News
22.01.2018
Tübingen Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology Prize for Frido Welker
Dutch Archaeologist develops bioarchaeological method to establish whether sites are associated with anatomically modern humans or Neanderthals
The Tübingen Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology prize goes to Dr Frido Welker of Copenhagen University. He receives the distinction for his thesis, “The palaeoproteomic identification of Pleistocene hominin skeletal remains: towards a biological understanding of the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition”. For it, Frido Welker examined archaeological material from the period of the last Neanderthals and the first modern humans.
Welker studied Archaeology at Leiden University in the Netherlands and completed his Master’s degree in Bioarchaeology at York University in 2013. He completed his doctorate in 2016 at the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, where he also worked as a postdoc. He has been conducting his research at Copenhagen University’s Natural History Museum since 2017.
Anatomically modern humans replaced the last Neanderthals in the transition period from the Middle Palaeolithic (200,000 years ago) to the Late Palaeolithic (40,000 years ago). It is often unclear whether archaeological finds from that time should be attributed to Neanderthals or humans like us; hominin remains from that period are only rarely preserved. Therefore, Frido Welker developed a new method which uses ancient protein sequences of one or the other human type to determine which is associate with a particular archaeological layer. The method has already been used to demonstrate a Neanderthal connection at a Châtelperronian site. The Châtelperronian in southwestern France and northern Spain is believed to be the last archaeological culture with Neanderthal ties. It provides key information about Neanderthal behavior and cognition, and about interaction between the human species and the ultimate demise of the Neanderthals.
The award will be presented on Thursday, February 1 at 11am in the Fürstenzimmer in Hohentübingen Castle, Tübingen.
The annual Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology Prize comes with €5000 prizemoney, sponsored by EiszeitQuell ‒ Romina Mineralbrunnen GmbH. It is awarded this year for the 20th time.
Contact:
Professor Nicholas Conard
University of Tübingen
Faculty of Science
Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment
Institute of Prehistory and Medieval Archaeology
Phone +49 7071 29-72416
nicholas.conard@uni-tuebingen.de