseph Lewis (main supervisor)
  • Mncedisi Siteleki (co-supervisor, main supervisor: Prof Per Ditlef Fredriksen)
  • Jasmine Vieri (advisor, main supervisor: Prof Marcos Martinon-Torres)
  • Benjamin J Utting (advisor, main supervisor: Dr Alaistair Key)

Selected Publications

(see here for full list, links, and downloads)

• Crema, E.R., Bloxam, A., Stevens, C., Vander Linden, M. (2024). Modelling diffusion of innovation curves using radiocarbon data. Journal of Archaeological Science, 165, 105962

• Crema, E. R., Stevens, C. J., & Shoda, S. (2022). Bayesian analyses of direct radiocarbon dates reveal geographic variations in the rate of rice farming dispersal in prehistoric Japan. Science Advances, 8(38), eadc9171.

• Crema, E.R., (2022). Statistical Inference of Prehistoric Demography from Frequency Distributions of Radiocarbon Dates: A Review and a Guide for the Perplexed. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-022-09559-5

• Crema, E.R., Bevan, A. (2021). Inference from large sets of radiocarbon dates: software and methods, Radiocarbon, 63, 23-39.

• Crema, E.R., Shoda, S., (2021). A Bayesian approach for fitting and comparing demographic growth models of radiocarbon dates: A case study on the Jomon-Yayoi transition in Kyushu (Japan), Plos One, 16(5): e0251695.

• Crema, E.R., Kobayashi, K., (2020). A multi-proxy inference of Jōmon population dynamics using bayesian phase models, residential data, and summed probability distribution of 14C dates. Journal of Archaeological Science, 117, 105136.

• Crema, E.R. (2018). Statistical Inference and Archaeological Simulations, The SAA Archaeological Record,18(2), 20-23.

• Crema, E.R., Bevan, A., Shennan, S.(2017). Spatio-temporal approaches to archaeological radiocarbon dates. Journal of Archaeological Science 87, 1-9

• Crema, E.R. ,Habu, J., Kobayashi, K., Madella, M. (2016). Summed Probability Distribution of 14C Dates Suggests Regional Divergences in the Population Dynamics of the Jomon Period in Eastern Japan. PloS ONE 11(4): e0154809

• Crema, E.R., Kandler, A., Shennan, S., (2016) Revealing patterns of cultural transmission from frequency data: equilibrium and non-equilibrium assumptions. Scientific Reports 6, 39122.

• Crema, E.R., Lake, M. (2015) Cultural Incubators and Spread of Innovation (2015), Human Biology, 87 (3), 151-168.

• Crema E.R. (2014). A simulation model of fission-fusion dynamics and long-term settlement change. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory , 21, 385-404.

• Crema, E.R. Kerig, T., Shennan, S. (2014). Culture, Space, and Metapopulation: a simulation-based study for evaluating signals of blending and branching in archaeology. Journal of Archaeological Science, 43, 289-298.

• Crema, E.R., (2012) Modelling temporal uncertainty in archaeological analysis. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory,19, 440-461.

• Eve, S., Crema, E.R. (2014). A House with a View? Multi-model inference, visibility fields, and point process analysis of a Bronze Age settlement on Leskernick Hill (Cornwall, UK). Journal of Archaeological Science, 43, 267-277.

• Shennan, S., Crema, E.R., Kerig, T. (2015). Isolation-by-distance, homophily, and “core” vs. “package” cultural evolution models in Neolithic Europe. Evolution and Human Behaviour. 36 (2), 103-109.

Editorial Work

• Associate Editor: Journal of Archaeological Science
• Series Editor: Cambridge Manuals in Archaeology
• Editorial Board Member:
  • Japanese Journal of Archaeology
  • Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
  • Journal of Open Archaeology Data
• Peer-Reviews for: American Antiquity, Antiquity; Anthropological and Archaeological Sciences; Current Anthropology; Environmental Archaeology; Frontiers in Digital Archaeology; Humanities and Social Sciences Communications; Journal of Anthropological Archaeology; Journal of Archaeological Science; Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports; Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory; Nature Communications; Nature: Scientific Reports; Open Quaternary; Papers of the Institute of Archaeology; PLOS ONE; PLOS Computational Biology; Proceedings of the Computer Applications in Archaeology Conference; Quaternary International; Radiocarbon, Theorethical Population Biology; Trends in Ecology & Evolution; World Archaeology; the National Science Foundation, and edited volumes for Ubiquity Press and Springer.