Just published a paper on the lithics from Kabwe. We argue that they're indicative of MSA technology, although they can't be definitevely associated with the fossils. Might help better understand the origins of the MSA and its complex pattern across the continent. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Great to have been part of this team in the field and see the publication out!

(1/18) New paper alert, a thread! Just published in PLoS ONE, our study: “Novel archaeological and palaeontological findings in cave and palaeoriver landscapes of inland northeast Arabia”. Link: journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

There's still time to register for this week's talk, given by @professorlacy.bsky.social ! Sign up here: liverpool-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/regi... We hope to see you there!

Beautiful clear day at the top of British Camp

Join us at the MPI-GEA or online for a free symposium on Quantifying Complexity in Stone Tools on the 21st of October! 🪨 With a keynote lecture by Charles Perreault. Full speaker list will be released soon! Secure your spot here: shh-cloud.gnz.mpg.de/index.php/ap...

Hindcasted species distribution modelling of baboons illuminates potential refugia across Africa and Arabia, with predicted maxima and minima of habitable ranges pulsed by orbital precession and obliquity expressed within the last precessional cycle. www.nature.com/articles/s42...

This project ended up taking the best part of 3 years 😅 Thank you very much to @margheritac17.bsky.social, @mikleonardi.bsky.social, @jblinkhorn.bsky.social, @elliescerri.bsky.social, Manuel Chevalier, Matt Grove, Andrea Pozzi and Andrea Manica from @eegcam.bsky.social for your hard work!!

Very pleased to see our paper published online at Climate of the Past: cp.copernicus.org/articles/21/... We present model-data comparisons of Late Quaternary climate across the Northern Hemisphere, showing that increasing model resolution has little net effect on coherence with pollen proxies 😊

New paper in collaboration with @lucytimbrell96.bsky.social and @jblinkhorn.bsky.social, with several of us involved (@mikleonardi.bsky.social @margheritac17.bsky.social @andreavpozzi.bsky.social) shows that downscaling palaeoclimate models doesn't necessarily improve coherence with proxy data.

New paper out, in collaboration with @jblinkhorn.bsky.social @elliescerri.bsky.social and @lucytimbrell96.bsky.social

New paper alert! Led by @jblinkhorn.bsky.social, we look at refugia for baboons in the Pleistocene and Holocene, offering a potential analogue for early hominins where climatic tolerances are shared. www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Here it is, our case study on how to combine a century of deep (and building) archaeological knowledge around prehistoric social traditions with the new and exciting aDNA data, to help avoid interpretive pitfalls. I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed the process of writing it 🎁

Malaria shaped human spatial organisation for the last 74 thousand years🏺🧪 Margherita Colucci, @ceciliapad.bsky.social, @elliescerri.bsky.social et al www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Humans avoided or unsuccessful in malaria hotspots. Effects of these choices shaped human demography for last 74 kya

Nice coverage of some our ongoing work at Latnija and our Island Legacies conference last week timesofmalta.com/article/latn...

🚨 NEW preprint🚨 Our latest study @HPS MPI-GEA @elliescerri.bsky.social & @eegcam.bsky.social models #malaria risk over the past 74,000 years revealing its powerful role in shaping human habitat choice and dispersal since the late Pleistocene in sub-Saharan Africa 🦟🌍 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Palaeo folks, I was speaking with the production team recently and they said they are keen to feature more palaeontology stories. So if you are excavating/surveying this summer and think you might turn up something, drop them a line

🚨NEW PAPER from the @eegcam.bsky.social!🚨I have never been as proud of something as of the work that finally we can share today: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... - we show how a climatically driven Pan African meta population model explains our species genetic and morphological diversity 🧬💀

First publication for my recently started TerraForm project is out. A short overview and introduction published in The European Archaeologist (www.researchgate.net/publication/...).

Our next MENDLS lecture is coming up next week and it's sure to be a great one. If you're in the Northwest, come and hear Prof Manica talking about the role of climate in human evolution.

Really looking forward to this next Wednesday (14th May 2025)! Anyone is welcome to join - registration is free and available here: forms.gle/9kdzpTbfMuDZ...

@deepakjha.bsky.social presenting CSIA of modern plants and sediments along an aridiy gradient in the Thar Desert at #EGU25

Looking forward to our next MENDLS talk on Wednesday 14th of May with Prof Andrea Manica of the University of Cambridge @eegcam.bsky.social Join us in Liverpool! Sign up via the QR code below

Livestream tomorrow at 5pm UK/noon EDT with Drs Eleanor Scerri (@elliescerri.bsky.social) and Huw Groucutt (@huwgroucutt.bsky.social) to chat about their recent paper that's been all over the news about Hunter gatherer occupation on Malta www.youtube.com/live/ZGRjN20...

