ROCEEH Research Center

ROCEEH Research Center

@roceeh.bsky.social

The Role of Culture in Early Expansions of Humans | Home of the ROCEEH Out of Africa Database (ROAD)

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ROCEEH Research Center reposted

Christian Sommer
@sommergeo.bsky.social

Fasten you seatbelts💺 and get ready for our new publication: Sommer, Pedersen, Kanaeva, Streicher, Conard, & Hochschild (2026). roadDB: An R package for exploring early human prehistory and environments with the ROCEEH Out of Africa Database. PLoS One, 21(9), e0359952. doi.org/10.1371/jour...

doi.orgroadDB: An R package for exploring early human prehistory and environments with the ROCEEH Out of Africa DatabaseMacroscale and interdisciplinary approaches are emerging as central paradigms in the study of human evolution, as demonstrated by a growing body of large-scale, data-driven research. This development ...
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ROCEEH Research Center
@roceeh.bsky.social

BUT the fossil and artifact record is patchy, and statistics can’t always capture the full story. This also limits our ability to test hypotheses about the past. Yet, rare finds give us a glimpse into their ingenuity: 🪨🔥🪵🦴🐚🔴🦅🐢🌿... So much for the club-wielding caveman stereotype! 🧵4

ROCEEH Research Center
@roceeh.bsky.social

Neanderthals survived ice ages and warming climates. You’d think their lives would change dramatically. Spoiler: They didn’t. Here’s why that’s fascinating (and what it tells us about early human resilience). 🧵2

ROCEEH Research Center
@roceeh.bsky.social

Neanderthals weathered wild climate swings in Europe during the ice age 191–116 thousand years ago, but their behavior? Surprisingly steady. Stone tools, hunting, mobility: all held firm. They just carried on, because their tech was flexible. 🧵3

ROCEEH Research Center
@roceeh.bsky.social

New publication from the ROCEEH Team 🎉

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...

ROCEEH Research Center reposted

Jesper Borre Pedersen
@jesperborre.bsky.social

News on Neanderthal population history! 🧬 We combined archaeology (from @roceeh.bsky.social ROAD) + ancient DNA, to uncover a genetic turnover ~65 ka linked to a SW France refugium. Together, aDNA & archaeology reveal a richer, nuanced past than either could alone. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

pnas.orgArchaeogenetic insights into the demographic history of Late Neanderthals | PNASThe demographic history of Neanderthals is only partially understood. In Europe, some degree of genetic continuity has been shown from 120 thousand...
ROCEEH Research Center
@roceeh.bsky.social

📢Last call: Submit your presentations to the ROCEEH (co-)hosted sessions at @caaint.bsky.social by November 9th! S25: How to do ROAD: An Essential Tool for Conducting Multidisciplinary Studies Related to Human Evolution 🪨💀🦣🌼 S39: Palaeo-GIS 🌍📌 🔗https://2026.caaconference.org/conference-sessions/

2026.caaconference.orgConference Sessions – CAA 2026
CAAInt.bsky.social@caaint.bsky.social

For those who leave it till the last minute....Calls for Papers, Posters, and Workshops for CAA2026 have been extended to 9 November 2025!!🤩 2026.caaconference.org

2026.caaconference.orgCAA 2026
ROCEEH Research Center
@roceeh.bsky.social

The deadline for abstracts for CAA 2026 in Vienna is approaching — only 10 days left! Showcase your research using the ROAD database in Session S25 "How to do ROAD", or highlight your spatial archaeological studies in Session S39 "Paleo-GIS". More info: 2026.caaconference.org/conference-s...

2026.caaconference.orgConference Sessions – CAA 2026
Christian Sommer@sommergeo.bsky.social

Annoucning two sessions at CAA 2026, Vienna 🎉 📢 Call for papers is open — abstracts due Oct 26, 2025 🧩 S25: How to do ROAD – A Tool for Multidisciplinary Studies in Human Evolution 🗺️ S39: Palaeo-GIS 👉 Details & submission: 2026.caaconference.org/conference-s...

ROCEEH Research Center
@roceeh.bsky.social

Faya is famous for one of the world’s oldest and most continuous records of early human presence in arid environments over 200,000 years. It yielded evidence for the long-supposed southern route of modern human expansion “out of Africa” via the Bab-al-Mandap strait.

ROCEEH Research Center
@roceeh.bsky.social

New article with ROCEEH's Andrew Kandel and based on the ROAD database! 🎉

Eleanor Scerri@elliescerri.bsky.social

1/5 Why do all non-Africans descended from a group that left Africa 50k ago? In @nature.com we model 120k years of human niche dynamics. From 70ka, a big expansion of the human niche in Africa likely equipped later OOA dispersals with a unique ecological flexibilty. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.comMajor expansion in the human niche preceded out of Africa dispersal - NatureAnalysis of species distribution models in a pan-African database comprising chronometrically dated archaeological sites over the past 120,000 years shows major expansion in the human niche from 70 ka...
ROCEEH Research Center
@roceeh.bsky.social

New article with ROCEEH contribution

Christian Sommer@sommergeo.bsky.social

📄📢New article: Bader, Sommer, Linstädter, Masia, Blessing, Forrester, & MacDonald (2025). Decoding hunter-gatherer-knowledge and selective choice of lithic raw materials during the Middle and Later Stone Age in Eswatini. Journal of Archaeological Science, 180, 106302. doi.org/10.1016/j.ja...

ROCEEH Research Center
@roceeh.bsky.social

ROCEEH Newsletter #25 is out! tinyurl.com/298mya2t 🪨 The Jojosi Dongas’ hidden history of early humans and landscapes 👣 Lateurope: Why Western Europe was settled by hominins later than other regions of Eurasia 🏛️ South-Africa‘s Sibhudu Cave named a UNESCO World Heritage Site 🏹 Becoming a bow hunter

ROCEEH Research Center
@roceeh.bsky.social

Update: Deadline is March 14th, not February 28th as falsely stated in previous post.

ROCEEH Research Center@roceeh.bsky.social

💼Open position in the ROCEEH Project! Join the team as Data Curator for Paleolithic Archaeology and help expand the ROAD database! 🔍Details: www.hadw-bw.de/aktuelles/au... 📅Deadline: 28.02.2025

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