Fiona Coward

Dr Fiona Coward

  • Associate Professor in Archaeological Sciences
  • Christchurch House C116, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Poole, BH12 5BB
UN SDGs:
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Biography

I am an archaeologist whose work focuses on the multidisciplinary study of the evolution of human social life and cognition. I have a BA (Hons) in Archaeology and Anthropology from the University of Cambridge and an MA in Osteoarchaeology and PhD in Palaeolithic Archaeology from the University of Southampton. I am co-Deputy Director of and Director of Research for the Institute for Modelling Socio-Ecological Transitions (IMSET: https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/centres-institutes/institute-modelling-socio-environmental-transitions).

I lead two second-year units, 'Themes in Archaeology and Anthropology' and 'Becoming Human' and teach on several other units including first year 'Ancient Peoples and Places', 'Study Skills' and 'Gathering Time'.

My research focuses on how and why humans were able to scale up their social lives from the very small social groups we lived in for much of our prehistory to the global social networks which characterise people’s lives today. My work takes a multidisciplinary perspective which emphasises the interrelations between the physical and social environments in which human evolution has taken place, and I am particularly interested in the role played by material culture in human social life...

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Research

My research focuses on the long-term evolution of hominin and human social lives throughout the Palaeolithic but also throughout the shift from mobile foraging to more settled and agricultural lifeways in the early Holocene. I use a variety of techniques including network analysis, GIS and agent-based modelling to investigate how past environments affected hominin life history and social structure, and how this impacted on the evolution of the human brain, life histories and cultural innovation and transmission.

My major research roles include: - co-Deputy Director of Bournemouth University's Institute for Modelling Socio-Ecological Transitions (IMSET; www.bournemouth.ac.uk/imset).

- co-I on the SUNDASIA Project investigating human response to climate and environmental change in northern Vietnam (https://sundasia.com/).

- founding member of ‘The Connected Past’ project (http://connectedpast.soton.ac.uk/) developing methodologies derived from network science for use with archaeological and historical datasets.

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person's work contributes towards the following SDGs:

Decent work and economic growth

"Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all"

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Sustainable cities and communities

"Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable"

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Life on land

"Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss"

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Partnership for the Goals

"Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development"

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Journal Articles

  • Newton, A.C., Coward, F., Elliott, S., Jenkins, E., Linden, M.V., Riris, P. and Silva, F., 2024. Understanding long-term human ecodynamics through the lens of ecosystem collapse. Holocene, 34 (10), 1439-1453.
  • Rabett, R.J., Coward, F. et al., 2023. Prehistoric pathways to Anthropocene adaptation: Evidence from the Red River Delta, Vietnam. PLoS ONE, 18 (2 February).
  • Silva, F. et al., 2022. Developing Transdisciplinary Approaches to Sustainability Challenges: The Need to Model Socio-Environmental Systems in the Longue Durée. Sustainability (Switzerland), 14 (16).
  • Coward, F. and Howard-Jones, P., 2021. Exploring Environmental Influences on Infant Development and Their Potential Role in Processes of Cultural Transmission and Long-Term Technological Change. Childhood in the Past, 14 (2), 80-101.
  • Coward, F. et al., 2019. Human Adaptation to Coastal Evolution: Late Quaternary evidence from Southeast Asia (SUNDASIA) – A report on the second year of the project. Vietnam Archaeology, 13, 23-48.
  • Birch-Chapman, S., Jenkins, E., Coward, F. and Maltby, M., 2017. Estimating population size, density and dynamics of Pre-Pottery Neolithic villages in the central and southern Levant: an analysis of Beidha, southern Jordan. Levant, 49 (1), 1-23.
  • Tumler, D., Basell, L. and Coward, F., 2017. Human perception of symmetry, raw material and size of palaeolithic handaxes. Lithics, 5-17.
  • Coward, F., 2016. Scaling up: Material culture as scaffold for the social brain. Quaternary International, 405, 78-90.
  • Collar, A., Coward, F., Brughmans, T. and Mills, B., 2015. Networks in Archaeology: Phenomena, Abstraction, Representation. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 22 (1), 1-32.
  • Brughmans, T., Collar, A., Coward, F. and Lemercier, C., 2014. Analyser les réseau du passé en archéologie et en histoire. Les Nouvelles de l’Archéologie, 135, 9-13.
  • Coward, F., 2014. Review of Wynn, T. and Coolidge, F. 'How to think like a Neanderthal'. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 24 (1), 177-178.
  • Coward, F., 2013. The evolution of the human mind: from supernaturalism to naturalism: an anthropological perspective. JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, 19 (3), 663-664.
  • Coward, F., 2013. Review of Carneiro, R. 'The Evolution of the human mind: from supernaturalism to naturalism: an anthropological perspective'. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 19, 663-664.
  • Coward, F., 2012. Rethinking Phylogeny and Ontogeny in Hominin Brain Evolution. Human Origins, 1, 65-91.
  • Coward, F., 2012. Cro-Magnon: How the Ice Age Gave Birth to the First Modern Humans. GEOARCHAEOLOGY-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, 27 (6), 540-542.
  • Coward, F. and Grove, M., 2011. Beyond the Tools: social innovation and hominin evolution. PalaeoAnthropology, 2011, 111-129.
  • Coward, F., 2010. Casting the net wide: small worlds, material culture and social networks during the Epipalaeolithic and early Neolithic of the Near East. Bulletin of the Council for British Research in the Levant, 5, 52-56.
  • Coward, F., 2009. Review of Wynn, T. and Coolidge, F. 'The rise of Homo sapiens: the evolution of modern thinking'. American Journal of Human Biology.
  • Coward, F., 2008. Standing on the Shoulders of Giants. Science, 319, 1493-1495.
  • Coward, F., 2008. From single neurons to social brains. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 18 (3), 387-400.
  • Coward, F., 2008. Big Brains, Small Worlds: Material culture and human evolution. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London: Biological Sciences, 363, 1969-1979.
  • Coward, F., Shennan, S., Colledge, S., Connelly, J. and Collard, M., 2008. The Spread of Neolithic Plant Economies from the Near East to Northwest Europe: a Phylogenetic Analysis. Journal of Archaeological Science, 35 (1), 42-56.
  • Coward, F., 2008. Review of Sellet, F., Greaves, R. and Yu, P-L. 'Archaeology and Ethnoarchaeology of mobility'. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 14, 899-900.

