Cynthia Larbey- Doctor of Philosophy
- PostDoc Position at University of Glasgow
Cynthia Larbey
- Doctor of Philosophy
- PostDoc Position at University of Glasgow
Power of Plants project, analysing plants use as food, medicine and raw materials in early human and Neanderthal sites.
About
12
Publications
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Introduction
Currently a Post Doctoral Fellow on an ERC/UKRI funded project based at the University of Glasgow. Here my research questions challenge our current understanding of the role of plants in human evolution. My PhD discovered some of the earliest evidence that humans cooked and ate starchy plants at Blombos Cave and Klasies River, South Africa. I received a PostDoc explorer NatGeo grant, a British Antarctic Survey grant, and was awarded the 2020 Renfrew Fellowship at the University of Cambridge.
Current institution
Education
October 2014 - May 2019
October 2012 - October 2013
October 2009 - June 2012
Publications
Publications (12)
Plants are a crucial part of the human diet, serving as a primary source of micronutrients, fiber, and carbohydrates, providing readily available energy. Beyond the consumption of cooked and raw edible plants, early humans also developed methods for plant processing for delayed consumption, to de-toxify/improve bioavailability, and perhaps for flav...
In response to Steve L. Martin's critique of our recent paper we provide further evidence in support of our central contention: that geophytes were a nutritionally important part of the precontact diet, and that they functioned as dietary, cultural, and economic staple foods for many peoples of the Pacific Northwest.
This report outlines the Cambridge Archaeological Unit’s 2019 investigations
undertaken as part of the fifth mitigation phase of Hanson’s
Over/Needingworth quarry. Straddling the Long Holme Drove, the
investigation area comprised a 4.52ha area on the eastern side of the River
Ouse to the south and southwest of the recently completed CAU
investigati...
We present the results of archaeobotanical research conducted into the plant diet of early modern humans who intermittently occupied Blombos Cave on the southern Cape coast of South Africa during the Middle Stone Age (MSA). Botanical samples were taken from two combustion events in the MSA sequence dated to 85 and 82 kya (kya = thousands of years a...
In the human past, is the perennial consumption of starch a deep or a shallow phenomenon? Recent research has argued that digestible carbohydrates, rather than just meat, were necessary to accommodate the metabolic demands of the evolving human brain. This argument is supported by genetic and biological evidence that Homo sapiens was especially ada...
Humans have more copies of amylase genes than other primates. It is still poorly understood, however, when the copy number expansion occurred and whether its spread was enhanced by selection. Here we assess amylase copy numbers in a global sample of 480 high coverage genomes and find that regions flanking the amylase locus show notable depression o...
The Klasies River caves are situated on the Tsitsikamma coast about 45km West of Cape St Francis. Klasies River main site figures prominently in modern human origins research. Since 2013 a group of archaeologists from South Africa and overseas, led by Sarah Wurz, have worked at the site each year on a wide range of research projects, some of which...
At least 6% of world trade, amounting to some $200bn per year, involves counterfeit goods. But this figure would be even higher were it not for the humble hologram. Invented 50 years ago, holograms provide authentication tags to deter copying, and can be found everywhere from credit cards, passports and banknotes to consumer goods, cosmetics and ph...
