51ÉçÇøºÚÁÏ

Research

My research incorporates ethnoarchaeology, traditional knowledge and use wear to study grinding stones and their cultural context to further understand what and how people processed food in the past. These have been important tools for millenia and are under studied.

It is important to understand what was being ground for food in the past. Combining this data with information about climate and soil conditions, we may have an opportunity to uncover information that could inform current farmers about crops that were successful in past under specific climatic and soil conditions. This information may prove very helpful in areas of stress due to climatic changes.

Publications

Nixon-Darcus, Laurie

2025  Planning for analyses of use-wear on large grinding surfaces. Journal of Archaeological Science, Reports, 62, 104989. 

Nixon-Darcus, Laurie, A. Catherine D’Andrea, Yemane Meresa

2024  Models of Grinding Stone Manufacture, Use, and Discard from Tigrai, Ethiopia: Opportunities for Cultural Comparisons and Implications for Use-wear Analysis. Journal of Field Archaeology. 49(6), 453–467.

Nixon-Darcus, Laurie and A. Catherine D’Andrea

2023  Traditional Knowledge in the Northern Ethiopian Highlands: Pathway to Understanding the Past. Ethnoarchaeology: Special Issue 15(2), 180–207

A.C. D’Andrea, L. Welton, A. Manzo, H.S. Woldekiros, S.A. Brandt, A. Beldados, E.A. Peterson, L.A. Nixon-Darcus, M. Gaudiello, S.R. Wood, H. Mekonnen, S. Batiuk, et al.

2023  The Pre-Aksumite Period: Indigenous Origins and Development in the Horn of Africa. Azania Vol.58 (3), p.1-64.

Ruiz Giralt, Abel, Laurie Nixon-Darcus, A. Catherine D’Andrea, Yemane Meresa, Stefano Biagetti, Carla Lancelotti

2023  On the verge of domestication: Early use of C4cathycathy plants in the Horn of Africa. PNAS: 120 (27): e23006610 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2300166120

D’Andrea, A. Catherine, Elizabeth Peterson, Laurie Nixon-Darcus

(in review) Chapter: Craft Specialization – An Indication of Early Complex Societies. In Learning Archaeology: A Problem-Based Approach (Editors Michael Chazan, Danielle Macdonald, and Katherine Patton).              

Nixon-Darcus, Laurie

2022  Grinding what?: Using Tribology, Microscopic Use-Wear Patterns and Context to Understand Ancient Foodways in Northern Ethiopia 1600 BCE – 800 CE. Master of Arts Thesis, Archaeology Department, 51ÉçÇøºÚÁÏ, Burnaby, British Columbia.

Nixon-Darcus, Laurie A.

2022  Telling Textures: Surface Textures May Reveal Which Grains Were Ground in Northern Ethiopia. Proceedings of the Association for Ground Stone Research Meeting, Copenhagen, Archaeopress, Access Archaeology Series.

Nixon-Darcus, Laurie, & Yemane Meresa

2020  Men at Work: Grinding stone production by the experts and others in northern Ethiopia. Journal of Lithic Studies, 7(3).         

D’Andrea, A.C., L. Perry, L. Nixon-Darcus, A.G. Fahmy, A.E. Attia.

2018  A Pre-Aksumite Culinary Practice at the Mezber Site, Northern Ethiopia. In Plants and People in Africa’s Past: Progress in African Archaeobotany, Mercuri, A.M., A.C. D’Andrea, R. Fornaciari, A. Höhn (eds.), Springer. Pp. 453-480.        

Nixon-Darcus, Laurie A., A. Catherine D’Andrea

            2017  Necessary for Life: Studies of Ancient and Modern Grinding Stones in Highland                                           Ethiopia.  African Archaeological Review, 34 (2): 192-223.

Hayden, Brian, Laurie Nixon-Darcus, Logan Ansell

2016  Our ‘daily bread’: The origins of grinding grains and breadmaking.  In Exploring the Materiality of Food 'Stuffs': Transformations, Symbolic Consumption and Embodiment edit by Louise Steel and Katharina Zinn, Chapter 4.  Routledge Studies in Archaeology.

D’Andrea, A.C., Fahmy, A.G., Perry, L., Darcus, L., Toffolo M., Richards, M.P., Attia, E.A.E.

2015  First Millenium BCE Agricultural Economy in the Horn of Africa: New Evidence from Grindingstones. Attidella Societàdei Naturalisti e Matematici di Modena 146:147-149. Peer Reviewed Abstract.

Nixon-Darcus, Laurie

       2014  The Cultural Context of Food Grinding Equipment in Northern Ethiopia: An Ethnoarchaeological Approach. Master of Arts Thesis, Archaeology Department, 51ÉçÇøºÚÁÏ, Burnaby, British Columbia.