PI: Dr Robert Hosfield – University of Reading

This project stemmed out of my recent interests in the question of how H. heidelbergensis coped with the climatic challenges of Europe in the Middle Pleistocene, in particular the relatively high seasonality (I have a new paper on this topic in Current Anthropology, and James and I presented a paper on this topic at the Royal Anthropological Institute meeting Anthropology Weather & Climate Change at the British Museum, in the Climate change and the evolution of technology and palaeobiology in Homo from ~1.5 million years ago panel. I’m also currently investigating the British Lower Palaeolithic site of Knowle Farm (with Dr Chris Green and Dr Stuart Black). I’m an Associate Professor in Palaeolithic Archaeology at the University of Reading (Department of Archaeology), and you can find more details of my research and publications here.

 Co-I: Dr James Cole – University of Brighton

I have long been interested in the adaptive behaviours of Homo heidelbergensis, particularly in understanding how similar they were to our own species in terms of cognition and behaviour. This project therefore presents the perfect multi-disciplinary and multi-national spring board to get to grips with the complex relationship between Homo heidelbergensis sites and the challenging environments of Pleistocene Europe. I’m also currently Directing the Isimila Stone Age Project (with Dr John McNabb, Dr Martin Bates and Dr Pastory Bushozi) in Tanzania. I’m a Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Brighton and you can see more details of my research and publications on the above link.

Advisory Board

Members of the Project Advisory board come from a range of disciplines and institutions. Individuals details can be accessed by following the links below.

Prof. W. Roebroeks (Archaeology)

Prof. C. Gamble (Archaeology)

Prof. D. Fleitmann (Palaeoclimatology)

Prof. D. Schreve (Zooarchaeology)

Prof. C. Stringer (Paleoanthropology)

Prof. M. Richards (Palaeodiet);

Prof. I. Candy (Palaeoenvironments)

Prof. S. Oppenheimer (Palaeogenetics)

Dr. A. Migliano (Anthropology) – UCL

Dr. N. Ashton (British Museum)

J. O’Leary (Wilderness Survival)