Andrew W. Kandel

Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften · The Role of Culture in Early Expansions of Humans (ROCEEH)

In this article we describe an online database about human evolution, called the ROCEEH Out of Africa Database (ROAD), and discuss our experience in aggregating Palaeolithic data from ROAD in the ARIADNE data processing pipeline. As of April 2023, ROAD contains more than 2400 localities in Africa and Eurasia dating between three million and 20,000...

Researchers have long been aware of an apparently rapid increase ~40-45,000 BP in the frequency of "symbolic" artifacts in the Old World paleolithic record. However, some hypothesize that if not for taphonomic loss the data would instead show a gradual increase in such artifacts' frequency during the Middle Stone Age/Middle Paleolithic. We test thi...

Between 1998 and 2007, researchers from the University of Tübingen in collaboration with South African and international scientists conducted large-scale surveys and excavations in the Geelbek Dunes of the West Coast National Park in South Africa. Similar to the studies at the nearby Anyskop Blowout, the main motivation for the research was to exam...

In 2001 and 2002 researchers from the University of Tübingen in collaboration with South African and international scientists conducted a large-scale survey of the Anyskop Blowout in the West Coast Fossil Park of South Africa. Similar to the studies at the nearby Geelbek Dunes, the main motivation for the research was to examine how Stone Age peopl...

Large scale databases are critical for helping scientists decipher long-term patterns in human evolution. This paper describes the conception and development of such a research database and illustrates how big data can be harnessed to formulate new ideas about the past. The Role of Culture in Early Expansions of Humans (ROCEEH) is a transdisciplina...

In this 22nd newsletter we report on the entry of Chinese sites into the ROAD database. Next, we provide new insight into ROCEEH’s ongoing work at excavations in South Africa‘s KwaZulu-Natal province. Finally, the research center also considers how machine learning can be used to design climate models that help explain prehistoric climatic cond...

The 21st newsletter presents the latest study on Big Data Visualization. Next we take you on a flight to the beginning of human history with the TimeFlies app. We report on the Modes – Forms – Structures-Conference in Karlsruhe and the annual meeting of the European Society for the Study of Human Evolution in Tübingen. Finally we present our ne...

Over the last two decades, red ochre has played a pivotal role in discussions about the cognitive and cultural evolution of early modern humans during the African Middle Stone Age. Given the importance of ochre for the scholarly debate about the emergence of ‘behavioral modernity’, the lack of long-term spatio-temporal analyses spanning large geogr...

This paper presents a micro-geoarchaeological study carried out on the sedimentary sequence exposed at the entrance of Sefunim Cave, Israel, a sequence that spans from the Middle Paleolithic to the early Epipaleolithic periods. Using FTIR and micromorphological techniques, we investigated the stratigraphic sequence to reconstruct patterns of site u...

Current knowledge about Paleolithic human plant use is limited by the rare survival of identifiable plant remains as well as the availability of methods for plant detection and identification. By analyzing DNA preserved in cave sediments, we can identify organisms in the absence of any visible remains, opening up new ways to study details of past h...

This eBook presents the proceedings of an online conference entitled, “Human Origins – Digital Future” which took place from 27-31 July 2020. The main aim of the conference was to discuss integrative aspects and approaches for developing, using and securing large scientific databases in the future, specifically in the context of archaeological and...

The archaeological record is one piece of the puzzle in understanding the evolution of humans, helping to trace the cultural connections between different species and their technologies, as well as their expansion in time and space. Here we demonstrate a method for mapping the boundaries, centers, and peripheries of ancient cultures, as well as the...

The African Middle Stone Age (MSA) is the period in human history spanning roughly from 300,000 until 30,000 years ago. Here, we focus on the archaeological record of South Africa, with occasional glimpses at neighboring countries (Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia). During this time, modern humans evolved in Africa and brought forth a number of key innov...

Paleogenomic research can elucidate the evolutionary history of human and faunal populations. Although the Levant is a key land-bridge between Africa and Eurasia, thus far, relatively little ancient DNA data has been generated from this region, since DNA degrades faster in warm climates. As sediments can be a source of ancient DNA, we analyzed 33 s...

In this 20th newsletter, ROCEEH takes you on a little trip around the world. We tell the story of stone technologies in southern Italy at the transition from Middle to Upper Paleolithic, the paleoenvironment of Homo erectus in Indonesia, and a unique eyed needle from the Armenian Highlands. We hope you enjoy!

In the 19th ROCEEH newsletter, we look at geographic methods for the study of habitat change, the analysis of stone artifacts from the Upper Paleolithic in Armenia, the research history of one of the most important Paleolithic sites in Germany (the UNESCO World Heritage site Geißenklösterle in the Swabian Jura), and the cognitive abilities of o...

