About

Sarah B. McClure is a professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she also serves as the director of the Mediterranean Prehistory and Palaeoecology Laboratory and the Zooarchaeology Laboratory. She is an environmental archaeologist studying human-environmental interactions in the past, with a focus on the environmental and social impacts of the spread of agriculture worldwide, particularly in early farming in the Mediterranean and Europe 8000-5000 years ago. Her research explores the origins and spread of farming during the Holocene, examining how early farming populations affected health, nutrition, disease, and social complexity, and how these impacts have long-term ecological legacies. McClure approaches her research comparatively, focusing on the eastern Adriatic region and impacts of early farming in the western Mediterranean, and has expanded her work to historic contexts in the eastern US and California. She has been involved in excavations and research projects in Croatia, Spain, and other regions, utilizing innovative technologies to define the nature and timing of early farming societies and their environmental effects.

Research topics

• Geography
• Archaeology
• Ecology
• Biology
• Geology
• Forestry
• Oceanography
• Paleontology
• Demography

Selected publications

• Carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis of the Middle/Late Bronze individuals from Bezdanjača Cave, Lika region, Croatia

  Journal of Archaeological Science Reports · 2026-03-29

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Neolithic cereal cultivation in the Adriatic

  Documenta Praehistorica · 2026-04-03

  articleOpen access

  The Neolithic in Dalmatia began around 6000 cal BC, marked by the appearance of permanent settlements within the fertile valleys of the region’s karst landscape. Although the archaeobotanical evidence is limited, it indicates the cultivation of a variety of crops, including barley, emmer, einkorn, lentil, and flax, alongside the development of livestock farming, which shifted from a focus on sheep and goat husbandry to cattle farming. This paper presents an analysis of carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes from charred barley and emmer grains excavated from five Neolithic settlements: Pokrovnik, Rašinovac, Danilo-Bitinj, Krivače, and Velištak. The findings suggest that farming in Dalmatia could have involved the cultivation of small, permanent plots subjected to varying degrees of manuring. These results are consistent with broader trends in Neolithic Europe and provide new insights into the regional characteristics of early farming practices in the Adriatic.

  PublisherDOI

• Rezultati probnoga arheološkog istraživanja neolitičkog nalazišta Pod Jarugom

  Archaeologia Adriatica · 2025-01-23

  articleOpen access

  Probno arheološko istraživanje neolitičkog nalazišta Pod Jarugom u Podgrađu provedeno je u ožujku 2022. godine. Istraživanje je provedeno s ciljem utvrđivanja stratigrafskih i kulturnih odnosa na nalazištu, kronometrijskog datiranja nalazišta, te utvrđivanja potencijala za buduća sustavna arheološka istraživanja. Istražena je jedna probna sonda površine 3 m2. Nalazište je pripisano srednjem neolitiku, odnosno danilskomu ukrasnom stilu.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Cranial variability in North American domestic and wild canids

  Journal of Archaeological Science Reports · 2024-05-17 · 4 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Animal exploitation by the last hunter-gatherers in the Mediterranean Iberia. New data from the Mesolithic groups from Cocina cave (Valencia, Eastern Iberia)

  Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences · 2024-07-15 · 3 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Mesolithic groups in Mediterranean Iberia lived during a period of bioclimatic and cultural changes. Thus, their economic behaviour and the availability of plant and animal resources show some interesting variation compared to previous periods that indicate changes in mobility patterns and social connectivity networks. This paper presents information on patterns of animal exploitation of the last hunter-gatherers in this region through zooarchaeological and taphonomic analyses of faunal remains from one of the key sites of the Iberian Peninsular Mesolithic, Cocina cave. This site is located in a mountainous woodland region with a rich Late Mesolithic archaeological record. Results indicate that Iberian ibex, red deer, and rabbits were the most hunted species, but that a diversity of other taxa were also present. The comparison to other Mediterranean sites suggests that Late Mesolithic foragers had common animal exploitation patterns with an increased taxonomic diversification and a clear connection to coastal areas. We suggest these foragers practiced a logistic pattern of food procurement, combining long-term with short-term camps including hunting spots, and in some cases evidence for broad scale social interactions. We hypothesize that Cocina cave may have served as a nexus of social and subsistence activities.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Pastoralism, hunting, and coexistence: Domesticated and wild bovids in Neolithic Sudan

