Paul Halstead

Paul Halstead is a prehistorian and zooarchaeologist who teaches in the Deptartment of Archaeology at the University of Sheffield. His interest in Aegean Bronze Age redistribution began in collaborative work with John O’Shea on palatial origins, arguing that the redistributive economies of the palaces developed out of earlier mechanisms for buffering against agricultural risk. Latterly, he has integrated textual with archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological evidence, and with insights from “traditional” farming practice, to explore the nature of palatial involvement in the management of crops and livestock and the extent of Linear B coverage of Mycenaean palatial economy.