Are traces of fire use detectable in ancient hominin genomes?

When do fire making tools appear in prehistory, and how might the use of these tools manifest in the archaeological record?

The End Of Our Fifth Decade. Corrie Bakels & Hans Kamermans (eds) (2012)

The Board of Leiden University has authorized the Faculty of Archaeology to appoint Prof. dr. Jean-Jacques Hublin as professor of palaeoanthropology. From May 15th onward Professor Hublin's part-time position is funded by the Spinoza-budget of professor Wil Roebroeks.

Our research regularly receives attention in the (Dutch) popular media. Here is an overview.

Het jaarboek BMG wil jonge afgestudeerde historici graag een plek bieden om hun (scriptie)onderzoek, over een onderwerp dat raakt aan de geschiedenis van Gelre en Gelderland, in de vorm van een artikel aan een geïnteresseerd publiek te presenteren. Interesse? Stuur jouw artikel dan vóór 1 juli 2022…

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.

Het jaarboek Bijdragen en Mededelingen Gelderland wil jonge afgestudeerde historici graag een plek bieden om hun (scriptie)onderzoek, over een onderwerp dat raakt aan de geschiedenis van Gelre en Gelderland, in de vorm van een artikel aan een geïnteresseerd publiek te presenteren. Interesse? Stuur…

Op dinsdag 14 juni 2022 wordt aan de Universiteit Leiden een symposium georganiseerd ter gelegenheid van het naderende emeritaat van Frits van Oostrom (Universiteit Utrecht). Wie deel wil nemen aan het symposium kan zich tot uiterlijk vrijdag 15 april 2022 opgeven via w.van.anrooij@hum.leidenuniv.nl.…

Onlangs verscheen het boek ‘Afgrond zonder vangnet’ van Yra van Dijk, hoogleraar Moderne Nederlandse Literatuur. In haar boek analyseert ze verschillende thema's in het werk van Arnon Grunberg.

Learn all about the writing systems used in the famous wall poems of the city of Leiden.

Promoting academic equity for students with ADHD through evidence-based accommodations and inclusive teaching methods in higher education.

Neuroimaging research has greatly advanced our insights on how the brain is organized. Now is the time for the next step: Imagine what would be possible when we cannot only map brain-functioning, but use neuroimaging to voluntarily regulate brain-activity!

Dutch scale-up In Ovo, a spin-off of Leiden University, has raised 34 million euros to accelerate its international growth and scale-up plans. The new funding is supported by Leiden University’s Libertatis Ergo Holding. The funding has also been provided by, among others, impact investors ECBF and ABN…

The Australian Research Council funded a truly ‘global archaeology’ project comparing the archaeologies of southwest Tasmania and southwest France during the last Ice Age.

Vacature (vrijwillig/stage)! 💬 Jij gaat het klimaat centraal zetten tijdens de verkiezingen van maart 2021. 📈

Neanderthals were able to outwit straight-tusked elephants, the largest land mammals of the past few million years. Leiden professor Wil Roebroeks has published an article about this together with his German colleague Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser in the Science Advances journal.

The research Early Pleistocene human occupation at the edge of the boreal zone in northwest Europe published 8th July 2010 in Nature is part of the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain (AHOB) project, in which the Faculty of Archaeology of Leiden University is involved.

Early hominins probably lived in Europe for hundreds of thousands of years before using fire to alleviate the winter cold, to cook or to make tools. It was only in the period betwen 300,000 and 400,000 years ago that the first finds were made that indicate that people had the ability to control fire…

Neanderthals at Pech-de-l'Azé I in South Western France had a striking use for manganese dioxide 50,000 years ago.

Ancient peoples might have harnessed the power of fire to modify their environment

Ontwikkelen van een vaccin tegen aderverkalking

The Dutch biotech start-up In Ovo is the first company to develop a large-scale solution for determining the sex of a chick while it is still in the egg. This fast and cheap technique can be applied mechanically at hatcheries, which was not possible before.

