Dr Doudou Cao

Dr Doudou Cao

China

Archaeology, St Catharine's College

PhD thesis: Adaptation at High Altitudes: A Comparative Analysis of Body Size and Proportions in Ancient Tibetan and Lowland Chinese Populations

This PhD project investigates how human body form varied in relation to high-altitude environments, focusing on ancient Tibetan populations and comparative lowland Chinese groups. It examines skeletal remains from five Tibetan Plateau sites and two lowland assemblages, combining osteometric analysis, 3D virtual methods, and statistical modelling with broader archaeological and modern anthropometric datasets. The project first addresses methodological challenges in studying incomplete and commingled skeletal remains, including joint re-association, sex estimation, limb proportion reconstruction, and stature and body mass estimation. Building on these methods, it then explores spatial and temporal variation in body size and proportions across ancient and modern Chinese populations. The findings suggest that highland groups were generally shorter, lighter, and showed distinctive limb proportions, reflecting the combined effects of hypoxia, cold stress, nutrition, subsistence, developmental plasticity, and population history. Overall, the project contributes to broader understandings of human variability and adaptability at high altitudes.

After the PhD

I am currently working as a Research Assistant Professor at the Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Hong Kong, where I am expanding my research on ancient Chinese populations through comparative osteoarchaeological analysis and computational modelling. In the longer term, I hope to establish an independent research profile that integrates biological anthropology, archaeology, and quantitative methods to better understand human variability across time and space, and to contribute to broader understandings of past human societies.