Books

  • Landscapes in Mind: Settlement, Sociality and Cognition in Human Evolution.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Coward, F., Hosfield, R., Pope, M. and Francis, W.S., 2015. Settlement, society and cognition in human evolution: Landscapes in mind.
  • Neanderthals Among Mammoths: Excavations at Lynford Quarry, Norfolk. Swindon: English Heritage.

Chapters

  • Gravel-Miguel, C. and Coward, F., 2024. Palaeolithic Social Networks and Behavioural Modernity. In: Brughmans, T., Mills, B., Munson, J. and Peeples, M., eds. The Oxford Handbook of Archaeological Network Research. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Gravel-Miguel, C. and Coward, F., 2023. PALEOLITHIC SOCIAL NETWORKS AND BEHAVIORAL MODERNITY. The Oxford Handbook of Archaeological Network Research. 443-458.
  • Coward, F., 2022. More than the sum of their parts? Networks as methods and as heuristics in cognitive archaeology. Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Archaeology. 223-255.
  • Coward, F., 2022. Transitional Changes from a Mobile Hunter-Gatherer to a Sedentary Neolithic Agrarian System. In: Callan, H. and Coleman, S., eds. The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, 1-18.
  • Coward, F., 2019. Technological Intelligence or Social Wisdom? Promiscuous sociality, things, and networks in human evolution. In: Fuentes, A. and Deane-Drummond, C., eds. Evolution of Wisdom: major and minor keys. Pressbooks/The Center for Theology, Science, and Human Flourishing.
  • Hosfield, R., Coward, F., Wenban-Smith, F. and Pope, M., 2015. Foreword. In: Coward, F., Hosfield, R., Pope, M. and Wenban-Smith, F., eds. Landscapes in Mind: Settlement, Sociality and Cognition in Human Evolution.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, xxiii-xxviii.
  • Coward, F. and Dunbar, R., 2014. Communities on the brink of civilization. In: Dunbar, R.I.M., Gamble, C. and Gowlett, J.A.J., eds. From Lucy to Language: the benchmark papers. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Coward, F., 2014. Becoming Human. In: Gardner, A., Lake, M. and Sommer, U., eds. Oxford Handbook of Archaeological Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Coward, F., 2013. Grounding the net: networks, environments and material culture in the Epipalaeolithic and early Neolithic of the Near East. In: Knappett, C., ed. Network Analysis in Archaeology: New Approaches to Regional Interaction. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
  • Coward, F., 2011. 8mya-3,000BCE. History Year-by-Year. London: Dorling Kindersley.
  • Coward, F., 2011. Misc Contributions. Evolution: The Human Story. Dorling Kindersley.
  • Coward, F., 2010. Small worlds, material culture and Near Eastern social networks. In: Dunbar, R., Gamble, C. and Gowlett, J., eds. Social Brain, Distributed Mind. Oxford University Press, 449-479.
  • Coward, F. and Gamble, C., 2010. Metaphor and Materiality in Early Prehistory. In: Malafouris, L. and Renfrew, C., eds. The Cognitive Life of Things: recasting the boundaries of the mind. Cambridge: McDonald Institute Monographs.
  • Coward, F., 2009. The Rise of Humans. Prehistoric Life: The definitive visual history of life on Earth. London: Dorling Kindersley, 454-491.
  • Coward, F.. Becoming Human. In: Gardner, A., Lake, M. and Sommer, U., eds. The Oxford Handbook of Archaeological Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Conferences

