Great interview; thanks for sharing. Very insightful perspectives from my favorite evolutionary biologist. I had the honor of interacting with Ian while interning at the AMNH back in 2004.

📣 Yonatan Sahle and I are delighted to invite abstracts for Session# 18 of the 17th PanAf Congress (July 26–31, 2026, Maputo, Mozambique). The session welcomes interdisciplinary contributions on the Middle and Late Pleistocene archaeology of eastern Africa. Submit your abstract by March 15, 2026.

The team plans to work on another edition starting in Fall 2026. Let us know if you are interested in having your work featured in the upcoming edition. Ideal content may include syntheses of site records or methodological advances related to African Pleistocene Archaeology.

We are lifted by this recognition- Thank you SAfA! So proud of working with David Wright, Jayne Wilkins, and Deborah Olszewski. The recognition is shared with all authors and co-authors of the individual chapters that make up the tome.

Happy to announce that a book I co-edited with @a-beyin.bsky.social won the best book award at the 2025 Society of Africanist Archaeologists conference in Faro, Portugal. Thanks to all of the contributors to the project. link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

It was a pleasure meeting the renowned volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer, who kindly handed me an autographed copy of his latest book, “Mountains of Fire: The Secret Lives of Volcanoes.”....highly recommended! After all, volcanoes made the landscapes that shaped our evolutionary fortune.

Lithic analysis in African archaeology: Advances and key themes Stone artifacts (lithics) preserve for extended periods; thus they are key evidence for probing the evolution of human technological behaviors. Africa boasts the oldest record of stone artifacts, spa...

Publication alert- We synthesize the contributions of lithic analysis in African archaeology, theoretical advances, and key research themes. doi.org/10.1111/arcm...

Call for presentations Bridging Intergenerational Research on African Pleistocene Archaeology: Advances and remaining gaps Organizers:Amanuel Beyin*, David K. Wright, Deborah Olszewski, Sarah Wurz * amanuel.beyin@louisville.edu Current understandings of human evolutionary history remain anchored in Africa’s Pleistocene fossil and archaeological records. These records owe much to the generations of committed researchers whose field expeditions to various corners of Africa produced seminal finds that have illuminated our understanding of hominin lifeways in diverse ecosystems and laid the foundations for successful field projects. However, while research into Africa’s Pleistocene archaeology is accelerating, many gaps remain regarding the chronological, behavioral, and ecological contexts of hominin settlement histories in different regions of the continent. These gaps emanate from varying colonial experiences, highly variable preservation conditions, mismatches in data recovery and analytic methods across generations, and variable research infrastructure in the host countries. Driven by lessons we learned from editing the Handbook of Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa (Springer, 2023), this session aims to probe the current advances and remaining gaps in African Pleistocene archaeology. The goal is to provide a forum for Africanist paleo-scientists from different generations to discuss key aspects of their research activities, stimulate collaboration, identify common issues, and celebrate past and ongoing efforts to promote the Pleistocene archaeology of Africa at regional and local levels. Presentations may synthesize site records or be focused on case studies that showcase methodological advances. Submission deadline: 31 January 2025 https://safa2025.icarehb.com/

The call for contributions to the 27th #SAfA2025 in Faro, Portugal (21-26 July 2025) has opened!
Join us in Session #46: Bridging Intergenerational Research on African Pleistocene Archaeology: Advances and remaining gaps. Submit your abstracts here: safa2025.icarehb.com

@a-beyin.bsky.social

He is actually not wrong when he says ‘we are technically in an Ice Age’, something many paleolithic archaeologists that I know don’t voice often. Yes, we are in an Ace Age, but in an interglacial phase.

Bluesky Social media as it should be. Find your community among millions of users, unleash your creativity, and have some fun again.

Here I come to discover what bsky.social has to offer- my first post on this account (for the interest of those who may have missed or ignored it on X): doi.org/10.1016/j.ja...