Oliver Craig specialises in biomolecular archaeology, i.e. the recovery of proteins, lipids and DNA from ancient skeletal remains and archaeological artefacts to provide insights into past human activities.His particular interests lie in temporal transitions and variability in human diets, cuisine and subsistence practices and the impact that dietary changes had on social evolution, health and the environment.

Oliver is interested in combining a broad range of analytical techniques to study palaeodiet but particularly stable isotope analysis of human bone and organic residue analysis of food remains on ceramics. He has led on the development of compound specific isotope approaches in both these fields. 

His research has focused on the analysis of materials from key prehistoric sites in the UK,  Central and Eastern Europe and along the Atlantic, Baltic and Mediterranean coastlines. Oliver is also interested in Roman diet and particularly the issue of marine consumption. 

Oliver has a strong interest in the earliest use of pottery from North America, Patagonia, Eastern Baltic, Siberia, Russian Far East and Japan. 

Oliver has hosted 8 Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellows from a wider diversity of backgrounds and supervised 35 PhD students. He directed the  Chemarch network leading 15 PhD students to investigate the chemistry and molecular biology of prehistoric artefacts.