Volunteers wanted for a Palaeolithic Field School in Breitecnbach, Germany (July-October 2026)!

What function did ~100k-year-old engravings from Blombos Cave & Diepkloof serve? Decoration, identity marking, proto-writing? osf.io/preprints/ps... uses transmission chains + cognitive experiments to find out & help answering one of the hardest questions in cognitive archaeology. long thread! 1/

Adeline Le Cabec from our lab participated in this new study on Neanderthal growth! Amud 7, the most complete Neanderthal infant skeleton, reveals unusually rapid early-life growth. This discovery suggests Neanderthals may have followed a unique, fast developmental pattern.🧪🏺
doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

Gesher Benot Ya'aqov hace 780 ka: aprovechamiento de ramas y troncos en el paleolago Hula a lo largo de decenas de milenios.
Paleoenvironmental and behavioral insights into firewood selection by early Middle Pleistocene hominins

No evidence that hominin dispersal across Eurasia was part of a wider turnover in mammal distributions - Nature Communications Hominin dispersal out of Africa may have corresponded with exchanges of other fauna out of Africa. Here, the authors examine taxonomic and functional similarities in Eurasian and African fossil commun...

No evidence that hominin dispersal across Eurasia was part of a wider turnover in mammal distributions

Congrats Chen Zeigen on publishing the first Ph.D. article. So well done!

authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

HEAS Seminar Series - Human Evolution and the Palaeolithic - HEAS As part of the HEAS Seminar Series in Human Evolution and the Palaeolithic João Cascalheira from Universidade do Algarve will give a talk on FINISTERRA: New Insights into Southwestern Iberia’s Late Pl...

We are looking forward to welcoming #JoãoCascalheira to #HEASVienna for a #HEASSeminar in #HumanEvolutionandthePalaeolithic.

More information and registration on our website 🔗👇

Amud 7, the Neanderthal baby who shows they developed faster than modern humans english.elpais.com/science-tech...

Rapid growth in a Neandertal infant from Amud Cave in Israel Neandertal infants are rarely found, with only a few individuals documented in the literature. Therefore, their growth and development remain poorly u…

Ella Been and Alon Barash spearheaded this new study on Neanderthal paleobiology as seen from the Amud 7 skeleton
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Enjoying being in Dushanbe to study the beautiful lithics from the Middle Paleolithic site of Soii Havzak, Tajikistan

@hcelab.bsky.social
@gerda-henkel-stiftung.de

#CentralAsia
#Paleolithic
#lithics

Hills aligned with islands on the lake

Lake Wanaka with hills and islands. Track to the top can be sean weaving through hills

View from Roys Peak lookout. Wide view photo of rocks, mountains and lake

Grinning women hikers with landscape behind her

And just like that sun came out today... Lake Wānaka in it's full glory from Roys Peak.

Face hurts from grinning and knees from the lengthy downhill 😍🤩⛰️🏔

I'm hiring! 📢 Fully funded 4-year PhD position in Language Evolution using Communication Games at @mpi-nl.bsky.social. Come work with me on how different social pressures shape the evolution of new communication systems in the lab! Deadline for application is May 18th! share.google/fGTKbFS4v4Gb...

New paper out! ✨
What goes into making and maintaining a grinding stone?
This study explores the technological choices behind shaping and sustaining these tools over time.
🔗 Read more: sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#Prehistory #Lithics #3DPhotogrammetry

Specialised and persistent raw material procurement by humans in the Middle Pleistocene - Nature Communications The authors here demonstrate that hominins were consistently and specifically procuring a single kind of raw material to make stone tools at the South African site of Jojosi between 220 and 110 thousa...

🚨 Publication alert🚨 Early humans in South Africa were quarrying stone as long as 220,000 years ago at the site of Jojosi @natcomms.nature.com - specialized, long-term use of a source of a raw material source in Stone Age Africa: Read the paper #openaccess here www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We will hold two discussion sessions in the next #IZAZ workshop. In past workshops, these discussion sessions have been pivotal in advancing community efforts. So - what do you think the theme of these discussions should be? 🤔💭
Follow this link to make a suggestion: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

A huge collaboration moving forward a neglected find and bringing it to the front

Ella Tsahar and colleagues just published this (open access) paper about archaeological ostrich eggshells from Middle Paleolithic sites in the Levant as paleoecological markers.
doi.org/10.1016/j.pa...