  • Coward, F., 2022. Realising ideological and religious change: investigating the material culture of religion in the earliest villages of the early Neolithic SW Asia. In: The Connected Past: Religious Networks in Antiquity 7-8 June 2022 Bergen, Norway.
  • Coward, F., 2021. Networks: one size fits all, or Jack-of-all-trades and master of none? The concept of the network in archaeology and anthropology: qualitative heuristic, quantitative method, or anachronistic fad? In: Early Concepts of Humans and Nature: Universal, Specific, Interchanged 7-9 October 2021 Mainz.
  • Coward, F., 2021. Things and people, people and things: comparing, combining and juxtaposing early Neolithic networks of the Near East. In: The Connected Past: Artefactual Intelligence 29 September 2021-30 September 2029 Aarhus, Denmark.
  • Coward, F., 2020. Why do people have so much stuff? The role of human material engagement in long term social change. In: Materiality and Agency: anthropological, archaeological, and philosophical perspectives 1-5 December 2020 Cologne.
  • Coward, F., 2019. Putting the ‘fit’ back into ‘survival of the fittest’: environments, landscapes and mutliscalar evolution in the human lineage. In: Resurrecting the ancient mind: cognitive science in archaeology and philology 5-6 December 2017 Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany.
  • Coward, F., 2019. The wisdom of Homo sapiens: ‘the wisdom of the crowd’? Promiscuous sociality, things and networks in human evolution. In: Human Distinctiveness: wisdom’s deep evolution 6 July 2017-7 July 2019 Center for Theology, Science and Human Flourishing, University of Notre Dame London Gateway..
  • Coward, F., 2019. How Many Networks? Representing dynamic social change using archaeological network methods. In: Representing Networks 5 June-6 March 2019 University of Cologne.
  • Coward, F., Rabett, R. and Tan Van, T., 2018. SUNDASIA: recent fieldwork, human-environment interaction and prehistoric social networks in the Tràng An region of northern Vietnam. In: Bridging the gap and crossing borders: the transition from foraging to farming ni northern Vietnam and southern China 7-11 May 2018 Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
  • Coward, F., 2018. ‘All things being equal’? Multiplex material networks of the early Neolithic in the Near East. In: Society for American Archaeology Conference 9-13 April 2018 Washington D.C., US.
  • Coward, F., 2018. Discussant, session on 'Challenges and Advances in the Archaeology and Palaeoanthropology of Non-Modern Humans'. In: Society for American Archaeology Conference 9-13 April 2018 Washington, D.C., US.
  • Coward, F. and Kahlert, T., 2017. GIS and Terrain-Mapping in Tràng An, Vietnam. In: SUNDASIA Project International Workshop 16-17 March 2017 Ninh Binh, Vietnam.
  • Birch, S., Coward, F., Jenkins, E. and Maltby, M., 2016. Estimating Population Parameters of Early Village Societies in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Central and Southern Levant. In: International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East 25-29 April 2016 Vienna, Austria.
  • Coward, F., 2015. What does (material) culture do? In: The Origins and Transmission of Culture: an interdisciplinary approach 13-14 August 2015 University of Birmingham.
  • Coward, F., 2015. Using networks to investigate material identities in the Epipalaeolithic and early Neolithic of the Near East. In: Society of American Archaeology 15-19 April 2015 San Francisco, California.
  • Coward, F., 2014. Identity, social networks and material environments in the Epipalaeolithic and early Neolithic of the Near East. In: British Association for Near Eastern Archaeology Annual Conference 9-11 January 2014 University of Reading.
