Charlotte Pearson

Dr Charlotte Pearson is a geoarchaeologist and dendrochronologist interested in developing new applications of the tree-ring record to examine past human and environmental interactions, improve chronological frameworks and synchronize multiple lines of paleoenvironmental evidence. Her current research focuses on new applications for analysis of carbon 14 in single tree-rings, dendrochronological approaches to the chronology of the Ancient Mediterranean and dendrochemical approaches to dating the onset of environmental disturbances (in particular volcanic eruptions). These topics combine in the 'Interdisciplinary Chronology of Civilizations Project', funded by the Malcolm H. Wiener Foundation, which builds on 45 years of dendrochronological research in the ancient Mediterranean by Peter Kuniholm to anchor fixed, annually resolved time-lines for archaeological and paleoenvironmental research back to 2500 BC. The project takes new approaches to anchoring floating tree-ring sequences from the region while also contributing directly to international efforts to improve the radiocarbon calibration curve, a critical resource for all users of the radiocarbon dating method.

Charlotte gained her PhD at the University of Reading in the UK, before postdoctoral work at Cornell University. She has been at the University of Arizona since 2013. She teaches a General Education class (ANTH 204) in 'Culture, Climate and Catastrophe'.