That's a hell of a cave

Drilling the Marathousa palaeo‐lake in Greece (Peloponnese): inferring the environmental context of a Middle Pleistocene archaeological site The Megalopolis Basin is located in the central Peloponnese (Greece), a region that is situated along one of the primary Pleistocene biogeographical corridors for intracontinental hominin migration. ...

✨I am so pleased that our latest paper on the Megalopolis basin and its paleoenvironment is published online today in Boreas! 🐘🏔️✨
Many congratulations to Ines Bludau and the entire team! 🎉👏

Looking into a Neanderthal gallery at La Roche-Cotard An enigmatic “mask” comes from outside a cave filled with Neanderthal markings.

Looking into a Neanderthal gallery at La Roche-Cotard @johnhawks.net open.substack.com/pub/johnhawk...

We are pleased to share our new paper on the Iberian Aurignacian. We employed a quantitative approach to explore techno-typological variability and test its spatio-temporal dimension.
@palomadelalasca.bsky.social

Paper: doi.org/10.1371/jour...

Evidence from Tinshemet Cave in Israel suggests behavioural uniformity across Homo groups in the Levantine mid-Middle Palaeolithic circa 130,000–80,000 years ago - Nature Human Behaviour The Middle Palaeolithic of southwest Asia witnessed interactions and knowledge sharing between archaic and modern humans ~130,000–80,000 years ago. These interactions led to increased behavioural comp...

Evidence from Tinshemet Cave in Israel suggests behavioural uniformity across Homo groups in the Levantine mid-Middle Palaeolithic circa 130,000–80,000 years ago www.nature.com/articles/s41...

@dispersalserc.bsky.social @icarehb.bsky.social
New preprint 📄

Summarising our ICAHJ 16 (Athens, 2025) workshop on the Palaeolithic of Jordan—reviewing current research & setting future priorities.
A lot of new work is now underway following these discussions.

www.researchgate.net/publication/...

New Zealand - a country where you can buy a house with your own loess profile on the driveway.

This is what dreams are made of 🤩

I finally had time to update my StoryMap with North Island fieldwork from the Rangitīkei and Oroua valleys.

River terraces and loess everywhere… and even some marine sediments. We sampled loess on Rātā and Porewa terraces. Both preserve thick Kawakawa Tephra.

Check it out 👉 arcg.is/XnDj10

#Sevilla #Photography

I am immensely proud to announce the publication of our latest article “Aterian shell beads from the coastal site of El Mnasra Cave (Rabat-Témara, Morocco): Specificities of the North African MSA personal ornaments”, led by our beloved Emilie Campmas 🧵
@umr5608traces.bsky.social @mnhn.fr @INSAP

🗺️ SASSI: New database of Southern African Stone Age sites! #ICArEHB Emily Hallinan in J Open Archaeology Data: doi.org/10.5334/joad... #StoneAge #OpenScience

I am SO EXCITED to announce that CENIEH in Burgos, Spain will be hosting the third installment of the IZAZ (Integrating ZooMS and Zooarchaeology) Workshop on the 15th – 16th September 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Join the mailing list to stay up-to-date: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Statement by the Senate of Tel Aviv University For a long time now, we have been witnessing acts of violence by Jewish residents in the West Bank against Palestinian residents. These acts, which include severe harm to persons and property, intimidation, humiliation, and displacement, have in some cases escalated into shocking acts of murder. These phenomena have intensified over the past month, under the cover of the war with Iran. As citizens of the State of Israel, we bear a heavy moral responsibility and feel deep shame in the face of this rampant Jewish terrorism. We protest the failure of the government and security forces to act with the necessary resolve against this phenomenon by using all means at their disposal. Terror directed against innocent civilians does not change according to the identity of the perpetrator or the victim; terror is terror, and it must be eradicated. The State of Israel, as the authority responsible for the territories, bears a clear obligation under both international and Israeli law: to ensure the safety and well-being of all residents, Jews and Palestinians alike. Beyond this legal duty, the government bears a paramount moral obligation: not to permit the shedding of blood in the West Bank, whether by action or by failure to act. As a people who have experienced pogroms and persecution driven by racism, we are bound to remember where such a path may lead. We must not stand idly by. History teaches us that in times of war, human rights are often pushed to the margins in the name of the demands of the moment or the pursuit of victory. We refuse to accept this reality. Jewish terrorism serves no legitimate purpose; on the contrary, it erodes the very foundations of our existence. Silence in the face of terror from within is a moral stain that cannot be erased, for the strength of the State of Israel is measured not only by its military power but first and foremost by the integrity of its values.

Statement by the Senate of Tel Aviv University