  • Coward, F., 2013. Archaeology and anthropology in a world of hybrids, cyborgs and posthumans. In: Theoretical Archaeological Group Conference 16-18 December 2013 Bournemouth University.
  • Coward, F., 2013. How things help us think: Material culture as scaffold for the social brain. In: Theoretical Archaeology Group 16-18 December 2013 Bournemouth University.
  • Coward, F., 2013. Getting to grips with the very earliest social networks: the challenges of using network methodologies to tackle Palaeolithic datasets. In: Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting 3-7 April 2013 Honolulu, HI., USA.
  • Coward, F., Collar, A. and Brughmans, T., 2012. The Connected Past: People, networks and complexity in archaeology and history. In: The Connected Past: People, networks and complexity in archaeology and history 24-25 March 2012 University of Southampton.
  • Coward, F., 2011. How stuff made us: aesthetics, emotion and intelligence in human evolution. In: CAHO10: unravelling the Palaeolithic: 10 years of research at the Centre for the Archaeology of Human Origins. 28-29 January 2011 University of Southampton.
  • Coward, F., 2010. ‘Thick’ networks? More-than-human networks in context in the Epipalaeolithic and early Neolithic of the Near East. In: Theoretical Archaeology Group Conference 15-17 December 2010 University of Bristol.
  • Coward, F., 2010. Grounding the net: networks, environments and material culture in the Epipalaeolithic and early Neolithic of the Near East (~21-6,000 cal BP). In: Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting 6-11 April 2010 St. Louis, Mo. USA.
  • Coward, F., 2010. Self, display and concealment: constructing networks of identity in the Epipalaeolithic and early Neolithic of the Near East. In: The creation of ‘homes’ in the earliest farming period in Eurasia 4-5 February 2010 Durham University.
  • Coward, F., 2009. Hominin neural ontogeny and socialization. In: Visual Display Seminar 4 December 2009 University of Southampton.
  • Coward, F., 2009. Bodies as context: burial and materiality in the Epipalaeolithic and early Neolithic of the Near East. In: Bodily Histories 16-18 September 2009 University of Cambridge.
  • Coward, F., 2008. Casting the net wide: materiality and social networks in the Epipalaeolithic and early Neolithic of the Near East. In: Theoretical Archaeology Group Conference 17-19 December 2008 University of Southampton.
  • Coward, F., 2008. Small Worlds, material culture and ancient Near Eastern social networks. In: British Academy Centenary Research Project Symposium, 'Social Brain, Distributed Mind' 17-18 April 2008 British Academy, London.
  • Coward, F., 2007. Human Person, Animal Person: a relational geography of Quaternary hunters. In: Royal Geographical Society/IBG Annual International Conference 2007 4-7 September 2007 Imperial College, London.
  • Coward, F. and Gamble, C., 2007. While my guitar gently weeps: emotion, material culture and human evolution. In: The Sapient Mind: where archaeology and neuroscience meet 17-18 April 2007 McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge.
  • Coward, F., 2007. Lived space, built space: corporal and material culture and the earliest architecture. In: Architecture in the Space of Flows 12-14 March 2007 The Cuture Lab, Newcastle University.
  • Coward, F., 2006. Metaphor and Materiality in earliest prehistory. In: The Cognitive Life of Things 10-12 September 2006 McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge.
  • Coward, F., 2006. Movement, Activity and Interaction: an ecosystemic approach to prehistory. In: Royal Geographical Society/IBG Annual International Conference 5-8 September 2006 Imperial College, London.

