About

Mary Prendergast is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Rice University, specializing in archaeology with a focus on the intertwined histories of humans and animals in eastern Africa. Her research primarily investigates the origins and spread of pastoralism in Kenya and Tanzania, where she co-leads excavations at the Pastoral Neolithic site of Luxmanda. Her work employs scientific approaches such as geoarchaeology, zooarchaeology, archaeobotany, and biomolecular archaeology, including analysis of ancient proteins, lipids, DNA, and stable isotopes. Prendergast's research aims to understand the challenges faced by ancient herders, including climate and disease risks, and how their relationships with hunter-gatherer communities shaped economies, social structures, and local ecologies. She also explores transformations in foodways during the Iron Age, examining long-distance faunal movements across the Indian Ocean and their impacts on economic and social networks, culinary practices, and ecology. Her work extends to the Pleistocene, studying how early hunters and gatherers exploited diverse habitats and technologies, and how demographic shifts in Holocene Africa resulted from the spread of herding and farming. Additionally, Prendergast is engaged in research ethics in archaeogenetics, developing collaborations with museum curators, community groups, and stakeholders, and focusing on the genetic history of African populations and the implications of ancient DNA studies.

Research topics

• History
• Geography
• Archaeology
• Ethnology
• Demography
• Biology
• Sociology
• Evolutionary biology
• Computer Science
• Political Science
• Paleontology
• Engineering ethics
• Public relations
• Engineering
• Ancient history
• Genealogy
• Genetics
• Linguistics

Selected publications

• Cattle Ranching on the Northeastern Border of New Spain: Colonial Foodways at Mission Dolores, Texas

  American Antiquity · 2026-03-02

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Abstract Colonial borderlands provide an opportunity to study innovation of new foodways and persistence of traditional ones amid unfamiliar and potentially risky environments and dynamic cultural contexts. Archaeological research in northern New Spain has revealed foodways diversity as Spaniards attempted to replicate agropastoral systems and Indigenous peoples incorporated, to varying extents, new plants and animals into their culinary practices. These processes remain relatively unknown in Spanish Tejas. Here we present new zooarchaeological data from Mission Dolores in eastern Texas, synthesizing these data with a review of other Tejas missions and presidios. Written records indicate that Mission Dolores occupants struggled to provision themselves and to convert Indigenous Ais but had trade relations with neighboring French. We investigate the nature of the food system, the likelihood of self-provisioning, and culinary processing. We show that cattle were the dominant meat source, and wild fauna were rarely consumed. Mortality profiles indicate slaughter of prime age animals, while skeletal part representation, and three-dimensional visualizations of cut marks, indicate butchery of whole carcasses on site. Our findings contrast with documents implying resource stress at Mission Dolores and unexpectedly show that Mission Dolores occupants were almost solely reliant on ranching, compared with other Tejas missions and presidios.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Detecting Architectural Features and Stratigraphic Deposits at a Pastoral Neolithic site using Ground Penetrating Radar

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-01-01

  articleOpen access

  GPR data and analysis corresponding to the figures provided in the article "Detecting Architectural Features and Stratigraphic Deposits at a Pastoral Neolithic site using Ground Penetrating Radar." Access the full article here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2026.106573 To begin reproducing the figures in the article, first see the information and instructions provided in the README.txt file. Download and unzip the Laja_GPR_Project folder, which contains the GPR data and analysis.rmd script.

  PublisherDOI

• Detecting Architectural Features and Stratigraphic Deposits at a Pastoral Neolithic site using Ground Penetrating Radar

  Open MIND · 2026-01-01

  article

  GPR data and analysis corresponding to the figures provided in the article "Detecting Architectural Features and Stratigraphic Deposits at a Pastoral Neolithic site using Ground Penetrating Radar." Access the full article here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2026.106573 To begin reproducing the figures in the article, first see the information and instructions provided in the README.txt file. Download and unzip the Laja_GPR_Project folder, which contains the GPR data and analysis.rmd script.

  DOI

• Automated SEM-EDS mineralogical characterisation of archaeological pottery from Luxmanda and Mumba Rockshelter, Tanzania

  Journal of Archaeological Science Reports · 2025-09-02

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Hunting, Fishing, and Herding in Later Stone Age and Iron Age Zambia: A Review of Zooarchaeological Evidence

  African Archaeological Review · 2025-02-14

  reviewSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Rare ancient DNA from Sahara opens a window on the region’s verdant past

  Nature · 2025-04-02

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Charting a landmark-driven path forward for population genetics and ancient DNA research in Africa

  The American Journal of Human Genetics · 2024-07-01 · 9 citations

  reviewOpen access

  Population history-focused DNA and ancient DNA (aDNA) research in Africa has dramatically increased in the past decade, enabling increasingly fine-scale investigations into the continent's past. However, while international interest in human genomics research in Africa grows, major structural barriers limit the ability of African scholars to lead and engage in such research and impede local communities from partnering with researchers and benefitting from research outcomes. Because conversations about research on African people and their past are often held outside Africa and exclude African voices, an important step for African DNA and aDNA research is moving these conversations to the continent. In May 2023 we held the DNAirobi workshop in Nairobi, Kenya and here we synthesize what emerged most prominently in our discussions. We propose an ideal vision for population history-focused DNA and aDNA research in Africa in ten years' time and acknowledge that to realize this future, we need to chart a path connecting a series of "landmarks" that represent points of consensus in our discussions. These include effective communication across multiple audiences, reframed relationships and capacity building, and action toward structural changes that support science and beyond. We concluded there is no single path to creating an equitable and self-sustaining research ecosystem, but rather many possible routes linking these landmarks. Here we share our diverse perspectives as geneticists, anthropologists, archaeologists, museum curators, and educators to articulate challenges and opportunities for African DNA and aDNA research and share an initial map toward a more inclusive and equitable future.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Earth Sciences Are the Model Sciences of the Anthropocene

  Perspectives of Earth and Space Scientists · 2024-09-21 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract After 4.5 billion years as an evolving and dynamic planet, the Earth continues to evolve but with human‐altered dynamics. Earth scientists have special opportunities and responsibilities to accelerate our understanding of Earth's changes that are transforming our most remarkable home.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Small game forgotten: Late Pleistocene foraging strategies in eastern Africa, and remote capture at Panga ya Saidi, Kenya

  Quaternary Science Reviews · 2023-03-09 · 8 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Reconciling Archaeology and Legacy at Gishimangeda Cave, Tanzania

  African Archaeological Review · 2023-09-04 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Nicole Boivin

  Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History

  75 shared

• Alison Crowther

  38 shared

• Ceri Shipton

  35 shared

• David Reich

  Broad Institute

  24 shared

• Michael D. Petraglia

  Smithsonian Institution

  24 shared

• Elizabeth A. Sawchuk

  20 shared

• Audax Mabulla

  University of Dar es Salaam

  20 shared

• Agness Gidna

  Tanzania National Parks

  19 shared