Amy Hatton (she/her)

Doctoral Researcher

Department Structural Changes of the Technosphere
IMPRS
+49 3641 686-732

253

Main Focus

Amy is a Doctoral Researcher working at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, supervised by Dr Huw Groucutt. Generally, she is interested in long term human-environment interaction and cultural change. Amy’s current research uses remote sensing to identify stone structures on the Arabian peninsula. She aims use computer visiontechniques to identify and map stone structures from satellite imagery. By understanding the spatial and temporal variation of these stone structures, she hope’s to gain greater knowledge of how humans were adapting to climate changes in Arabia during the Holocene.

Curriculum Vitae

Amy completed her Bsc. and BscHons at the University of Cape Town (South Africa) specialising in archaeology and ecology & evolution. She gained experience in analysing archaeological artefacts such as stone tools and ostrich eggshell beads, as well as conducting fieldwork. Amy was able to work in the field on a wide variety of projects based around South Africa. Her Honours thesis examined use wear on the Blombos shell beads, which she mapped and statistically analysed to show that the stringing styles had changed through time. Amy studied her Msc. in Computational Archaeology at University College London. Her thesis focused on the spatial distribution of Palaeolithic archaeological sites in southern Africa, with the use of point pattern analysis, and how this is affected by geology and preservation bias.

Publications

Scerri, E.M., Blinkhorn, J., Groucutt, H.S., Stewart, M., Candy, I., Allué, E., Burguet-Coca, A., Currás, A., Carleton, W.C., Lindauer, S., Spengler, R., Boxleitner, K., Asciak, G., Margherita Colucci, Ritienne Gauci, Amy Hatton, Johanna Kutowsky, Andreas Maier, Mario Mata-González, Nicolette Mifsud, Khady Niang, Patrick Roberts, Joshua de Giorgio, Rochelle Xerri, Nicholas C. Vella, 2025. Hunter-gatherer sea voyages extended to remotest Mediterranean islands. Nature 1–7.

Hatton, A., Breeze, P.S., Guagnin, M., al-Jibrin, F., Alsharekh, A.M., Petraglia, M., Groucutt, H.S., 2024. Landscape positioning of Neolithic mustatil stone structures along the margins of the Nefud Desert, Saudi Arabia. The Holocene 34, 1837–1851.

Collins, B., Hatton, A., Nowell, A., Ames, C.J., 2024. Manufacturing social landscapes: bead production, exchange, and social connections at Grassridge Rockshelter, South Africa, in: Culturing the Body: Past Perspectives on Identity and Sociality. Berghahn Books, pp. 41–67.

Stewart, M., Andrieux, E., Blinkhorn, J., Guagnin, M., Fernandes, R., Vanwezer, N., Hatton, A., Alqahtani, M., Zalmout, I., Clark-Wilson, R., Yahya S. A. Al-Mufarreh, Mahmoud Al-Shanti, Badr Zahrani, Abdulaziz Al Omari, Faisal Al-Jibreen, Abdullah M. Alsharekh, Eleanor M. L. Scerri, Nicole Boivin, Michael D. Petraglia, Huw S. Groucutt, 2024. First evidence for human occupation of a lava tube in Arabia: The archaeology of Umm Jirsan Cave and its surroundings, northern Saudi Arabia. Plos one 19, e0299292.

Guagnin, M., Shipton, C., Stileman, F., Jibreen, F., AlSulaimi, M., Breeze, P.S., Stewart, M., Hatton, A., Drake, N., Jha, D.K., others, 2023. Before the Holocene humid period: Life-sized camel engravings and early occupations on the southern edge of the Nefud desert. Archaeological Research in Asia 36, 100483.

Collins, B.R., Hatton, A., 2022. Beads reveal long-distance connections in early Africa.

Hatton, A., Collins, B., Schoville, B.J., Wilkins, J., 2022. Ostrich eggshell beads from Ga-Mohana Hill North Rockshelter, southern Kalahari, and the implications for understanding social networks during Marine Isotope Stage 2. PloS one 17, e0268943.

Wilkins, J., Schoville, B.J., Pickering, R., Gliganic, L., Collins, B., Brown, K.S., von der Meden, J., Khumalo, W., Meyer, M.C., Maape, S., Alexander F. Blackwood, Amy Hatton, 2021. Innovative Homo sapiens behaviours 105,000 years ago in a wetter Kalahari. Nature 592, 248–252.

Hatton, A., Schoville, B.J., Wilkins, J., 2020. A quantitative analysis of wear distributions on Middle Stone Age marine shell beads from Blombos Cave, South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 29, 102137.

Wilkins, J., Schoville, B.J., Brown, K.S., Gliganic, L., Meyer, M.C., Loftus, E., Pickering, R., Collins, B., Blackwood, A.F., Makalima, S., Amy Hatton, Sechaba Maape, 2020. Fabric analysis and chronology at Ga-Mohana Hill North Rockshelter, southern Kalahari Basin: evidence for in situ, stratified Middle and Later Stone Age deposits. Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology 3, 336–361.