Professor and Canada Research Chair in Environmental Archaeology, Department of Anthropology
B.A. (McMaster), Ph.D. (Western)
Life & Health Sciences DNA C227, ext.6373, paulszpak@trentu.ca
Research Interests: archaeological science, stable isotopes, palaeoecology, environmental archaeology, human-environment interactions, bone chemistry, palaeodiet, domestication and animal husbandry, Arctic, Peru, Chile
http://www.paulszpak.com
https://www.facebook.com/TEAL.research/
Current Projects
In my lab group (Trent Environmental Archaeology Lab), we use chemical techniques (mostly stable isotope analysis) to learn more about past environments and how humans interacted with and impacted these environments. I have a very active research program with projects spread all over the world and I am always looking for talented graduate and undergraduate students to join the group. Some of the projects that students could work on are listed below:
Agriculture in the ancient Andes
What do we want to know? How did people living in Peru and Chile manage their crops and domestic animals?
How we will investigate this question? Apply stable isotope analysis to ancient plant and animal remains from archaeological sites in Peru and Chile.
Are opportunities available for students? Yes! This project is funded by a large research grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC Insight Grant) and there are many opportunities for student thesis projects.
Palaeoecology of the Arctic
What do we want to know? How has the environment changed in the Arctic over the last 12,000 years and how have these changes impacted the endemic species (e.g., polar bear, beluga whale, narwhale, walrus) that live there?
How we will investigate this question? Apply stable isotope analysis to animal bones from archaeological sites, palaeontological sites, historic museum collections, and modern specimens.
Are opportunities available for students? Yes! This project is funded by a large research grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC Discovery Grant) and there are many opportunities for student thesis projects.
Human Palaeodiet and Mobility in the American Great Plains
What do we want to know? How did the ancestors of the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes live? What did they eat? How did this change through their lives and over time? Where did they live and how did they move around the landscape during their lives?
How we will investigate this question? Apply stable isotope analysis to human remains from the central United States.
Are opportunities available for students? Yes! This project is funded by a research grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC Insight Development Grant) and there are opportunities for student thesis projects. This research was developed in collaboration with the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes.
Bone Chemistry
What do we want to know? How do bones change in the burial environment? How do we optimize the methods that we use to study the chemical composition of these bones?
How we will investigate this question? Conduct experimental studies using modern and ancient bones.
Are opportunities available for students? Yes! This research is funded by a large research grant from the Canada Research Chairs Program and there are opportunities for student thesis projects.
Select Recent Publications
*Members of Paul Szpak’s Research Group
Driscoll B*, Darwent C, Szpak P. 2025. Thule dog diets in the Hudson Bay reflect human dietary variability: Implications for palaeodietary studies and past human-dog relationships in the Canadian Arctic. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 65, 105233. doi: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2025.105233
Guiry E*, Kennedy JR, Stricker L, Lavin M, Szpak P. 2025. What it means to be marine: Sulfur isotope variability in the historical Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. Journal of Archaeological Science 179, 106265. doi: 10.1016/j.jas.2025.106265
Hultquist N*, Millaire J-F, Szpak P. 2025 Strontium isotopes and the geographic origins of camelids in the Virú Valley, Peru. Journal of Archaeological Science 174, 106142. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2024.106142
Guiry E*, Kennedy R, Orton D, Armitage P, Bratten J, Dagneau C, Dawdy S, deFrance S, Gaulton B, Givens D, Hall O*, Kenyon K, Laberge An, Lavin M, Miller H, Minkoff MF, Niculescu T, Noel S, Pavao-Zuckerman B, Stricker L, Teeter M*, Welker M, Wilkoski J, Szpak P, Buckley M. The ratting of North America: A 350-year retrospective on Rattus species compositions and competition. Science Advances 10, eadm6755. doi:10.1126/sciadv.adm6755.
Guiry E*, Kennedy JR, Malcom C, Miller M*, Hall O*, Buckley M, Szpak P, 2024. Archaeological evidence for long-term human impacts on sea turtle foraging behaviour. Royal Society Open Science 11, 240120. doi:10.1098/rsos.240120.
Raoult V, Phillips AA, Nelson J, Niella Y, Skinner C, Tilcock MB, Burke PJ, Szpak P, James WR, Harrod C, 2024. Why aquatic scientists should use sulfur stable isotope ratios (ẟ34S) more often. Chemosphere 355, 141816. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.141816.
Skovrind M, Louis M, Ferguson SH, Glazov DM, Litovka DI, Loseto L, Meschersky IG, Miller MM*, Petr M, Postma L, Rozhnov VV, Scott M*, Westbury MV, Szpak P, Friesen TM, Lorenzen ED, 2024. Elucidating the sustainability of 700 y of Inuvialuit beluga whale hunting in the Mackenzie River Delta, Northwest Territories, Canada. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121, e2405993121. doi:10.1073/pnas.2405993121.
Routledge J*, Sonne C, Letcher RJ, Dietz R, Szpak P, 2023. Unprecedented shift in Canadian High Arctic polar bear food web unsettles four millennia of stability. Anthropocene 43, 100397. doi: 10.1016/j.ancene.2023.100397.
Wilson T*, Szpak P. 2023. Comparing the performance of demineralization agents (HCl and EDTA) for stable isotope analysis of bone collagen with implications for quality control criteria and collagen yield. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. doi:10.1002/oa.3222.