Others

PhD Students

  • Emilia Hunt. The individual species of Homo, herbivores, and habitats: temporal and geographic trends in the ecological niches of the genus in the Pleistocene of Africa, and Eurasia., (In progress)
  • Megan Russell. Crafting a better wellbeing: Using experimental Archaeology to improve mental health, (In progress)
  • Pamela Armstrong, (In progress)
  • Shannon Birch, 2017. Population growth and social change in the earliest village societies of southwest Asia, (Completed)

Profile of Teaching PG

  • Palaeoanthropology and Palaeolithic Archaeology

Profile of Teaching UG

  • Lecturer - The Human Past
  • Unit Leader - Contemporary Theory in Archaeology and Anthropology
  • Unit Leader - Becoming Human
  • Lecturer - Introduction to Archaeology & Anthropology
  • Unit Leader - Palaeoanthropology and Palaeolithic Archaeology
  • Lecturer - Debates in Archaeology and Anthropology
  • Lecturer - Responsible Research in Archaeology and Anthropology
  • Lecturer - Research Skills

Invited Lectures

  • The future of past networks?, Wellcome Trust, London, 27 Mar 2023 more

Grants

  • Human Adaptation to Coastal Evolution: late Quaternary evidence from southeast Asia (SUNDASIA) (Arts and Humanities Research Council, 01 Jul 2016). Awarded

External Responsibilities

  • Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, Subject Benchmark Statement for Anthropolo (2022)
  • University Archaeology UK (UAUK), University Archaeology Day co-lead (2022-), https://www.universityarchaeology.co.uk/university-archaeology-day
  • QAA Benchmark Statement for Archaeology, Member of working group (2021)
  • British Science Festival, Recorder, Archaeology and Anthropology Section (2014-2017)

Public Engagement & Outreach Activities

  • Outreach to St Luke's Primary School, Winton (13 Oct 2023)

Conference Presentations

  • Religious Networks in Antiquity, Realising ideological and religious change: investigating the material culture of religion in the earliest villages of early Neolithic SW Asia, 07 Jun 2022, Bergen, Norway
  • Connecting Minds: integrating models of cognitive evolution, 02 May 2022, Lorentz Centre @Oort, Leiden University
  • Materiality and Agency: anthropological, archaeological, and philosophical perspectives, Why do people have so much stuff? The role of human material engagement in long term social change, 01 Dec 2021, University of Cologne, Germany
  • Early Concepts of Humans and Nature: Universal, Specific, Interchanged, Networks: one size fits all, or Jack-of-all-trades and master of none? The concept of the network in archaeology and anthropology: qualitative heuristic, quantitative method, or anachronistic fad?, 07 Oct 2021, University of Mainz, Germany
  • Artefactual Intelligence: The Connected Past conference, Aarhus, Things and people, people and things: comparing, combining and juxtaposing early Neolithic networks of the Near East, 27 Sep 2021, Aarhus University, Denmark
  • Artefactual Intelligence: the Connected Past Conference, Aarhus, Network Analysis in Practice, presentation given to The Connected Past network analysis workshop, 27 Sep 2021, Aarhus University, Denmark
  • Knowledge gaps in long-term human ecodynamics IMSET workshop, 01 Jun 2020, Bournemouth University, UK
  • Theoretical Archaeology Group Conference, session "Palaeolithic societies, sociality and social life: archaeological perspectives 20 years after Gamble (1999)", 13 Dec 2019, University College London, UK
  • Representing Networks: past and present, How many networks? Representing dynamic social change using archaeological network methods, 05 Jun 2019, University of Cologne, Germany
  • Bridging the gap and crossing borders: the transition from foraging to farming in northern Vietnam and southern China international workshop, SUNDASIA: recent fieldwork, human-environment interaction and prehistoric social networks in the Tràng An region of northern Vietnam, 01 May 2018, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
  • Society for American Archaeology Conference, : ‘All things being equal’? Multiplex material networks of the early Neolithic in the Near East, 12 Apr 2018, Washington, D.C., US
  • Society for American Archaeology, : Discussant, session on Challenges and Advances in the Archaeology and Paleoanthropology of Non-Modern Humans, 12 Apr 2018, Washington, D. C., US

Attended Training

  • Management Essentials: challenging conversatoins, 05 Nov 2024
  • Unconscious Bias in Research Assessments programme, 11 Jun 2024
  • Skills for Leading a Team, 13 May 2024
  • UKRIO Introduction to Research Integrity, 06 May 2024
  • Supporting, 14 Nov 2023
  • Management Essentials: team formation, 13 Nov 2023
  • Aspiring to Management and Leadership, 07 Nov 2023
  • Imposter Syndrome Workshop, 12 Oct 2023
  • Management Essentials: Managing recruitment and selection, 03 Oct 2023
  • The Way of the Productivity Ninja, 29 Jun 2023
  • Supporting students, 04 May 2023
  • Aurora, HEA Leadership development initiative for women, 23 Jan 2023

Qualifications

  • PhD in Palaeolithic Archaeology (University of Southampton, 2005)
  • MA in Osteoarchaeology (University of Southampton, 1999)
  • BA (Hons) in Archaeology & Anthropology (Cambridge University, 1997)

Memberships

  • British Association of Near Eastern Archaeology, Member (2013-), http://banealcane.org/banea/
  • European Society for the Study of Human Evolution, Member (2013-),
  • Royal Anthropological Institute, Fellow (2013-),
  • Society for American Archaeology, Member (2013-), http://www.saa.org/

Networks

  • I am a founding member of 'The Connected Past', developing quantitative network methodologies for use with archaeological and historical datasets: http://connectedpast.soton.ac.uk/