The idea that modern humans displaced Neanderthals because they were better protected against toxic smoke components is now under fire. An earlier study that put forward this suggestion has now been refuted by genetic research by scientists from Leiden and Wageningen. This new research was published…

Wil je onderzoeksideeën en nieuwe publicaties in informele setting met vakgenoten bespreken? Meld je dan aan voor deze nieuwe seminar-reeks! Elke laatste woensdag van de maand komen we samen, afwisselend op locatie en online. De eerste bijeenkomst zal plaatsvinden op woensdag 26 oktober van 16:00 tot…

The Dutch biotech spin-off In Ovo is the first company to develop a large-scale solution for determining the sex of a chick while it is still in the egg. This fast and cheap technique can be applied mechanically at hatcheries, which was not possible before.

Miranda van Eck is benoemd tot hoogleraar Cardio Vascular & Metabolomic Therapeutics bij het Leiden Academic Center for Drug Research (LACDR) van de faculteit der Wiskunde en Natuurwetenschappen. De benoeming ging per per 1 februari 2014 in.

Lamberto Zannier, Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), gave a lecture on ‘The OSCE, a bridge between East and West and a platform for dialogue on European security’

De Belastingdienst weigert nog steeds cruciale documenten vrij te geven aan slachtoffers van het toeslagenschandaal, wat volgens critici tegen de wet ingaat en herstel belemmert. Hoogleraar staats- en bestuursrecht, Ymre Schuurmans noemt de praktijk in de media ‘stuitend.’

This year, the National Clean-up Day, in an adapted form, will take place. Join us and take a clean-up walk on Saturday, March 20.⠀

Despite the field’s general agreement that pyrotechnology had a significant impact on the cultural evolution of humankind, our understanding of the origins and development of fire use and its role in humankind’s cultural evolution is very limited, blurred by strong disagreements over its chronology…

The Middle Paleolithic site of Neumark was first discovered in the 1980’s by German geologist Matthias Thomae.

Carina van den Hoven defended her thesis on 16 February 2017.

According to Thomson Reuters’ 2014 Journal Citation Reports® (JCR) and the Washington & Lee University School of Law 2014 Journal Rankings, 22 journals published by the University of Chicago Press rank at the top of their subject categories.

LUCIS is happy to welcome Christian Müller to Leiden from mid-April to mid-May.

After a succesful first lecture, the Leiden physics institute LION is launching an online series of (Dutch language) lectures about physics, intended for a broad audience, named the Tatiana Afanassjewa lectures. Upcoming speakers are science historian Dirk van Delft, neutrino physicist Dorothea Samtleben…

Professor of Radiology Andrew Webb and his collaborative partner Johnes Obungoloch from Uganda have won the 2023 Huibregtsen Prize.

The disappearance and reappearance of species of plants in the Netherlands is a normal phenomenon. In the period from 1981-2000 the number of plants to have disappeared was considerably lower than previously, whereas the number of species rediscovered is much higher. Climate change may be the cause.

On average, Dutch breeding birds have become more numerous in the period 1980-2010. The common species have even done better than birds in other European countries. Farmland birds are an exception: they declined sharply both in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe.

Researchers from all parts of the world will be in Leiden from 2 to 4 May for a major malaria conference. The Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) is organising a two-day workshop on how vaccines can be tested safely in humans.

In Dutch the public arena, there’s talk of curbing labour migration. Which options do the Dutch have? Olaf van Vliet, Professor of Economics at Leiden University, discusses this issue in Dutch daily newspaper NRC.

Leiden biotech company In Ovo, a spin-off of Leiden University, has received a European Innovation Council Accelerator Pilot Grant. In Ovo will use this 2.5-million-euro grant in its mission to stop the culling of male chicks.

At the Faculty of Archaeology, we investigate the development of human societies worldwide, from the earliest beginnings to modern times. We also study the heritage of mankind, which evokes this deep history, and which connects with, and informs, contemporary society.

Foute taal? Bestaat niet!

Bone remains that are thousands of years old are often too fragmented to be identified. PhD candidate Frido Welker is the first person to be able to distinguish human bones from one another on the basis of old proteins. PhD defence 18 May.

The Palaeolithic period extends from the earliest stone tools (and in Europe, earliest occupation) to the beginning of the current warm period.