Education
Ph.D., Yale University, 2025 (Anthropology)
M.Phil., Yale University, 2021 (Anthropology)
B.A., UC Berkeley, 2015 (Anthropology)
Professional Bio
Professional Bio
Dr. Christina M. Carolus is an anthropological archaeologist and archaeobotanist with interests in human-environmental interaction, domestication processes, foodways, archaeological scientific methods and theory, ancient political organization, and cultural heritage issues. Currently a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Spatial and Historical Network Dynamics (SAHND) Laboratory, Christina’s research pursues the origins and impacts of agriculture on the Inner Asian steppe and explores its underrecognized role(s) in the foundations of regional political complexity. She currently directs archaeological investigations in both steppic and montane Inner Asia.
The Khulunbuir Archaeology Project (est. 2024) is based in northeastern Mongolia at the late Iron Age site of Khairt Suuryn, a large Xiongnu Period (c.250 BC-150 AD) agricultural pit house settlement site and craft production complex overlooking the floodplain of the Kherlen River. Khairt Suuryn is only the third prehistoric site in Mongolia to yield crop assemblages and one of only a few known pit house settlements. Khairt Suuryn is a crucial puzzle piece to understanding the social and economic origins of agriculture on the eastern Eurasian steppe, the potential origins of early sedentism or semi-sedentism, and dynamics of network growth on the immediate path to initial state formation in this region of the world.
The Juuku Valley Archaeology Project (est. 2025) is based in the Issyk-Kul region of eastern Kyrgyzstan, a landscape dominated by the Tian Shan Mountain range. Current research centers on the site of Kyzyl Unkur. This deeply stratified cave site contains long term human-environmental records through at least the Bronze Age and provides some of the earliest recorded evidence of West Asian crop dispersal known in southern Central Asia. Kyzyl Unkur has the potential to illuminate the early development of high altitude agropastoral systems in Asia as well as the unique role of montane Central Asian communities in long distance interaction and exchange through time.
Notable Publications
- Cameron, Asa, Christina M. Carolus, Bukhchuluun Dashzeveg, Emily Eklund, Byambatseren Batdalai, Aspen Greaves, Chunag Amartuvshin. (2025) Unearthing Early Agriculture on the Mongolian Steppe: Excavations at Khairt Suuryn, a Xiongnu Period (c.250 BC-200 AD) Settlement in Northeastern Mongolia. In 30th Annual Arctic Studies Center Newsletter. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution and National Museum of Natural History.
- Carolus, Christina M., Asa Cameron, Bukhchuluun Dashzeveg, Amartuvshin Chunag, Davaakhuu Odsuren, Batdalai Byambatseren, Molor Adiyasuren, Gabat Dashzeveg. (2024). Ritual Birch Bark Traditions in Prehistoric Eastern Eurasia: A Case Study from the Mongolian Gobi. In 29th Annual Arctic Studies Center Newsletter. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution and National Museum of Natural History.
- Honeychurch, William, Chunag Amartuvshin, Joshua Wright, Christina M. Carolus, Michelle Hrivnyak. (2023). Multiresource Pastoralism, Dynamic Foodways, and Ancient Statecraft in Mongolia. Land, 12(9), 1715.
- Carolus, Christina M., Asa Cameron, Bukhchuluun Dashzeveg, William Honeychurch. Excavations at Aduun Ordon in the Mongolian Gobi. (2023) In 28th Annual Arctic Studies Center Newsletter. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution and National Museum of Natural History.
- Frahm, Ellery E. and Christina M. Carolus (2022). Identifying the origins of obsidian artifacts in the Deh Luran Plain (SW Iran) highlights community connections in the Neolithic Zagros. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(43), e2109321119.
- Frahm, Ellery E., Christina M. Carolus, Asa Cameron, Jack Berner, Haley Brown, Jing Cheng, Jacob Kalodner, Adrian Natale, Sophia Seibert, Dominique Sparks-Stokes, Elizabeth Wuellner. (2022) Introducing the BRICC (Bricks and Rocks for Instruments’ Ceramic Calibration) sets: Open-source calibration materials for quantitative X-ray fluorescence analysis.Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 43, 103443.
- Frahm, Ellery E. and Christina M. Carolus.(2021). End of the line? Obsidian at Umm Qseir, a Halafian farmstead in the Syrian steppe. Journal of Archeological Science: Reports, 38, 103035.
- Skoggard, Ian R., Carol R. Ember, Emily Pitek, Christina M. Carolus, Joshua Conrad Jackson. (2020). Resource Stress Predicts Changes in Religious Beliefs and Sharing Behavior. Human Nature. 31(3): 249-271.