Research

Our research includes projects around the globe, in particular the Paleolithic occupation of the Swabian Alb, the Lower Paleolithic of north-central Germany, the Paleolithic through Neolithic of Southwest Asia, the Middle Paleolithic through Classical Period of Greece, the Middle to Late Stone Age of South Africa, and the Bronze Age and Iron Age of the Southern Levant. In our work, human diets are evaluated within the context of environmental change to determine if subsistence shifts are the result of internal cultural or demographic factors, or larger environmental changes. We are interested in all aspects of human-animal interactions, from hunting, to domestication and commensalism, to the use of osseous raw materials for tool manufacture. We collaborate extensively on European material with Prof. Hervé Bocherens and Dorothée Drucker (Biogeologie), and our work in Southwest Asia is done in collaboration with the Archaeobotany group led by PD Dr. Simone Riehl. The source of nearly all of our zooarchaeological material comes from excavations conducted by Prof. Nicholas Conard in the Stone Age Archaeology group. We conduct additional topical collaborations with Geoarchaeology (the use of fire, the application of FTIR and XRF to understanding bone diagenesis) and Archaeo- and Palaeogenetics (genetics of rare or specific Pleistocene species such as mammoths). We also work extensively with members of ROCEEH (The Role of Culture in Early Expansion of Humans) and the other wings of the INA.

Southern Germany

Northern Germany

Greece

Iran

Southern Levant (See Project A05 in SFB 1070)

Africa