Andrea Kay is an archaeologist focusing on human-environment interaction in Africa. For her doctoral thesis she worked on Iron Age of sub-Saharan Africa, researching the changes in subsistence strategies and land use from 1800 BC to AD 1500. This work included the review of archaeological and other literature relating to the way people lived and used the land around them. Different land uses were found to have had different effects on the local environment, e.g. cutting down or burning a patch of forest to plant a field of crops. By mapping these changes in land use through time and space, and the incorporation of that information in to models of human-environment interaction, a better understanding the role of humans in the development of African environments over the late Holocene has been possible.
Andrea specializes in GIS and spatial analysis in archaeology, and has extensive experience with map-making and model building. As part of her MSc work, she developed an agent-based model of the neolithic transition in Europe, to explore social factors contributing to the spread of farming societies. She has worked on field projects in Jordan, Italy, Hawaii, Wyoming, Montana, and Belize, spanning a range of historical periods and environmental settings. She has also contributed to museum database management projects in the USA (Washington) and Egypt. Andrea appeared as an expert presenter on two National Geographic Channel documentaries about Hellenistic period Egypt: Alexander the Great’s lost tomb and The Real Cleopatra. She is soon about to start a 1.5 year Postdoctoral Fellowship based in Australia and Germany funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF).
Andrea Kay
- PhD – University of Lausanne
- MSc in GIS and Spatial Analysis in Archaeology (2008) – Institute of Archaeology, University College London
- BA in Anthropology (2005) – University of Rhode Island
- 6 seasons of experience leading a survey team on an archaeological project in southern Jordan
- 5 years of experience working in CRM/commercial archaeology in the USA (Hawaii, Wyoming, and Montana)