RGZM (Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum) - Forschungsinstitut für Vor- und Frühgeschichte / Roman-Germanic Central Museum - Institute for Prehistoric and Early Historical Archaeology

Post-Doc, Department of Palaeolithic Studies (Forschungsbereich Altsteinzeit)

Other Affiliations: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Institut für Vor- und Frühgeschichte

DFG Postdoc

About

I am currently a research fellow of the RGZM, coordinating two major projects: The Neandertal Projectile Technology Project (NeProTec), and the Lower Danube Survey Project (LoDanS: http://lodans.wordpress.com ). The first of these, funded by the German Research Foundation (PI: Prof. Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser), and carried out in collaboration with the German Metrology Institute (Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt; PI: Dr. Frank Jäger), aims to elucidate macro- and microscopic breakage patterns on projectile points using controlled ballistic experiments where point shape, trajectory, and targets are held constant. At the same time, I am currently working in the field in Romania, carrying out an international collaborative survey project funded by the Max-Planck-Society (see website: http://lodans.wordpress.com ). The aim of the survey is to test hypotheses about colonization routes into and out of Europe through a geomorphologically and paleoenvironmentally-informed archaeological survey. Another major interest of mine is quantifying shape in lithic tools, especially with the aid of modern morphometric methods. I have published several papers on using Elliptical Fourier Analysis to do some of this, and am currently applying it to assess variability in Aterian projectile points.

In addition to my research, I also teach prehistory at the University of Mainz. My last two courses were a practicum and seminar in lithic analysis and an introductory course in statistics for archaeologists. I am currently working on developing a course on anthropological approaches to archaeology and one on cognitive approaches. 

I got my PhD in the UPenn four-field anthropology department in 2008, under the supervision of Harold Dibble, with a thesis on quantifying and comparing reduction trajectories in resharpened tools of the European Middle Paleolithic, with a specific focus on scrapers and bifaces from France, Germany, and the Ukraine. Before that, I did my MPhil in archaeology at Cambridge, under the supervision of Paul Mellars, on testing the hypothesis of migration from North Africa to the Levant, studying the technologies of the Dabban from Haua Fteah and the Emiran from Ksar Akil. The latter were studied as part of my undergraduate thesis under the supervision of Ofer Bar-Yosef at Harvard.

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