42 search results for “neandertals” in the Public website
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Neandertal Legacy
The genetic material of currently living Europeans is partly of Neandertal origin. Were our ancestors successful because they were hybridising and interacting with the local populations they encountered when migrating into new places? Reconstructing our evolutionary trajectory is key for rethinking…
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Behavioral implications of Neandertal energetics
Recent studies of Neandertal body mass and skin surface indicate raised energetic requirements in this lineage compared to anatomically modern humans.
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Neandertals revised
As the flagship journal of the National Academy of Sciences USA, PNAS publishes several special features each year highlighting topics that are expected to engage the interest of the journal’s broad readership. Archaeologist Wil Roebroeks was invited by the Editors of PNAS to contribute a paper on the…
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Neandertal genome from Les Cottés site sequenced
On March 21 2018, a study was published in Nature, co-authored by Professor M. Soressi from the Faculty of Archaeology of Leiden University, announcing the sequencing of five new Neandertals, raising the number of high-coverage sequenced Neandertals from two to seven. A tooth lost by a Neandertal woman…
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Marie Soressi produces documentary on Neandertal Legacy
The genetic material of currently living Europeans is partly of Neandertal origin. Were our ancestors successful because they were hybridising and interacting with the local populations they encountered when migrating into new places? This subject takes centre stage in a beautiful documentary produced…
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A Neandertal fossil from the north sea
A fragment of a human skull discovered in sediments extracted from the bottom of the North Sea, 15 km off the coast off the Netherlands, has been identified as belonging to the extinct Neandertal group.
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Neandertal Legacy Scientific Reports’ article in the top 100 most downloaded
With an off-the-charts number of downloads, outstanding media coverage, and more than 300 tweets, a small team behind the Scientific Reports article led by a Leiden PhD Igor Djakovic is living every researcher’s dream.
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Neandertals made the first specialised bone tools in Europe
New finds demonstrate that Neandertals were the first in Europe to make standardised and specialised bone tools – which are still in use today. These firndings are reported by Leiden reseachers together with an international team of archaeologists in the PNAS journal (Proceedings National Academy of…
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Beyond Prometheus
The research contained in this dissertation explores the origins of fire making in prehistory, focusing primarily on the fire use practices and fire production capacities of Neandertals.
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New insights into Neandertal knowledge from the mass-spectrometry analysis of plastic containers
The analysis of protein residues extracted from the storage containers of circa 50,000 year old bone-tools reveals Neandertal strategic selection of bovid ribs to make some of their “lissoirs”.
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Les Cottés excavations reveals how Neandertals and Homo sapiens adapted to a changing climate 40,000 years ago
The transition from Middle to Upper Paleolithic is a major biological and cultural threshold in the construction of our common humanity. Technological and behavioral changes happened simultaneously to a major climatic cooling, forcing human populations to develop new strategies for the exploitation…
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About us
The Human Origins group at Leiden University studies the archaeology of hunter-gatherers, from the earliest stone tools in East Africa, more than three million years old, to the origin of sedentary societies towards the end of the last ice age.
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La Grande Roche excavation (Quinçay, France)
La Grande Roche is one of the rare archaeological sites that preserved a long sequence of deposits formed at the time of contact between late Neandertals and early Homo sapiens.
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Andrew Sorensen
Faculteit Archeologie
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Reconstructing adhesives
An experimental approach to organic palaeolithic technology
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Techno-typological variability of the late Middle Paleolithic in the southern Balkans
Middle Paleolithic stone tool technology is one of the major sources of information about Neandertal behavior and adaptations. The Balkan Middle Paleolithic often remains outside of the major debates and interpretations of Neandertal behavior.
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Beyond Prometheus: Pursuing the origins of fire production among early humans
When do fire making tools appear in prehistory, and how might the use of these tools manifest in the archaeological record?
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Neanderthals and modern humans
This project focuses on the study of Neanderthal and early modern human behavior, primarily on the basis of stone tools, fauna and spatial patterns
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Into the cold: The adaptive role of pyrotechnology among the earliest modern humans in Europe, ca. 45,000–20,000 years ago
The routine assumption that Upper Palaeolithic early modern humans in Europe were regular fire users who produced fire at will has never been tested against the archaeological record. Utilizing literature, database and microwear analytical approaches, this project seeks to establish the role and forms…
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Ongoing excavations at Les Cottés (near Poitiers, France)
Les Cottés is one the rare site in western Europe with occupations in sequence by the very last Neandertals and the first anatomically modern humans.
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Laminar Technology and the Onset of the Upper Paleolithic in the Altai, Siberia
The Altai region has yielded a cluster of Middle and Upper Paleolithic stratified sites that have been recently excavated using a multidisciplinary approach.
