Denisova and aDNA: an embarrassment of riches

As usual, I'm being a bit naughty- blogging when I have a ton of other work that needs attention. But I have to write about thoughts spilling out of my head following a new article in Science (paywall) pointed out by Ross Barnett (@DeepFriedDna). Also, it's my birthday, so I'll blog if I want to ;-)
OK, well this paper is a tantalising write-up of new results on the hominins at Denisova Cave, Altai, not yet published (but presented yesterday at a conference) by Svante Pääbo and team at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. Denisova hit the news big time in 2008 when it was announced that there was a "hominin X" there- a species in 2010 certainly identified as something different by DNA analysis of a tiny finger tip, and dubbed "Denisovans". I love this site because it's making everyone sit up, rub their eyes and take a look at the New World of human evolution- surprises wherever we look, even kicks in our collective academic asses; and today Neandertals are centre-stage.

Goodness gracious, great Blazing Trowels!

So today, after just over a week of frantic planning following a moment's madness by myself and three colleagues on Twitter- the blog TrowelBlazers is launching at 3pm!

A very old rabbit skull; a very new rabbit skull.

A funny thing about archaeologists is that many of them seem to share a childhood fascination with dead animals. Not in a morbid way, but simply an interest in the physical remains of once-living creatures. Many of my colleagues admit to having collected animal bones as kids (and still do- useful for teaching!), as well as other discarded faunal treasures like snake skins or feathers. Over the weekend, documentary proof of this childhood activity was discovered while clearing out old stuff from my cellar in advance of moving to France.

Studying stone tool assemblages in Australia

Just a brief post to point you all to a very nice write-up by Jacqueline Matthews (@archaeo_jacq on Twitter) for the Australian Archaeological Association on the use of a particular method for studying lithic (stone tool) assemblages, called MANA: Minimum Analytical Nodule Analysis. This method goes one step beyond grouping tools by stone type, and uses the subtle differences within raw materials to identify artefacts that came from the same original stone nodules.
I've used MANA previously in a basic way during my PhD research, and more recently while working on the Late Pleistocene lithics from La Cotte de St Brelade, Jersey. Some of the flint from this massive collapsed cave site has extremely distinctive banded colours, which I was hoping that I could use to find some refits- different flakes which fit together because they were part of the same core that was knapped by a Neanderthal.

Lovely stripey stone artefact from the upper deposits at La Cotte de St Brelade, Jersey

As Jacqueline says in her article, MANA is especially useful for trying to understand open-air lithic accumulations, where the residues of many different occupations can become mixed up. This is different to assemblages in caves, which often (although not always) have at least some natural layering, separating them into different groups that are easier to work with. Of course, these can also result from more than one occupation. Plus things are can become complicated by sneaky stones moving between levels, due to various factors like erosion or hyaenas or cave bears digging while using underground sites as dens.

The work I'll be starting (very!) soon for my Marie Curie fellowship at Universite Bordeaux is on just the kind of sites that MANA is particularly suited to: Middle Palaeolithic (Neanderthal) open-air scatters of stone tools from the Massif Central foothills in south-eastern France. I'm going to be writing about my project prior to starting it in the near-future, so look out for more on this!

Spears and eels: aquatic archaeological contexts in human evolution

Collective sighs are being heard throughout human origins communities right now at the resurgence of the 'Aquatic Ape Hypothesis', bobbing up in the mainstream media again, thanks to its buoyant, sinus-filled head: other wise known as a lot of hot air in advance of a conference on the subject. Brenna Hassett has already come up with a superb and very funny riposte to the renewed interest in the theory, and the fact it basically doesn't stand up at all when substantial evidence is asked of it. Her blogpost, suggesting that the kind of reasoning underlying the Aquatic Ape theory could just as well support one of Space Apes has also, with a little help from me and Tori Herridge, spawned a great hashtag (#spaceape) on Twitter. I want to add a little substance to the fun today, by writing about new research with watery contexts in human origins from a recent conference.

Bordeaux reconnaissance

33 degrees centigrade, perfect tiny cups of coffee, outrageous amounts of cheese and world-class architecture- oui, I'm back from another trip to my soon-to-be home city of Bordeaux!

One of many very good coffees, this one in a cafe on Rue de Fondaudege.

T-Minus 3 Months to Postdoc Launch

Time shrinking is a phenomenon I'm currently experiencing big time as the start date for my first postdoctoral position approaches. On 24th June my Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship officially starts, and while I can't wait (it will have been 11 months since I found out I got funding), there's also still an awful lot to sort out.