Dr. Ma'ayan Lev has had a busy start to September, presenting her research at two international conferences. First, at the XXI UISPP World Congress in Poznań, Poland, she discussed how early sedentary settlements at the PPNA site of el-Hemmeh (Jordan) fostered synanthropic communities in her talk, "Small prey exploitation and emerging synanthropic...
A new paper in PNAS by Ma'ayan Lev, Mina Weinstein-Evron, and Reuven Yeshurun documents systematic snake and lizard exploitation by the Natufian inhabitants of the site of el-Wad Terrace (Mount Carmel) across roughly 15,000 to 11,700 cal BP. Cut marks on 82 large-snake vertebrae, concentrated in a consistent anatomical location across 20...
A new paper published this week in PNAS by Cheryl Makarewicz, Pascal Flohr, and colleagues from the University of Oxford challenges the long-held view that increases in cereal grain size at the beginning of agriculture resulted primarily from genetic selection associated with cultivation. Instead, the researchers argue that larger grains...
We are excited to announce the arrival of our new PhD candidate in the ROOTS - Cluster of Excellence, Lily Kazanoff. Her research will explore socially mediated biodiversity change in the Southern Levant through the Holocene and attempt to synchronize biodiversity, human aggregation, and settlement data to test if different social structures...
The ASIL Laboratory is welcoming Dr. Alex Bertacchi to its team. He will be responsible for the operation and maintenance of analytical instruments, the development of laboratory workflows, and the training of students. He will also contribute to the processing and interpretation of isotopic data. We look forward to working with him!
Congratulations to Dr. Paul Duffy, Prof. Cheryl Makarewicz, et al. on their new paper "Nascent agricultural extensification and distinct household cultivation strategies supported first population centers in Neolithic southeastern Europe" published in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology. The study reconstructs household-scale farming practices...
In June, Prof. Cheryl Makarewicz gave a guest lecture at the Israel Antiquities Authority titled "Stable Isotope Analysis of Animal Bones and Teeth: Reconstructing Animal Husbandry Practices in the Past" . She also gave a second lecture, titled "Stable Isotope Analysis of Charred Seeds and the Methodological Means to Ancient Agricultural Practice",...
During the Meeting of the Archaeobotany Working Group from May 28 to 30 in Vienna, Austria, PhD candidate Fiona Walker-Friedrichs gave a talk titled "Leindotter (Camelina sativa): Anbau während der Bronzezeit in Dänemark".
Congratulations to Prof. Cheryl Makarewicz et al. on their new paper "In foreign pastures: Livestock mobility at Hazor and the permeability of Iron Age geopolitical borders in the Southern Levant" published in PLOS One. Using isotope analysis of livestock teeth from Tel Hazor, the study examines where Iron Age II sheep and goats were grazed during...
A new paper co-authored by Prof. Cheryl Makarewicz and Dr. Christine Winter-Schuh on the topic of selective violence against children and woman found in an Iron Age mass grave at the site of Gomolava (Serbia) has caught a lot of media attention. Check it out here: Fibiger, L., Iraeta-Orbegozo, M., Koledin, J. et al. A large mass grave...