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‘Homo sapiens is too arrogant: call us Homo faber, the toolmaker’
We need to dispel the arrogant and misguided idea that modern humans are superior to earlier human species. It is thanks in part to all our predecessors such as Neanderthals that we are who we are today. This is what Marie Soressi, Professor of Hominin Diversity Archaeology, will argue in her inaugural…
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Leiden research on Neanderthals featured in the Wall Street Journal article
In the article “Neanderthals and Us: We’re More Alike Than Once Thought”, we are reminded that many negative traits, from unintelligent to unsophisticated, have long been attributed to Neanderthals in popular culture. However, recent studies bring to light an ever-increasing amount of evidence contradicting…
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Vici grants for three Leiden researchers
Three Leiden researchers will each receive a Vici grant of 1.5m euros. They are historian Cátia Antunes, cell biologist Dennis Claessen and archaeologist Marie Soressi. This grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) will give them the opportunity to form their own research group over the next five…
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No humans needed: Neanderthals possibly responsible for their own extinction
Scientists remain puzzled by the sudden extinction of Neanderthals, some 40,000 years ago. New research by scientists from Eindhoven University of Technology, Leiden University and Wageningen University now suggests we might have been too quick in attributing the demise of Neanderthals to invasions…
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Fire and Human Origins
Correctly interpreting the patterns of fire evidence in the archaeological record will illuminate the origin of human fire use.
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2008 Culture and cognition of Palaeolithic hominins
The Palaeolithic period extends from the earliest stone tools (and in Europe, earliest occupation) to the beginning of the current warm period.
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Archaeologist Marie Soressi joins the discussion about the early use of bow-and-arrow technology in Europe
Nature News reported on the use of bow-and-arrow for hunting based on the research made on small points found in a 54,000-year-old cave site in southern France.
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Archaeological excavations in Romania show life of earliest modern humans in Europe
In a new article in the journal Scientific Reports, Leiden archaeologist Wei Chu and colleagues report on recent excavations in Western Romania at the site of Româneşti, one of the most important sites in southeastern Europe associated with the earliest Homo sapiens. The site gives an important glimpse…
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PhD grant for Andy Sorensen
NWO Humanities and the Humanities Regieorgaan have awarded a PhD grant to Andy Sorensen under the joint funding program PhDs in the Humanities. Andy will start his research on how long humans already have the ability to make fire on July 1st. 2013.
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Neanderthals coming out of the dirt
Extinct hominin DNA extracted from >40,000 years old sediment
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Andy Sorensen wins Pecha Kucha presentation prize
At the 7th annual meeting of the European Society for the study of Human Evolution (ESHE) conference held here in Leiden September 21-23 Andy Sorensen won the Pecha Kucha presentation prize.
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Vincent Niochet investigates intercultural connectivity in the deep past with an NWO PhDs in the Humanities grant
For already two years, Vincent Niochet has been affiliated with the Leiden Faculty of Archaeology as an external PhD candidate. Now, he has been awarded an NWO PhDs in the Humanities grant, allowing him to continue his research as a paid PhD staff member. ‘The past two years have been quite challenging,…
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Archaeologists come up with a more precise estimate for how long modern humans and Neanderthals co-existed
Modern humans and Neanderthals may have co-existed in France and Northern Spain for up to 2,900 years until the Neanderthals disappeared. This is what archaeologists from Leiden University and Cambridge University write in a new publication in Scientific Reports.
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A long-term perspective on human niche construction and alteration of ecosystems
Dr. Katharine MacDonald (Faculty of Archaeology) sketches the background to a recent paper in Science Advances, co-authored by her and other members of the Liveable Planet team.
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Archaeological fieldwork in corona times: professor Marie Soressi's story
From July 25th till August 7th, a team led by Professor Marie Soressi went to France and worked at La Grande Roche de Quinçay, a cave site located in a forested area close to the city of Poitiers. The corona outbreak triggered the need to rethink the organisation of the excavation.
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How Neanderthals made the very first glue
The world’s oldest known glue was made by Neanderthals. But how did they make it 200,000 years ago? Leiden archaeologists have discovered three possible ways. Publication in Scientific Reports, 31 August.
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Simulating the prehistoric use of fire through computer models
Archaeologists often use the percentages of heat-affected stone or bone artifacts found at archaeological sites as a way to determine how frequently fire was used by the inhabitants. Andrew Sorensen and Fulco Scherjon have come up with a computer model called 'fiReproxies' to simulate how fires used…
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Marie Soressi
Faculteit Archeologie
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Ethical guidelines to better regulate DNA research on human remains
Rapid developments in DNA techniques allow researchers to find out more and more about human genetics. An international group of scientists has drawn up five ethical guidelines to ensure that this DNA research is better regulated. Leiden archaeologist Marie Soressi – one of the signatories - explains…
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Neanderthals could make fire – just like our modern ancestors
Neanderthals were able to make fire on a large scale with the aid of pyrite and hand-axes. This means they could decide when and where they wanted fire and were not dependent on natural fire, as was thought earlier. Archaeologist Andrew Sorensen has discovered the first material evidence for this. Publication…