Manuel Will

Manuel Will

@manuelwill.bsky.social

Researcher in Paleolithic/African Archaeology & Paleoanthropology at University of Tübingen. Associate Editor Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Manuel-Will

1.4K followers331 following77 posts

Manuel Will reposted

Dr Sarah Myers
@drsarahmyers.bsky.social

Excited to see 1st of the Evoluionary Human Sciences special issue on scientific racism come out! @kevinlala.bsky.social @gillianrbrown1.bsky.social @kztwyman.bsky.social & Marcus Feldman discuss impediments to countering racist pseudoscience & present 5 solutions www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

cambridge.orgImpediments to countering racist pseudoscience | Evolutionary Human Sciences | Cambridge CoreImpediments to countering racist pseudoscience
Manuel Will
@manuelwill.bsky.social

Our new theory article may be of interest to those studying technological complexity in archaeology and human evolution. It gives a historical perspective & introduces heterarchy as a 'new' perspective under which this phenomenon may be studied. Open access link: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comBlowing Leaves in Archaeology—The Multidimensionality of Technological Complexity in Human Origins Research - Journal of Archaeological Method and TheoryTechnological complexity has been a continuous trope in archaeological research from its beginnings in the nineteenth century. Based on a concept of unidirectional cultural evolution, archaeological m...

Manuel Will reposted

Duncan Stibbard Hawkes
@dstibbardhawkes.bsky.social

Wonderful blog here from Haneul which aptly expresses why so many hunter-gatherer experts, at different career stages and with very different research programmes and theoretical perspectives/commitments, felt compelled to collaborate on the Meaning of MTH paper.

Haneul Jang@haneuljang.bsky.social

Happy to have contributed to the latest HBES newsletter on our recent paper, The Meanings and Dividends of Man the Hunter, led by @vivek123.bsky.social I reflect on MTH through the lens of my research on Bayaka women's foraging & cooperation in the Congolese rainforest www.hbes.com/revisiting-m...

hbes.comRevisiting Man the Hunter - HBES– by Haneul Jang For decades, the phrase Man the Hunter has occupied a central place in discussions of human evolution. Today, however, the phrase sounds outdated, evoking a familiar image of men hunt...
Manuel Will
@manuelwill.bsky.social

🚨🦴🐦‍⬛The oldest fossil evidence for the Southern Bald Ibis at the archaeological site of Holley Shelter (otherwise known for its Middle Stone Age occupations) Fittingly presented to you by the journal OSTRICH! Get a free version here www.tandfonline.com/eprint/HGGGR...

tandfonline.comHolley Shelter (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa), a haven for breeding Southern Bald Ibises Geronticus calvus and other birds since the Late PleistoceneCliffs are attractive roosting and breeding localities for numerous birds, which develop diverse modes of interaction ranging from avoidance to competition, and predation of chicks in their nests. ...
Manuel Will
@manuelwill.bsky.social

📚Special Issue alert📚: Contribute to "Above and Below the Sea: Coastal Ecosystems and Submerged Paleolandscapes in Prehistoric Archaeology and Marine Geology" to be published in Frontiers in Earth Science. Here is all the information www.frontiersin.org/research-top... #archaeology #coast #marine

frontiersin.orgFrontiers | Above and Below the Sea: Coastal Ecosystems and Submerged Paleolandscapes in Prehistoric Archaeology and Marine GeologyThe settlement of coastlines and the use of marine food resources, often collectively referred to as coastal adaptations, feature prominently in global prehi...
Manuel Will
@manuelwill.bsky.social

Thanks a lot for sharing, glad to be a part of UJ's Paleo-Research Institute and its stellar researchers!

UJ Palaeo-Research Institute@uj-palaeo.bsky.social

P-RI Research Series! Today, we'd like to celebrate Drs Manuel Will and Matthias Blessing on their most recent article in Nature Communications. Please access the article via the QR code or link below: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Manuel Will reposted

Eleanor Scerri
@elliescerri.bsky.social

Our new paper exploring the measurement of complexity in tools - the result of significant and ongoing work, including that which emerged from our Complexity in Lithics Conference! link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comThe Tool Systems Approach: Measuring Complexity in the Primatological, Archaeological, and Ethnographic Records - Journal of Archaeological Method and TheoryMeasuring technological complexity across species, as well as across temporal and spatial scales, is an ongoing challenge among authors who work on primatological, archaeological, and/or ethnographic ...
Manuel Will
@manuelwill.bsky.social

Happy to be a part of this great new article on assessing and measuring complexity in archaeological, ethnographic and primatological contexts!

Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias@ceciliapad.bsky.social

🚨🧪NEW PAPER!🚨 Led by the great @jclark997.bsky.social - We present the Tool Systems Approach: A method to calculate cultural complexity in a way that allows comparisons between the archaeological, ethnographic and primatological records, hence tackling big Qs in CE link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comThe Tool Systems Approach: Measuring Complexity in the Primatological, Archaeological, and Ethnographic Records - Journal of Archaeological Method and TheoryMeasuring technological complexity across species, as well as across temporal and spatial scales, is an ongoing challenge among authors who work on primatological, archaeological, and/or ethnographic ...

Manuel Will reposted

Christian Sommer
@sommergeo.bsky.social

News from Jojosi!

Manuel Will@manuelwill.bsky.social

🚨 Publication alert🚨 Early humans in South Africa were quarrying stone as long as 220,000 years ago at the site of Jojosi @natcomms.nature.com - specialized, long-term use of a source of a raw material source in Stone Age Africa: Read the paper #openaccess here www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.comSpecialised and persistent raw material procurement by humans in the Middle Pleistocene - Nature CommunicationsThe authors here demonstrate that hominins were consistently and specifically procuring a single kind of raw material to make stone tools at the South African site of Jojosi between 220 and 110 thousa...

