Dr. Shevan Wilkin
Main Focus
Shevan Wilkin is a biological anthropologist specializing in the study human diet and behaviour using biomolecular methods. As a researcher, she focuses on the origins dairying, changes in subsistence strategies, and population migrations through aDNA and proteomic analyses. Her current project includes human dental calculus samples from many sites throughout Central Asia, including Russia, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia. Additionally, she works on the development and optimisation of ancient protein laboratory and data analysis methods.
Other ongoing and completed projects include prescreening methods for protein analysis of archaeological materials, the combination of proteomics and metagenomics of mummified human tissues, stable isotope analysis of bone collagen and dental enamel apatite, and AMS radiocarbon dates.
Publications
Jeong, Choongwon*, Shevan Wilkin*, Tsend Amgalantugs, Abigail S. Bouwman, William Timothy Treal Taylor, Richard W. Hagan, Sabri Bromage, Soninkhishin Tsolmon, Christian Trachsel, Jonas Grossmann, Judith Littleton, Cheryl Makarewicz, John Krigbaum, Marta Burri, Ashley Scott, Ganmaa Davaasambuu, Joshua Wright, Franziska Irmer, Erdene Myagmar, Nicole Boivin, Martine Robbeets, Frank J Rühli, Johannes Krause, Bruno Frohlich, Jessica Hendy, Christina Warinner. (2018) Bronze Age population dynamics and the rise of dairy pastoralism on the Eastern Eurasian Steppe. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. *These authors contributed equally to this work.
Yang, Yishi, Lele Ren, Guanghui Dong, Yifu Cui, Ruiliang Liu, Guoke Chen, Hui Wang, Shevan Wilkin, Fahu Chen (2018) Economic change in the prehistoric Hexi Corridor (4800-2200 BP), northwest China. Archaeometry.
William Taylor, Shevan Wilkin, Joshua Wright, Michael Dee, Erdene Myagmar, Julia Clark, Tumurbaatar Tuvshinjargal, Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan, William Fitzhugh, Nicole Boivin. (2019) Radiocarbon dating and cultural dynamics across Mongolia’s early pastoral transition. PLoS One.
Wilkin, Shevan, William Taylor, Alicia Ventresca Miller, Bryan K. Miller, Richard Hagan, Franziska Irmer, Madeleine Bleasdale, Sumiya Gankhuyag, Christian Trachsel, Jonas Grossmann, Mark Horton, Erdene Myagmar, Nicole Boivin, Christina Warinner, Jessica Hendy. Dairy pastoralism sustained Eastern Steppe populations for 5000 years. (2020) Nature Ecology and Evolution.
Wilkin, Shevan, Tumurbaatar Tuvshinjargal, Alicia Ventresca Miller, Bryan K. Miller, Robert N. Spengler III, William Taylor, Ricardo Fernandes, Jessica Hendy, Erdene Myagmar, Nicole Boivin, Patrick Roberts. (2020) Economic diversification supported the growth of Mongolia’s Nomadic Empires. Scientific Reports.
William Timothy Treal Taylor, Julia Clark, Tumurbaatar Tuvshinjargal, Jessica Thompson Jobe, Svetlana Shnaider, Frederik Seersholm, Isaac Hart, Nicholas Case, Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan, Ulrike Thuering, Jessica Hendy, Bryan K. Miller, Alicia Ventresca Miller, Shevan Wilkin, Andrea Picin, Nils Vanwezer, Franziska Irmer, Samantha Brown, Aida Abdykanova, Daniel Schultz, Victora Pham, Michael Bunce, Katerina Douka. Emily Lena Jones, Nicole Boivin. (2020) Horses and Herding Transitions in the Bronze Age Eurasian Steppes. Scientific Reports.
Choongwon Jeong, Ke Wang, Shevan Wilkin, William Timothy Treal Taylor, Bryan K. Miller, Tömörbaatar Tüvshinjargal, Sodnon Ölziibayar, Raphaela Stahl, Chelsea Chiovelli, Jan H. Bemmann, Sarah Nagel, Matthias Meyer, Florian Knolle, Nikolay Kradin, Bilikto A. Bazarov, Denis A. Miyagashev, Prokopiy B. Konovalov, Elena Zhambaltarova, Alicia Ventresca Miller, Wolfgang Haak, Stephan Schiffels, Nicole Boivin, Erdene Myagmar, Jessica Hendy, Christina Warinner. (2020 Preprint) A dynamic 6,000-year genetic history of Eurasia’s Eastern Steppe. Cell.
Spengler, Robert N., III, Alicia Ventresca Miller, Tekla Schmaus, Giedre Motuzaite-Matuzeviciute, Bryan K. Miller, Shevan Wilkin, William Taylor, Yuqi Li, Ashleigh Haruda, Partick Roberts, Nicole Boivin. (In press) An imagined past? Nomadic narratives in Central Eurasian Archaeology. Current Anthropology.