I am a postdoctoral researcher supported by the ERC-funded Project ASIAPAST at the Institute of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology at Kiel University. I received my Ph.D. from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at Kiel University in 2019.
My research focuses in part on resolving livestock management strategies through multi-isotope analysis (δ13C, δ15N, and δ18O) of faunal teeth and bones, which respectively provide seasonal and lifetime records of dietary intake and environmental inputs. This work has been important for understanding the earliest spread of millet—a C4 crop with a distinct carbon isotopic composition—to the Eurasian steppes from its center of domestication in northern China.
I am also investigating the initial spread of domesticated cattle, sheep, and goats to the Eurasian steppes from the Near East during the Eneolithic/Early Bronze Age (~3600-2300 BC) through ancient DNA analysis.
I am co-director of the Dzhungar Mountain Archaeology Project (DMAP) along with Michael Frachetti (Washington University in St. Louis) and Paula Dupuy (Nazarbayev University). DMAP is an interdisciplinary field project running since 2005 that investigates the emergence of the earliest herding and farming societies in Inner Asia, in addition to examining the formation and spread of interregional cultural phenomena and also linkages between ecological and political strategies in harsh environments. You can read more about DMAP from these selected publications:
Hermes, T.R., M.D. Frachetti, P.N. Doumani Dupuy, A.N. Mar’yashev, C.A. Makarewicz. (2019) Early integration of pastoralism and millet cultivation in Bronze Age Eurasia. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 286, 20191273. doi:10.1098/rspb.2019.1273
Doumani, P.N., Frachetti, M.D., Beardmore, R., Schmaus, T.M., Spengler, R.N., & Mar’yashev, A.N. (2015). Burial ritual, agriculture, and craft production among Bronze Age pastoralists at Tasbas (Kazakhstan). Archaeological Research in Asia, 1–2, 17–32. doi:10.1016/j.ara.2015.01.001
Doumani, P.N., & Frachetti, M. (2012). Bronze Age textile evidence in ceramic impressions: Weaving and pottery technology among mobile pastoralists of central Eurasia. Antiquity, 86(332), 368–382. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00062827
Frachetti, M.D., & Mar’yashev, A.N. (2007). Long-Term Occupation and Seasonal Settlement of Eastern Eurasian Pastoralists at Begash, Kazakhstan. Journal of Field Archaeology, 32, 221–242. doi:10.1179/009346907791071520