FLINDERS UNIVERSITY
Research Field: Archaeology
Humans and our ancestors have lived through many periods of dramatic climate change, which have unquestionably influenced our evolution. Unfortunately, high quality climate records are often not available from archaeological sites making it difficult to directly measure the impacts of changing temperature, sea level and rainfall on how humans have evolved over time.
Dr Moffat’s research is focused on examining the sediments in archaeological cave sites using exciting new techniques, such as sub-surface imaging and analyzing the chemistry of teeth, to try to better understand past climates.
Ian has partnered with many community groups to map unmarked graves within historic and Indigenous cemeteries which has involved many presentations and he has run workshops for a number of Indigenous schools on using geophysical and geomatic methods in archaeology. He has written several articles for The Conversation and worked with Channel 7 and SAPOL on the 2018 investigation of the Castalloy Factory to attempt to locate the Beaumont children which was the subject of extensive national media.