  International Journal of Osteoarchaeology · 2023 · 4 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Geography
  • Ecology
  • Biology

  Abstract The interactions between mobile pastoralists and semi‐sedentary Nilotic foraging groups in the Middle Nile Valley had long‐term implications for the development of social complexity as seen in the ancient African kingdom of Kerma. This study presents the results of the zooarcheological analysis of animal remains from two sites in the 4th cataract of the Nile valley, El Ginefab and Shemkhiya, and compares findings to other published sites in the region during a period of significant climatic change. Results indicate that the communities living at Shemkhiya and El Ginefab differed in terms of their meat preferences and their primary modes of bovid acquisition, and that pastoralist practices changed at El Ginefab through time. Hunting remained an important feature of subsistence practices, and regional comparisons indicate that the acquisition of wild bovids did not disappear with incorporation of domesticated livestock; however, pastoralists limited their hunting practices to smaller wild bovids in contrast to neighboring forager populations. A clear chronological overlap is documented between communities reliant on pastoralism and those reliant on hunting as a subsistence practice for several millennia. This highlights the need to more explicitly characterize and understand the dynamics of coexistence for the spread and establishment of pastoralism regionally, as well as how social ties, subsistence practices, and land use practices overlapped during periods of critical environmental changes and their implications for emerging social complexity.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A multi-stage Bayesian modelling for building the chronocultural sequence of the Late Mesolithic at Cueva de la Cocina (Valencia, Eastern Iberia)

  Quaternary International · 2023-07-11 · 9 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Refining chronologies and typologies: Cueva de la Cocina (Dos Aguas, Valencia, Spain) and its central role in defining the Late Mesolithic sequence in the Iberian Mediterranean area

  Quaternary International · 2023-06-20 · 3 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  This paper constitutes a narrative view of the diachronic research conducted at Cueva de la Cocina (Dos Aguas, València) and its consequences on the Spanish Mesolithic literature from the middle of the 20th century to current times. Since its discover in 1941, the site has become one of the key sites regarding the sequence of the Late Mesolithic in Mediterranean Iberia. The campaigns conducted by L. Pericot (1941-45) provided the first archaeological sequence between the end of the Palaeolithic and the Early Neolithic in the aforementioned area. The review developed by J. Fortea in his fundamental book, focused on the Mediterranean “Epipalaeolithic”, reinforced the initial postulates on the occupations of the last hunter-gatherers and gave place to the current sequence. The goal of this work consists of providing some light in the epistemological trajectory that conforms the Mesolithic's research history. Particularly, we want to highlight the importance to understand pioneering works to open new research questions considering current archaeological challenges and chances.

  PublisherDOI

• Niche Construction and the Ideal Free Distribution: Partners in Characterizing Past Human-Environmental Dynamics

  Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology/Interdisciplinary contributions to archaeology · 2023-01-01 · 1 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Last Hunter-Gatherers on the Iberian Peninsula: An Integrative Evolutionary and Multiscalar Approach from Cueva de la Cocina (Western Mediterranean)

  Quaternary International · 2023-11-27 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Cultural And Biological Approaches To Domestic Animal Management

  NSF · $280k · 2014–2020

• Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Emergence of Social Inequality

  NSF · $30k · 2015–2018

Frequent coauthors

• Oreto García Puchol

  Universitat de València

  36 shared

• Douglas J. Kennett

  24 shared

• Agustín Diez Castillo

  18 shared

• Martin Welker

  17 shared

• Joan Bernabéu Aubán

  Universitat de València

  15 shared

• Salvador Pardo-Gordó

  Universidad de La Laguna

  15 shared

• Emily Zavodny

  University of Central Florida

  14 shared

• Lluís Molina Balaguer

  13 shared

Labs

• Mediterranean Prehistory and Paleoecology LabPI