Long form news article in @science.org covering our latest collaborations between the Drimolen and Kromdraai teams as part of a new 4 year @Australian Research Council Discovery Grant

The world’s greatest concentration of ancestral human remains, in South Africa, poses a 2-million-year-old riddle of coexistence. scim.ag/46xvUwV

Uniform, circular, and shallow enamel pitting in hominins: Prevalence, morphological associations, and potential taxonomic significance 🏺🧪 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Remarkable consistency across species, time and geography suggests these enamel pits may be something quite interesting.

2-million-year-old pitted teeth from our ancient relatives reveal secrets about human evolution theconversation.com/2-million-ye...

Uniform, circular, and shallow enamel pitting in hominins: Prevalence, morphological associations, and potential taxonomic signals www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Worth a read for any up and coming Palaeoanthropologists about how not to behave. Let's leave this culture behind in our discipline. www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

💥Job Alert!!💥 We’re seeking to appoint a permanent Assistant Professor of Archaeological Science (materials), following the retirement of Prof. Julian Henderson. Deadline May 5th 2025. #Archaeology #archeology #archaeologicalScience 🧪 Full details here: jobs.nottingham.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...

🏺 There is actually a perfume range called "Neanderthal" and it's gorgeous - I did a book giveaway with them! (also I would totally be up for a real Viking scent)

Guardian Australia @australia.theguardian.com reporting on the proposed changes to the ARC grants system. There’s concern that getting rid of standalone fellowships will have lots of unintended consequences, especially for Early-Career Researchers. By @donnadlu.bsky.social

We are happy to share our pre-print on dating bone using a novel non-destructive protocol we developed. The paper is on the Biorxiv here (Luftensteiner et al. 2025): www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

I received a heartbreaking email today: A paper in a special issue I’m editing is being retracted because one of its authors is afraid of losing their job and their legal status in the U.S. if they publish a scientific study on evolution. Yes, on evolution, nature's engine of diversity.

Latest paper out from the Drimolen team about the ~2 million year old DNH 43 Paranthropus pelvis from Drimolen Cave in South Africa. @ltuarchaeology.bsky.social

Analysis of an understudied 2-million-year-old fossil pelvis from the site of Drimolen, South Africa provides additional insights into the anatomy of early human relatives. doi.org/10.17159/saj... @caleyorr.bsky.social @ozarchaeomaglab.bsky.social

New paper from my lab & Drimolen team (@ozarchaeomaglab.bsky.social) on the DNH 43 hominin pelvis. I first saw it in 2019. Given the importance of the pelvis in the evolution of human locomotion and birth, I was surprised only a basic description had been published. 1/ #paleoanthropology 🏺🧪

Australian Opal colours in Adelaide

Not a single mention of all tne job losses in the University sector caused by these constantly shifting targets on international student numbers. FYI that bit about “Plugging holes in university budgets” = job losses. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01...

One of the many new MIS 11 Acheulian large cutting tools from Amanzi Springs Area 1. As we enter the last week of excavation we switch from collecting more of these to sampling for micromorphology/geochronology/palaeoenvironments

I am so thrilled to share our last paper on the WAfrica MSA sites "Constraining the age of the Middle Stone Age locality of Bargny (Senegal) through a combined OSL-ESR dating approach" (doi.org/10.1016/j.qe...)!

One of the many new MIS 11 Acheulian large cutting tools from Amanzi Springs Area 1. As we enter the last week of excavation we switch from collecting more of these to sampling for micromorphology/geochronology/palaeoenvironments

Our new article led by @eslembenarous.bsky.social on the MSA site of Bargny, where new investigations headed by Dr Khady Niang have yielded samples that show its Middle Pleistocene age. The West African MSA keeps getting older (watch this space!). www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

La Trobe Archaeology student Jaz with her first handaxe discovery from Amanzi Springs Area 1 in South Africa. This central layer has actually been interesting for yielding lots of small flaking debris, and wood, but glad the students finally also got to excavate an Acheulian icon as well.

One of the large cutting tools we just recovered from a new layer, >400,000 years old, at Amanzi Springs Area 1 in South Africa.

La Trobe Archaeology student Jaz with her first handaxe discovery from Amanzi Springs Area 1 in South Africa. This central layer has actually been interesting for yielding lots of small flaking debris, and wood, but glad the students finally also got to excavate an Acheulian icon as well.