Excavated from 2009 to 2019 by the Tübingen-Armenian Paleolithic Project, Aghitu-3 Cave is the only stratified Upper Paleolithic site in Armenia. Sedimentary deposits range from 39,000 to 24,000 calibrated years before present (ka cal BP). The main Paleolithic occupations occurred during the accumulation of Archaeological Horizon (AH) VI between 36...

The 18th newsletter focuses on the diet of Paranthropus boisei and how environmental conditions and technical capabilities affected it. We report on ROCEEH‘s collaboration with ARIADNEplus, a large-scale European project on the scientific infrastructure of archaeological data. We also announce the opening of the exhibition “Being Human // The Origi...

Despite advances in our understanding of the geographic and temporal scope of the Paleolithic record, we know remarkably little about the evolutionary and ecological consequences of changes in human behavior. Recent inquiries suggest that human evolution reflects a long history of interconnections between the behavior of humans and their surroundin...

Die Forschungsstelle ROCEEH (The Role of Culture in Early Expansions of Humans) ist ein Projekt der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften* mit dem Ziel, das frühe kulturelle Erbe der Menschheit zu erkunden, in einen Kontext zu stellen und zu bewahren. ROCEEH erforscht die Geschichte der Menschheit und ihrer frühen Ausbreitungen von drei Millione...

The research center ROCEEH (The Role of Culture in Early Expansions of Humans) is a project of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities* whose aim is to discover, contextualize and preserve the deep past of humankind’s cultural heritage. ROCEEH explores the history of humanity and its early expansions between three million and 20,000 years...

Databases are ubiquitous in the natural sciences and can include anything from a simple, thematically restricted table to a complex, interdisciplinary network. Despite their widespread use, many questions remain unresolved about their growth, analytical function, interoperability, and sustainability. To examine current trends in this dynamic field,...

This 17th issue of the ROCEEH newsletter focuses on early human migrations in Island Southeast Asia by examining microscopic traces of use-wear on stone artifacts. Next, we introduce the ROAD Summary Data Sheet, which provides an overview of locality data stored in the ROAD Database. Finally we discuss the latest developments in an agent-based mode...

The area encompassing the modern Republic of Armenia lies within the Armenian highlands and is situated at the very core of a dynamic corridor between Africa and Eurasia. As such, Armenia proves critical for understanding the initial stages of human settlement and the formation of ancient civilisations in the Near East and beyond. Stone Age artefac...

The 16th issue of the ROCEEH newsletter focuses on the climate of the Iberian Peninsula during the first wave of human expansion into Western Europe. We also take a closer look at Paleolithic mobile art in Central Europe and present a session report from INQUA 2019 in Dublin, Ireland. All ROCEEH newsletters are available on www.roceeh.net

Excavations at Aghitu-3 Cave in Armenia revealed stratified Upper Palaeolithic archaeological horizons (AHs), spanning from 39 to 36,000 cal BP (AH VII) to 29–24,000 cal BP (AH III) and from which we identified the sources of 1120 obsidian artifacts. Not only does AH III—deposited at the onset of the Last Glacial Maximum—have the most artifacts fro...

Grey wolves (Canis lupus) are one of the few large terrestrial carnivores that have maintained a wide geographic distribution across the Northern Hemisphere throughout the Pleistocene and Holocene. Recent genetic studies have suggested that, despite this continuous presence, major demographic changes occurred in wolf populations between the late Pl...

In the 15th issue of ROCEEH’s newsletter, we address the difficulties in defining Aurignacian industries and their spatio-temporal variability. We present our latest findings on the final phase of the Middle Stone Age in southern Africa. Finally we report on geomorphological field work associated with Sibudu Rock Shelter in South Africa and a ROAD...

Coastal adaptations have become an important topic in discussions about the evolution and dispersal of Homo sapiens. However, the actual distribution and potential relevance of coastal adaptations (broadly, the use of coastal resources and settlement along shorelines) in these processes remains debated, as is the claim that Neanderthals exhibited s...

In this 14th issue of ROCEEH’s newsletter, we begin by examining the origin of ocher use in Africa. From there, we establish a definition of what cumulative culture means and explore when it began. These articles are followed by reports about three conferences co-organized by ROCEEH: 1) “KULT-UR-MENSCH”; 2) “Computer Applications in Archaeology”; a...

While the earliest evidence for ochre use is very sparse, the habitual use of ochre by hominins appeared about 140,000 years ago and accompanied them ever since. Here, we present an overview of archaeological sites in southwestern Germany, which yielded remains of ochre. We focus on the artifacts belonging exclusively to anatomically modern humans...

