British archaeologist and phytolith researcher
Alison Weisskopf (1960–2018) was a British-German archaeologist specialising in archaeobotany, specifically the analysis of ancient phytoliths.
Education and career.
Weisskopf studied at the UCL Institute of Archaeology as a mature student. She was awarded her bachelor's degree in 2003, writing a dissertation on phytoliths from the Bronze Age site of Krasnoe Smarskoe in the Samara Valley in Russia. She went on to obtain a master's degree in palaeoecology of human societies in 2005, again analysing phytoliths as well as macro-botanical remains for her dissertation research, on the Neolithic site of Sanganakallu in Deccan, India. Her doctoral thesis was titled "Vegetation, agriculture and social change in Neolithic north central China, a phytolith study". It was published in the British Archaeological Reports series in 2014.
After obtaining her PhD in 2010, Weisskopf held a series of research positions at the UCL Institute of Archaeology, working on the origins of evolution of rice agriculture in East and Southeast Asia.
Weisskopf was diagnosed with late stage cancer in 2010 and died on 11 January 2018.
References.
 ;templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" / ;