Manuel Will reposted

Roberto Sáez
@robertosaezm.bsky.social

Jojosi (Sudáfrica): los primeros humanos modernos explotaron durante decenas de milenios (220-110 ka) una misma fuente de materia prima (hornfels o corneana). Specialised and persistent raw material procurement by humans in the Middle Pleistocene

nature.comSpecialised and persistent raw material procurement by humans in the Middle Pleistocene - Nature CommunicationsThe authors here demonstrate that hominins were consistently and specifically procuring a single kind of raw material to make stone tools at the South African site of Jojosi between 220 and 110…

Manuel Will reposted

Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes
@lemoustier.bsky.social

🏺 🧪

Manuel Will@manuelwill.bsky.social

🚨 Publication alert🚨 Early humans in South Africa were quarrying stone as long as 220,000 years ago at the site of Jojosi @natcomms.nature.com - specialized, long-term use of a source of a raw material source in Stone Age Africa: Read the paper #openaccess here www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.comSpecialised and persistent raw material procurement by humans in the Middle Pleistocene - Nature CommunicationsThe authors here demonstrate that hominins were consistently and specifically procuring a single kind of raw material to make stone tools at the South African site of Jojosi between 220 and 110 thousa...
Manuel Will
@manuelwill.bsky.social

The open-air sites demonstrate these behaviors over tens of thousands of years from ~220,000-110,000 years ago, with perfectly preserved assemblages including dozens of refits as seen in this image

Manuel Will
@manuelwill.bsky.social

I'm grateful to @gerda-henkel-stiftung.de for funding "The Jojosi Shelter Excavation Project – Understanding prehistoric land-use and raw material provisioning in southeastern South Africa". A great site that looked promising in test excavations 2025 & just next to open-air Middle Stone Age finds!

Manuel Will
@manuelwill.bsky.social

Fantastic paper and very exciting results. Small weight but much higher stature for Homo habilis than other individuals!

The Anatomical Record@anatrecord.bsky.social

KNM-ER 64061, most complete Homo habilis skeleton yet (Koobi Fora) shows primitive limb proportions: long forearms, thick cortices, small body mass & ~160 cm stature. Upper limbs like early Homo, but proportions differ from H. erectus Grine et al anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Manuel Will reposted

Dr Huw Groucutt
@huwgroucutt.bsky.social

"Archaeology is anthropology or it is nothing", it was said. Arguably this focus on the ethnographic present is having a strongly negative impact on our understanding of the deep past. Some very useful thoughts on this topic in new paper by Kuhn and Stiner (link.springer.com/article/10.1...)

link.springer.comBlinded by the Light (of Modernity): Does the Concept of Modern Human Behavior Obscure Diversity in Hominin Cultural Evolution? - Biological TheoryBiological Theory - The remarkably durable construct of “modern human behavior” (MHB) is used by paleoanthropologists to summarize the features of behavior and underlying cognitive...

Manuel Will reposted

Sven T. Stripp
@stripplab.bsky.social

I wonder if anyone ever got rejected from MDPI

Mark A. Hanson@hansonmark.bsky.social

We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing: a 🧵 1/n Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820 Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/... Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...

Manuel Will reposted

MPI-EVA Leipzig
@mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social

Die @unileipzig.bsky.social, @maxplanck.de & @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social bauen ihre Zusammenarbeit in Forschung & Lehre aus: 5 gemeinsame Professuren & geplanter Master-Studiengang f. evolutionäre Anthropologie an der Fakultät f. #Lebenswissenschaften der Uni Leipzig. www.eva.mpg.de/de/presse/ak...

eva.mpg.deEvolutionäre Anthropologie: Gemeinsame Berufungen beschlossen, neuer Studiengang geplantUniversität Leipzig, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft und -Institut für evolutionäre Anthropologie schließen Vereinbarung über gemeinsame Berufungen

Manuel Will reposted

Sebastian Kirschner
@sebastiankir.bsky.social

Immer schön, mit tollen Gesprächspartnern komplexen Inhalten auf den Grund zu gehen. Danke @manuelwill.bsky.social und Ph. Gunz @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social dafür #Evolution #Anthropologie #Archäologie  www.br.de/nachrichten/...

br.deFossiler Schädel: Homo sapiens viel älter als angenommen?Bisher waren Forschende sich weitgehend einig: Der Homo sapiens hat sich einst in Afrika entwickelt und von dort aus verbreitet. Eine neue Studie über die Rekonstruktion eines fossilen Schädels aus Ch...

Manuel Will reposted

tdcapellini.bsky.social
@tdcapellini.bsky.social

1) I am delighted to present this terrific tour de force research conducted by my post-doc Dr. Gayani Senevirathne @gayani.bsky.social and published today in Nature - www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.comThe evolution of hominin bipedalism in two steps - NatureThe human pelvis exhibits distinct spatiotemporal ossification patterns and an ilium cartilage growth plate that is shifted perpendicularly compared with those of other mammals and non-human primates—...
Manuel Will
@manuelwill.bsky.social

For my German-speaking followers: A 20-minute Podcast episode in which I discuss the results of our recent paper in Nature within the wider context of the global dispersal of our species in the Pleistocene! detektor.fm/wissen/forsc... #archaeology #evolution #podcast #scicom

detektor.fmÖkologische Anpassung: Aufbruch nach EurasienVor 50.000 Jahren gelangten erstmals Menschen aus Afrika nach Eurasien. Wie haben sie das geschafft? Womöglich durch ökologische Anpassung.