As an Old World prehistorian, Marshall’s research focuses on two issues: early hominid lifeways, and the origins and spread of pastoralism in Africa. She has explored these topics through survey and excavation, principally in the Loita-Mara area of southwestern Kenya, and through zooarchaeological studies of faunas excavated from archaeological sites. She has also undertaken ethnoarchaeological field work designed to investigate factors that affect body part representation in archaeological sites, and alternative pathways to food production among Okiek hunter-gatherers of the western Mau Escarpment, Kenya. Marshall has been involved in a major conservation project at Laetoli, and is currently conducting zooarchaeological research on the timing of the appearance of early domestic animals in Ethiopia.

Fiona Marshall
James W. and Jean L. Davis Professor in Arts and Sciences
Contact Information
- Phone: 314-935-5181
- Email: fmarshal@wustl.edu
- Website: Website
Media Contact
In the media
The Kunga Was a Status Symbol Long Before the Thoroughbred
Fiona Marshall, James W. and Jean L. Davis Professor in Arts and Sciences
Humans were drinking milk before they could digest it
Fiona Marshall, the James W. and Jean L. Davis Professor in Arts and Sciences
A tomb find in China may give the donkey added respect
Fiona Marshall, the James W. and Jean L. Davis Professor in Arts and Sciences
Beast of burden, or animal athlete? Donkeys were used for polo in ancient China, study finds
Fiona Marshall, the James W. and Jean L. Davis Professor in Arts and Sciences
Archaeologists discover first evidence for polo—on donkeys
Fiona Marshall, the James W. and Jean L. Davis Professor in Arts and Sciences
Ancient Chinese noblewoman discovered buried with the donkeys she used for playing polo
Fiona Marshall, the James W. and Jean L. Davis Professor in Arts and Sciences
Ancient Chinese Noblewoman Was Buried With Her Donkeys so She Could Play Polo in the Afterlife
Fiona Marshall, the James W. and Jean L. Davis Professor in Arts and Sciences
This Tang Dynasty noblewoman loved playing polo so much, she was buried with her donkeys
Fiona Marshall, the James W. and Jean L. Davis Professor in Arts and Sciences
‘Polo-obsessed’ Chinese noblewoman buried with her donkey steed
Fiona Marshall, the James W. and Jean L. Davis Professor in Arts and Sciences
Ancient Riches Discovered at Mysterious Burial Monument
Fiona Marshall, the James W. and Jean L. Davis Professor in Arts and Sciences
It’s a Dog’s World, Especially in the Lab. Where Are the Cats?
Fiona Marshall, the James W. and Jean L. Davis Professor in Arts and Sciences
These Animals Thrive in the Hottest Places on Earth
Fiona Marshall, the James W. and Jean L. Davis Professor in Arts and Sciences
Were cats domesticated twice?
Fiona Marshall, the James W. and Jean L. Davis Professor, Arts & Sciences
Were cats domesticated more than once?
Fiona Marshall, the James W. and Jean L. Davis Professor, Arts & Sciences
Stories
Milk pioneers: East African herders consumed milk 5,000 years ago
Animal milk was essential to east African herders at least 5,000 years ago, according to a new study that uncovers the consumption habits in what is now Kenya and Tanzania — and sheds a light on human evolution, according to new research from anthropologists from Washington University in St. Louis.
Ancient livestock dung heaps are now African wildlife hotspots
Often viewed as wild, naturally pristine and endangered by human encroachment, some of the African savannah’s most fertile and biologically diverse wildlife hotspots owe their vitality to heaps of dung deposited there over thousands of years by the livestock of wandering herders, suggests new research in the journal Nature.
Four faculty elected to National Academy of Sciences
Four university scientists are among the 84 members and 21 foreign associates recently elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
Mouse in the house tells tale of human settlement
Long before the advent of agriculture, hunter gatherers began putting down roots in the Middle East, building more permanent homes and altering the ecological balance in ways that allowed the common house mouse to flourish, suggest new research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Cat domestication traced to Chinese farmers 5,300 years ago
Five-thousand years before it was immortalized in a British nursery rhyme, the cat that caught the rat that ate the malt was doing just fine living alongside farmers in the ancient Chinese village of Quanhucun, a forthcoming study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has confirmed.