Dr. Hannah James

I am an FWO Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow working on the ROAST project; the "Reconstruction Of Archaeological diets using STrontium isotopes". Using strontium isotopes and concentrations measurements on archaeological and experimental material, alongside dietary modelling, I am constructing a novel method to understand dietary components. My research has always focused on applying isotope geochemistry to answer a range of archaeological questions. In particular, I have focused on applying isotopic analysis to cremated remains and establishing baseline measurements of biologically available strontium across Europe to allow for studies in human mobility.

EDUCATION

•  Postdoctoral researcher on ERC LUMIERE – 2021-2024
•  Post-doctoral researcher – School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University – 2020-2021
•  PhD -Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University - 2021 
•  Masters of Archaeological Science – Australian National University - 2014
•  Bachelor of Arts (Biological Anthropology) – Australian National University - 2012
•  Bachelor of Science (Biology) – Australian National University – 2012

KEYWORDS

• Archaeological science

• Isotope analysis

• Isoscapes

• Dietary reconstruction

• GIS

MAIN PUBLICATIONS

• Stantis, C., Willmes, M., Le Corre, M., James, H.F., Kafino, C., Verostick, K.A., Paris, E.H., Bank, J., Bowen, G.J., Salesse, K. and Bataille, C.P., 2026. Global compilation of bioavailable strontium isotope data. Scientific Data.

• James, H.F., Willmes, M., Fabre, M., Courtaud, P., Rey, K., Balasse, M., Grün, R. and Snoeck, C., 2025. Environmental sampling to capture bioavailable strontium isotope distributions on Corsica. Applied Geochemistry, p.106511.

• Legrand, E.M., Martens, M., Cheung, C., Veselka, B., Debruyne, T., De Mulder, G., Goderis, S., Dalle, S., Snoeck, C. and James, H.F., 2025. Rethinking strontium variability beyond mobility: Strontium isotope and concentration analysis of cremated remains from Tienen (Gallo-Roman Belgium, 1-4th c. AD). Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 67, p.105371.

• Griffith, J.I., James, H.F., Ordoño, J., Fernández-Crespo, T., Gerritzen, C.T., Cheung, C., Spros, R., Claeys, P., Goderis, S., Veselka, B. and Snoeck, C., 2025. Reconstructing prehistoric lifeways using multi-Isotope analyses of human enamel, dentine, and bone from Legaire Sur, Spain. PLoS One, 20(1), p.e0316387.

• James, H., Karligkioti, A., Cornelissen, Y., Veselka, B., De Mulder, G. and Snoeck, C., 2025. Mobility patterns, dietary shifts and chronology: strontium and radiocarbon insights from calcined bones at Ursel-Rozestraat (prov. of East-Flanders, Belgium). Lunula. Archaeologia protohistorica, 33, pp.123-130.

• Gerritzen, C.T., Goderis, S., James, H.F. and Snoeck, C., 2024. Optimizing Zr-doped MC-ICP-MS sample-standard bracketing to simultaneously determine 87Sr/86Sr and δ88Sr for high sample-throughput. Spectrochimica Acta Part B: Atomic Spectroscopy, 217, p.106955.

• James, H.F., Adams, S., Willmes, M., Mathison, K., Ulrichsen, A., Wood, R., Valera, A.C., Frieman, C.J. and Grün, R., 2022. A large-scale environmental strontium isotope baseline map of Portugal for archaeological and paleoecological provenance studies. Journal of Archaeological Science, 142, p.105595