Clark Spencer Larsen

Research: Larsen is a biological anthropologist with a focus on bioarchaeology, the study of human remains from archaeological contexts.  His research is primarily focussed on health and lifestyle in the last 10,000 years of human evolution, especially in the context of the origins and increasing importance of domesticated plants and animals as a framework for understanding patterns of health and challenges to health in the context of population increase, sedentism, and the reliance on domesticated plant carbohydrates in diet. In addition to major research projects in Turkey and North America, Larsen is the co-director of the Global History of Health Project, an international collaboration involved in the study of ancient skeletons from all continents in order to track health changes since the late Paleolithic.  He currently serves on the advisory board for and contributor to the Asian module of the project. 

Relevant publications include:

Richard H Steckel, Clark Spencer Larsen, Charlotte A Roberts, and Joerg Baten, editors  (2019)  The Backbone of Europe: Health, Diet, Work and Violence over Two Millennia, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom, 462 pp

Clark Spencer Larsen (2015) Bioarchaeology: Interpreting Behavior from the Human Skeleton, Second Edition, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 650 pp

Clark Spencer Larsen, Christopher J Knüsel, Scott D Haddow, Marin A Pilloud, Marco Milella, Joshua W Sadvari, Jessica Pearson, Christopher B Ruff, Evan M Garofalo, Emmy Bocaege, Barbara J Betz, Irene Dori, Bonnie Glencross (2019) Bioarchaeology of  Neolithic Çatalhöyük Reveals Fundamental Transitions in Health, Mobility, and Lifestyle in Early Farmers, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116, 12615-12623 https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1904345116

Clark Spencer Larsen (2018) The Bioarchaeology of Health Crisis: Infectious Disease in the Past, Annual Review of Anthropology 47: 295-313