Overview
The University of Hong Kong. She received her PhD in Archaeology from the University of Cambridge, following BA and MA training at Sichuan University. Her research draws on human skeletal and morphometric data to model long-term historical change and population processes in China, with particular emphasis on environmentally challenging regions such as the Tibetan Plateau and the mountainous areas of southwest China.
Approaching human skeletal remains as a materially grounded archive of lived experience, her work integrates osteological analysis, 3D digital methods, and Bayesian spatiotemporal modelling to examine long-term interactions among biological variation, environmental change, and social organisation across historical trajectories.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
- Osteoarchaeology
- Bayesian Inference
- 3D imaging and geometric morphometrics
- Human development and adaptation
- Demography and health in past populations
- Mountain and high-altitude archaeology
MAJOR AWARDS
- 2021–2025
Harding Distinguished Postgraduate Scholars Programme, University of Cambridge - 2022
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Research Scholarship (Investigation of Missing Persons and Unidentified Human Remains)
PUBLICATIONS
Journal Articles
- Cao, D., Liu, X., Gu, W., Zhu, H., Zhang, R., Zhou, Z., Wei, Q., Zou, J., Qiu, Y., Chen, J., Ding, L., Pomeroy, E., & Yuan, H. (2025).
Dental caries as indicators of agricultural practices in the foothills of Neolithic China. Archaeological Research in Asia, 43, 100645.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ara.2025.100645 - Wang, X., Cao, D., Gu, W., Wei, Q., Chen, X.-L., Zhang, R., Ding, L., Tang, Z., Teng, X., Wang, T., Zou, J., Qiu, Y., Fu, Q., & Yuan, H. (2025).
Multi-isotope analysis reveals human millet-based diets and limited mobility in the Central Plains of China ca. 5000 years ago. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 35, e3407.
https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.3407 - Cao, D., Crema, E. R., & Pomeroy, E. (2024).
Estimating intralimb proportions for commingled remains. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology.
https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.3326 - Yi, B., Yuan, H., Wang, T., Cao, D., Yang, Y., & Hu, Y. (2024).
Life history of a high-status noblewoman from the late Shu state during the Eastern Zhou period (770–221 BC): Childhood stress and adult stability. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 34(1). - Tao, L., Yuan, H., Zhu, K., Liu, X., Guo, J., Min, R., He, H., Cao, D., Yang, X., Zhou, Z., Wang, R., Zhao, D., Ma, H., Chen, J., Zhao, J., Li, Y., He, Y., Suo, D., Zhang, R., Li, S., Li, L., Yang, F., Li, H., Zhang, L., Jin, L., & Wang, C.-C. (2023).
Ancient genomes reveal millet farming–related demic diffusion from the Yellow River into southwest China. Current Biology, 33(22), 4995–5002.e7. - Lu, H., Li, Z., Ciren, C., Cao, D., Gao, X., & Li, L. (2022).
Sding Chung: An early multi-burial cave site on the Tibetan Plateau. Antiquity, 96(387), 745–753. - Yuan, H., Gu, W., Wei, Q., Wu, Q., Ding, L., & Cao, D. (2022).
Analysis of dental caries in the Yangshao population at the Qingtai site, Zhengzhou. Acta Anthropologica Sinica, 41(2), 226–237. (in Chinese) - Cao, D., & Yuan, H. (2021).
Preliminary analysis of commingled human remains. Yellow River, Yellow Earth, Yellow Race, (06), 41–44. (in Chinese)
Newsletter
- Cao, D. (2017, November 17).
Seeing humans through bones: A multidimensional perspective on ancient human life — Summary of the Second Annual Meeting of the Osteoarchaeology Committee of the Chinese Archaeological Society. China Cultural Relics News, (006). (in Chinese)
Conference Presentations
- 2025
Cao, D., Crema, E. R., Lü, H., Yuan, H., & Pomeroy, E.
Tracking Spatial and Temporal Variation in Body Form Across Ancient Chinese Populations
Annual Conference of Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (UK), Cambridge, United Kingdom. (Podium) - 2025
Cao, D., Crema, E. R., Lü, H., Yuan, H., & Pomeroy, E.
Bayesian models reveal spatiotemporal patterns of body size variation in Holocene Chinese populations.
Annual Meeting of the Human Osteoarchaeology Committee, Chinese Archaeological Society, Yili, Xinjiang, China. (Podium) - 2025
Cao, D., Crema, E. R., & Pomeroy, E.
Tracking long-term and geographic variation in body size among Chinese populations: Combined insights from contemporary and archaeological evidence.
94th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Biological Anthropologists, Baltimore, USA. (Podium) - 2024
Cao, D., Pomeroy, E., Lu, H., Yuan, H., Feng, Y., & Shuai, L.
An analysis of commingled human remains from two Bronze to Iron Age sites in West Tibet.
30th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists, Rome, Italy. (Podium) - 2024
Cao, D., Liu, X., & Yuan, H.
Dental caries as indicators of agricultural practices in the foothills of Neolithic China.
24th European Meeting of the Paleopathology Association, Leiden, Netherlands. (Poster) - 2023
Cao, D., Crema, E. R., & Pomeroy, E.
Estimating intra-limb proportions for commingled remains.
23rd Annual Conference of the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology, London, UK. (Poster) - 2023
Cao, D., Lu, H., Yang, F., Li, S., Wangdui, X., Yuan, H., & Pomeroy, E.
Bioarchaeological insights into health and cultural practices on the ancient Tibetan Plateau in Central Asia.
29th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists, Belfast, UK. (Poster) - 2019
Cao, D., & Yuan, H.
Life-course study of Zhao Xin, an official of the Northern Qi Dynasty.
Third Annual Meeting of the Human Osteoarchaeology Committee, Chinese Archaeological Society, Qingdao, China. (Poster) - 2018
Cao, D.
Dental caries in the Late Neolithic Gaoshan population in southwest China.
Osteoarchaeology Session, Second Chinese Archaeological Congress, Chengdu, China. (Podium)
FIELDWORK EXPERIENCES
Excavations
- 2021 Sdingchung Cave Site, Zhongba, Xizang (Tibet), China
- 2016 Haimenkou Site, Jianchuan, Dali, Yunnan, China
Surveys
- 2025 Shuanghe Cave, Suiyang, Zunyi, Guizhou, China
- 2020 Shidaqiu Site, Maerkang, Aba, Sichuan, China
- 2019 Xincun Site, Wuding, Chuxiong, Yunnan, China
- 2019 Ladian Site, Yuanmou, Chuxiong, Yunnan, China
- 2019 Jiangxifen Site, Wuding, Chuxiong, Yunnan, China
- 2018 Zhijiaozhongxin Site, Fenyang, Shanxi, China
- 2018 Qingtai Site, Zhengzhou, Henan, China
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
- Speaker, “What I Found from Buried Ancient Teeth”
TEDxKids@Chengdu, Chengdu, China (2021)