In its first brochure about ROAD, the ROCEEH research team described the technical aspects of its large-scale, multidisciplinary database which contains data about the last three million years of human history. In this second brochure, we follow up by focusing on the practical applications that ROAD offers its users. ROAD provides a synopsis of pre...

Sefunim Cave, Mount Carmel, Israel was previously excavated in the 1960s and is one of the main sites known for the occurrence of the cultural entity termed the Levantine Aurignacian. Renewed excavations at Sefunim Cave provide new insights into the Late Pleistocene occupations of the site and reveal a rich Epipaleolithic layer, in addition to the...

Aghitu-3 Cave is the first stratified Upper Paleolithic (UP) cave site discovered in Armenia. The site is situated at an elevation of 1601 m in the southern Armenian Highlands and has yielded three intact archaeological horizons. The site has an excellent preservation of paleoecological archives, which allow for a comprehensive interpretation of th...

With its well-preserved archaeological and environmental records, Aghitu-3 Cave permits us to examine the settlement patterns of the Upper Paleolithic (UP) people who inhabited the Armenian Highlands. We also test whether settlement of the region between ∼39–24,000 cal BP relates to environmental variability. The earliest evidence occurs in archaeo...

Geoarchaeological research at Baaz Rockshelter focuses on reconstructing geogenic and anthropogenic formation processes at the site and examining post-depositional alterations of the archaeological record. Baaz is set in a rockshelter at the base of a limestone cliff and its archaeological sequence includes seven layers documenting the repeated use...

A joint research programme based at the universities of Munich and Tiibingen focuses on primary animal domestication in the Upper Euphrates Basin. To gain a better understanding ofthe onset of the Neolithic, the project also examines the preceding Palaeolithic ofneighbouring regions. This approach affords afuller picture ofvariability among faunal...

The Middle Stone Age (MSA) of Africa documents the earliest and longest record of marine resource use and coastal settlements by modern humans. Here, we provide a long-term and evolutionary perspective of these behaviors. We propose a definition of " coastal adaptations " rooted in the principles of evolutionary biology as a workable analytical dev...

ROCEEH Evaluation 2016 Appendix A – Status Report I) Publications 2015-2008 3 a. Summary: Publications ranked according to peer review process in numbers 3 b. List of publications ranked according to peer review process 5 c. Summary: Publications in thematic order in numbers 43 d. List of publications in thematic order 45  Hominin Ecospace / Reso...

The research center “The Role of Culture in Early Expansions of Humans” (ROCEEH) is a long-term project of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. ROCEEH aims to reconstruct the trajectory of human evolution in Africa and Eurasia between 3 million and 20,000 years before present. The project focuses on three different fields of expansion...

The Tübingen-Damaskus Ausgrabungs-und Survey Projekt (TDASP) conducted Paleolithic field work in the Damascus Province of western Syria between 1999 and 2010. The TDASP team excavated four stratified sites dating to the Middle Paleolithic, Upper Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic. Here we report on Wadi Mushkuna Rockshelter, a well stratified Middle Pa...

During the Late Pleistocene, modern humans expanded out of Africa and inhabited Eurasia for the first time. To better understand the context of this process in the Armenian Highlands and determine how climate affected the behavior of these early modern humans, we collected sediments from the Upper Paleolithic archaeological cave site Aghitu-3. This...

Different layers of digital information about the landscape are assembled to derive a geomorphological map. From left to right: WorldView-2 panchromatic scene (0.5 m ground resolution), soil lithologic analyses, WorldView-2 optical sensor (2 m), SAR Image (TerraSAR-X; 3 m), geomorphological mapping.

The Middle Stone Age (MSA) of southern Africa represents a period during which anatomically modern humans adopted a series of diverse cultural innovations. Researchers generally attribute these behavioral changes to environmental, neurological, or demographic causes, but none of these alone offers a satisfactory explanation. Even as patterns at sit...

Hoedjiespunt 1 has long been recognized as one of the earliest Middle Stone Age (MSA) shell-bearing sites on the southwestern Cape coast. Together with the closely adjacent and roughly contemporary site at Sea Harvest, and the extensively documented site of Ysterfontein, Hoedjiespunt provides a record of MSA people’s adaptations to coastal environm...

The Middle Stone Age (MSA) of sub-Saharan Africa currently provides the earliest and longest record of marine resource exploitation by modern humans. Here we present data on coastal settlement systems from our excavations at the shellfishbearing MSA locality of Hoedjiespunt 1 (HDP1), Western Cape, South Africa. We also review recent advances in res...

While the Armenian Highlands have benefited from a longer history of research into the Early and Middle Paleolithic occupations of this region, its Upper Paleolithic settlement has only recently begun to come into focus. With this brief contribution we summarize new archaeological data from two high elevation sites that together span the majority o...