That moment when you find out you have gotten your grant funding and so don't have to frantically write the net one in 3 weeks because your national grant body opens the next round before they have told you the outcome of the last. Anyway, stay tunned for the next 4 years of Drimolen research.

One of the large cutting tools we just recovered from a new layer, >400,000 years old, at Amanzi Springs Area 1 in South Africa.

Amanzi Springs can be a cruel and unpredictable site. In the right hand corner is the edge of Deacon’s 1960s trench where he seemingly found no archaeology. In the top right is our current excavation, with artefacts 30cm below the surface. Just under our feet the whole time.

Amanzi Springs can be a cruel and unpredictable site. In the right hand corner is the edge of Deacon’s 1960s trench where he seemingly found no archaeology. In the top right is our current excavation, with artefacts 30cm below the surface. Just under our feet the whole time.

La Trobe University Archaeology student Sarah with her first handaxe from Amanzi Springs Area 1, in layers we now believe to be older than 400,000 years.

La Trobe University Archaeology student Sarah with her first handaxe from Amanzi Springs Area 1, in layers we now believe to be older than 400,000 years.

Paper led by my now-graduated PhD student Jesse Martin where we argue that the SK 54 cranium from Swartkrans in South Africa is Homo, not Paranthropus. www.scielo.org.za/pdf/sajs/v12...

The first ever photo of a large cutting tool that I took at Amanzi Springs, when I first surveyed the site in 2015 with Matt Caruana of the University of Johannebsurg. This was 50 years after the last work at the site by Hilary Deacon for his masters project in 1965.

New paper led by my PhD student, Coen Wilson: Why large Flakes? Later Acheulian handaxe manufacture at Amanzi Springs, Area 2 (Eastern Cape, South Africa) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

New paper led by my PhD student Coen Wilson: "An Actualistic Experimental Study of Giant Quartzite Core Reduction Strategies: Implications for Large Flake Blank Production and Handaxe Manufacture at Amanzi Springs, South Africa" www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The first ever photo of a large cutting tool that I took at Amanzi Springs, when I first surveyed the site in 2015 with Matt Caruana of the University of Johannebsurg. This was 50 years after the last work at the site by Hilary Deacon for his masters project in 1965.

New paper led by my PhD student Coen Wilson: "An Actualistic Experimental Study of Giant Quartzite Core Reduction Strategies: Implications for Large Flake Blank Production and Handaxe Manufacture at Amanzi Springs, South Africa" www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

New paper led by my PhD student, Coen Wilson: Why large Flakes? Later Acheulian handaxe manufacture at Amanzi Springs, Area 2 (Eastern Cape, South Africa) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Paper led by my now-graduated PhD student Jesse Martin where we argue that the SK 54 cranium from Swartkrans in South Africa is Homo, not Paranthropus. www.scielo.org.za/pdf/sajs/v12...

This little Acheulian handaxe was the last stone tool to come from our new >400 ka layer at Amanzi Springs Area 7. While excavations into the wood layers continue at Area 7 we have begun excavation in Area 1 again for the first time in 5 years, which also yielded wood.

This little Acheulian handaxe was the last stone tool to come from our new >400 ka layer at Amanzi Springs Area 7. While excavations into the wood layers continue at Area 7 we have begun excavation in Area 1 again for the first time in 5 years, which also yielded wood.

Some of the Large Cutting tools being unearthed by joint La Trobe University & University of Johannesburg excavations from a new layer at Amanzi Springs Area 7, older than 400,000 years.

The floor of Acheulian artefacts we are getting close to lifting from Amanzi Springs Area 7 in South Africa. They are older than 400,000 years old.

Flew up to Johannesburg this week for a meeting with a colleague and show him the Drimolen hominins, including this new mandible of Paranthropus from the 2023 Field School. Applications for June 2025 are open soon.

One of the many large cutting tools we lifted today from the >400 ka levels at Amanzi Springs Area 7 in South Africa.

400,000 (MIS 11) wood associated with Acheulian stone tools being excavated from Amanzi Springs Area 7 in South Africa by La Trobe Univetsity and the University of Johannesburg

Flew up to Johannesburg this week for a meeting with a colleague and show him the Drimolen hominins, including this new mandible of Paranthropus from the 2023 Field School. Applications for June 2025 are open soon.

One of the many large cutting tools we lifted today from the >400 ka levels at Amanzi Springs Area 7 in South Africa.

400,000 (MIS 11) wood associated with Acheulian stone tools being excavated from Amanzi Springs Area 7 in South Africa by La Trobe Univetsity and the University of Johannesburg