Urgeschichte und Naturwissenschaftliche Archäologie

Darya Presnyakova

Abteilung Ältere Urgeschichte und Quartärökologie
Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte und Archäologie des Mittelalters
Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen
Burgsteige 11, Schloss Hohentübingen
D-72070 Tübingen

Email: darya.presnyakovaspam prevention@uni-tuebingen.de

 

Research Interests

African Stone Age, hominin behavioural evolution, lithics, organization of technology, experimental archaeology, quantitative approaches to lithic analysis

I am a field-focused archaeologist with broad interests in hominin behavioural evolution in the earlier to Middle Pleistocene. I take a trans-regional approach to this issue, and work in Russia, Kenya and South Africa, where I have co-directed and continue to co-direct several archaeological excavations. One of my interests is in how mechanisms of social and individual learning are expressed in stone tool production and hominin landscape use patterns in the earlier Pleistocene, and in how the evolution of social learning is reflected in stone artefact variability through time.

Publications

2019 Archer, W. and Presnyakova, D. (in press) Practical considerations in the application of 3DGM to lithic artifacts: an example of orientation error on bifaces. In 3D Data Acquisition in Bioarchaeology, Forensic Anthropology and Archaeological Contexts.
2018

Presnyakova, D., Braun, D.R., Conard, N.J., Feibel, C., Harris, J.W.K., Pop, C.M., Schlager, S., Archer, W. Site fragmentation, hominin mobility and LCT variability reflected in the early Acheulean record of the Okote Member, at Koobi Fora, Kenya. Journal of Human Evolution. doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.07.008

2018 Archer, W., Hutten, L., Presnyakova, D., Sumner, A. Report on the Excavation and Dating Activities at Montagu Cave, Route 62, Montagu, Western Cape. Publish progress report submitted to the Heritage Western Cape, South Africa.
2015 Presnyakova, D., Archer, W., Braun, D. R., and Flear, W. Documenting differences between Early Stone Age flake production systems: an experimental model and archaeological verification. PLoS ONE: 10(6).
2014 Caruana, M.V., Carvalho, S., Braun, D.R., Presnyakova, D., Haslam, M., Archer, W., Bobe, R., Harris, J.W.K. Quantifying Traces of Tool Use: A Novel Morphometric Analysis of Damage Patterns on Percussive Tools. PLoS ONE: 9(11).

 

Presentations at Professional Meetings

2018

Presnyakova, D., Porraz, G., Archer, W. Context, recovery and preliminary analyses of bifacial tools from the Acheulean deposits at Montagu Cave, South Africa. Poster presented at the Association of Archaeological Wear and Residue Analysis (AWRANA) meeting (Nice, France).

2018 Presnyakova, D. Flake Production Strategies of the Early Acheulean from Koobi Fora, Lake Turkana, Kenya. Podium presentation at the Archaeological Sites in the Caucuses in the Context of the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic of Eurasia meeting (St-Petersburg, Russia). 
2017 Conard, N.J. and Presnyakova, D. Aurignacian figurines from the caves of the Swabian Jura and their implications for origins of art. Podium presentation at the Art of the Stone Age Conference (St. Petersburg, Russia).
2016 Presnyakova, D., Archer, W., Schlager, S., Braun D.R., Harris, J.W.K., Conard, N.J New approaches to studying technological variability: examples from the Acheulean. Podium presentation at the Kostenki conference (Voronej, Russia).
2016 Vera Aldeias, D. Presnyakova, S. Gur-Arieh, A. Sumner, M. Shaw, L. Hutten, G. Porraz, W. Archer The Microstratigraphic Record of Montagu Cave. Poster presented at the Society of Africanist Archaeologists (SAFA) meeting (Toulouse, France).
2016 Presnyakova, D., Archer, W., Schlager, S., Braun D.R., Harris, J.W.K., Conard, N.J. Variability in the Early Acheulean from Koobi Fora. Poster presented at the Paleoanthropology Society (PaleoAnthropology) meeting (Atlanta, GA, USA).
2015 Archer, W., Presnyakova, D., Aldeias, V., Gur Arie, S., Sumner, A., Shaw, M., Porraz, G., Hutten, L., Poggenpoel, C., Keller, C.M. New excavations at Montagu Cave, Western Cape, South Africa. Poster presented at the Royal Society meeting (London, UK). 
2015 Archer, W., Presnyakova, D., Sumner, A., Aldeias, V., Gur Arie, S., Hernandez, M., Shaw, M., Porraz, G., Hutten, L., Poggenpoel, C., Keller, C.M. Montagu Cave in Prehistory: current excavation and analyses of the Acheulean sequence. Podium presentation at the European Society for the study of Human Evolution (ESHE) conference (London, UK). 
2013 Braun, D.R., Harris, J.W.K., Archer, W., Presnyakova, D. Technological Decisions in an Acheulean Context: Comparisons of East and Southern African Acheulean Assemblages. Podium presentation at the Emergence of the Acheulean in East Africa conference (Rome, Italy). 
2012 Archer, W., Presnyakova, D., Braun, D.R., McPherron, S.P., Flear, W. Distinguishing core reduction strategies through flake attributes: Implications for reconstructing Middle Pleistocene landscape use at Elandsfontein, Western Cape, South Africa. Poster presented at the European Society for the study of Human Evolution (ESHE) conference (Bordeaux, France). 
2011

Reti, J.S., Presnyakova, D., and Harris, J.W.K. Acheulean large flake production: experimental methods and implications for behavioral reconstruction at Koobi Fora, Kenya.  Podium presentation at the International Acheulean Symposium (Chongok, South Korea).

2011

Presnyakova, D., Harris, J.W.K, Braun, D.R., Flear, W., and Archer, W. Transition to Large Cutting Tool production at the Koobi Fora Formation, Kenya. Podium presentation at the Paleoanthropology Society (PaleoAnthropology) meeting (Minneapolis, MN, USA).