🚨New preprint!🚨"Sexual division of labour shapes hunter-gatherer spatial ranges". Following on the sexual division of labour theme, finally out our analyses on the lifetime spatial ranges of over 700 Mbendjele BaYaka 🤩 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

It’s been great to see all the excitement in Malta about our recent findings at Latnija. Looking forward to the future at this incredible archaeological site!

Finally out 🥳: I've written and recorded a podcast episode with the amazing Karen Kramer for Sapiens Magazine on the origins and evolution of division of labour in hunter-gatherer societies, and its implications for undestanding (or misunderstanding) gender roles: open.spotify.com/episode/2ZGA...

Our new paper just out in @nature.com By analyzing speleothems we were able to reconstruct the palaeoclimate of northern Arabia over the past 8-million-years! Work led by Monika Markowska (University of Northumbria) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

National Geographic piece on our latest research our in @nature.com where we document recurrent humid periods in Arabia over the past 8-million-years www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/...

Feeling lucky to have played a part in two great teams both of which have papers out in Nature this afternoon - and where better to celebrate some fantastic work than by getting back out to the field for more

(1/17) We are thrilled to see our new paper ‘Hunter-gatherer sea voyages extended to remotest Mediterranean islands’ published in Nature. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Paper alert, @nature.com. Our study reveals 8 million years of #GreenArabia. We document environmental variability - ranging over the entire course of human evolution. Arabia is a key bridge at the cross-roads of continents. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

In @nature.com we report the presence of the Mesolithic on Malta - upending everything we knew about the seafaring capabilities of late European hunter-gatherers and pushing back Maltese prehistory by 1000 years. Watch the clip, link to open access paper is below. 1/5 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

(1/13) A thread on our new paper just published in Nature, ‘Recurrent humid phases in Arabia over the past 8 million years’. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Thanks to my incredible co-authors, not all of whom are on this platform - especially @huwgroucutt.bsky.social, @jblinkhorn.bsky.social, @stewiestewart.bsky.social, and Nicholas Vella with whom all this started!

NEW | Research co-authored by @jblinkhorn.bsky.social from @livancworlds.bsky.social shows that hunter-gatherers crossed at least 100km of open water to reach Malta 8,500 years ago, 1,000 years earlier than previously thought. More 👉 news.liverpool.ac.uk/2025/04/09/h... @livunihss.bsky.social

Still hugely honoured to have been able to work on this paper, led by the excellent @lucytimbrell96.bsky.social! Check it out below 👇

My amazing zooarch postdoc Mario Mata-González has published a new paper based on his PhD work - check it otu! link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Our new paper is out in Scientific Reports, led by our own @lucytimbrell96.bsky.social exploring factors behind early technological diversification! Congratulations Lucy!

Our paper “Climate seasonality and predictability during the middle stone age and implications for technological diversification in early Homo sapiens” has been published in Scientific Reports 🥳 rdcu.be/egqwZ

Back in India for the first time since 2019! And spent the afternoon looking at lithics from the Thar Desert

This time six years ago, @jblinkhorn.bsky.social and I were surveying along the Gambia River in Senegal for archaeological sites.

And now for the 'story behind the paper'! communities.springernature.com/posts/unlock...

Meanwhile, 150,000 years ago: hunter-gatherers thrived in rain forests, once considered too harsh for early Homo sapiens to survive. Here's my story [Gift link] nyti.ms/3EThoDL 🧪

Special thanks to Prof. Guédé & Dr N’Zi, the field team led by @jblinkhorn.bsky.social , @eslembenarous.bsky.social who led the geochronology, Sarah Elliott on phytoliths, Chris Kiahtipes on pollen, @robertpatalano.bsky.social & Patrick Roberts on leaf waxes, Khady Niang & Alex Blackwood on lithics.

This work was made possible thanks to the joint Ivorian-Soviet team who first excavated the site in the 1980s-90s, led by the late Prof. Liubin, and our co-author Prof. Guédé. Despite the challenges of the Covid pandemic, we were able to return to the site for key samples.

Our work validates models indicating this region of Côte d’Ivoire was a rainforest refuge, and demonstrates the importance of West Africa in the story of human evolution. Through this work, we can now ask new questions, e.g. does rainforest habitation goes back even further in time?

The stone tools at Bété contain typical Middle Stone Age (MSA) elements combined with heavy duty tools that are unique for this location and timeframe. These heavy duty tools may have been used to fell trees and/or dig up tubers, or may have been used for a variety of tasks.

Leaf wax isotopes, phytoliths and pollen all pointed to wet tropical forest, with keystone trees like Hunteria and Oil Palms. The presence of anthers proved the local signal, while an absence of grasses points to a deep, dense jungle, rather than a strip of gallery forest next to a grassland.