About
63
Publications
43,531
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
826
Citations
Introduction
Jim Ahern is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Wyoming. Jim's research focuses on the Neandertal - modern human transition in Central Europe. In collaboration with the Institute for Anthropological Research - Zagreb, his current primary project focuses on archaeological fieldwork in Istria, Croatia.
Current institution
Additional affiliations
September 2017 - September 2022
August 1993 - August 1998
August 2014 - October 2017
Education
August 1993 - May 1998
August 1991 - August 1993
August 1988 - May 1991
Publications
Publications (63)
Rad donosi rezultate arheoloških istraživanja nalazišta Abri Kontija 002 u sezoni 2022. i 2023. Istraživanja su provedena u sklopu projekta „Prapovijesni lovci i sakupljači u Istri i obližnjim regijama: obrasci života tijekom kasnog pleistocena“ (PREHISTRIA). Tijekom istraživanja pronađen je brojan arheološki materijal iz vremena kasnog pleistocena...
Archaeological investigations in cave and rock shelter environmentspresent researchers with a unique set of challenges.Sediment depth modeling within cave or rock shelter sites aidsresearchers in placing excavations in productive locations. Electricalresistance tomography (ERT) is utilized more frequently inarchaeology over the last ten to fifteen...
The Veternica cave is the oldest archaeological site in the Zagrebarea. Excavations between 1951 and 1971, yielded material datingfrom the Middle Palaeolithic to the Roman times includingthe human remains ascribed to various prehistoric periods (Palaeolithic,Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age). Recent smallscaleexcavations yielded additional hum...
The paper presents the results of archaeological research carried
out as part of the Croatian Science Foundation project entitled
‘Prehistoric hunter-gatherers in Istria and adjacent regions:
patterns of Late Pleistocene lifestyle (PREHISTRIA)’ in the 2021
season, when systematic research was carried out in Ljubićeva
Pećina, near Marčana, and Abri...
Objectives
To provide a comprehensive analysis of perimortem cranial injuries found on human remains from the Eneolithic (ca. 4200 BCE) mass grave discovered at Potočani, Croatia, to test if the assemblage is a result of a deliberate violent episode on a massive scale.
Materials and Methods
Standard bioarchaeological analysis, including inventory...
Paleogenomic and bioanthropological studies of ancient massacres have highlighted sites where the victims were male and plausibly died all in battle, or were executed members of the same family as might be expected from a killing intentionally directed at subsets of a community, or where the massacred individuals were plausibly members of a migrant...
Paleogenomic and bioanthropological studies of ancient massacres have highlighted sites where the victims were male and plausibly died all in battle, or were executed members of the same family as might be expected from a killing intentionally directed at subsets of a community, or where the massacred individuals were plausibly members of a migrant...
In limestone caves, environmental processes often cause alterations of human or animal skeletal remains, complicating classical analytical methods. Exemplary, a proximal femoral skeletal fragment, enclosed by a thick layer of speleothemic calcite deposits, was discovered during the exploration of the Bedara cave in Žumberak, Croatia. An examination...
Rad donosi rezultate terenskog istraživanja u Ljubićevoj pećini kod Marčane u Istri, provedenog u 2019. godini. Tijekom terenskog rada provedeno je lasersko skeniranje dijela lokaliteta te geofizikalna mjerenja gornje etaže pećine. Navedena mjerenja poslužit će u svrhu kvalitetnijeg planiranja budućih sustavnih arheoloških istraživanja navedenog lo...
Rad donosi rezultate terenskog istraživanja u Ljubićevoj pećini kod Marčane u Istri, provedenog u 2019. godini. Tijekom terenskog rada provedeno je lasersko skeniranje dijela lokaliteta te geofizikalna mjerenja gornje etaže pećine. Navedena mjerenja poslužit će u svrhu kvalitetnijeg planiranja budućih sustavnih arheoloških istraživanja navedenog lo...
Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) surveys were conducted at the Velika Pećina near Kličevica and Romuald's Cave sites in Croatia in 2014 and 2015. The goal of the surveys was to estimate sediment depth to bedrock. However, neither survey produced reliable results at the 0.5 m probe spacing. In 2017, the Romuald's Cave site was revisited utili...
excavations of Bukovac cave indicate that humans utilized the cave infrequently and that the site was primarily a den for cave bears (Ursus spelaeus). human presence is indicated by only two artifacts, a massive-based bone point (found in the early 20th century) and a core for flake production (found in 2013). this article presents radiocarbon date...
Sahelanthropus tchadensis is a Late Miocene fossil species that is possibly the earliest known hominin. Fossils of Sahelanthropus were collected in 2001 and 2002 by a team led by Michel Brunet at the site of Toros‐Menalla located in the Djurab Desert of northern Chad. Only cranial and dental fossils have been discovered so far. The best‐preserved s...
As a part of the multidisciplinary project entitled ‘Archaeological Investigations into the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene of the Lim Channel, Istria’, archaeological research has been conducted at four sites: Romuald's Cave, Abri Kontija 002, Pećina at Rovinjsko Selo and Lim 001 (Figure 1). There is much debate on issues related to biological...
A short research history and current interpretations of evidence from Middle Paleolithic sites in Croatia are presented. Sites are situated in two main geographic regions, continental and Adriatic, divided by the Dinaric Mountains, providing two different landscapes for the adaptation of Mousterian people and their settlement system. Fossil human r...
Earth Resistance Tomography (ERT) is a geophysical prospecting technique that has the capacity to model subsurface sediments. This technique is applied at the Cave near Rovinjsko Selo 1 site which is in the Lim Channel, Croatia. ERT is used as a means for positively identifying a previous excavation trench location within site which, in turn, infor...
Bioarchaeology is the scientific discipline that studies human skeletal re- mains from archaeological sites. Working from human skeletal remains, bioarchaeologists can get information on the particular person they are studying, including sex and age at the time of death as well as gain an insight into his or her health, ancestry and various other p...
During archaeological rescue excavations carried out in 2007 at Potočani in continental Croatia, a pit containing numerous human skeletal remains (MNI = 41) was discovered. The remains were mostly articulated but also commingled and showed no clear pattern of organization. There were no associated artifacts, just a few pottery fragments probably be...
Except for the addition of modern material remains, the archaeological record is a finite resource, which means that, at some point in the future, there will be nothing left to find. In this paper, we model trends in archaeological discovery based on the growth of the field and the probability of site discovery. We compare this model to seven diver...
The Assimilation Model (AM) was developed to explain the presence of evidence for small, but not insignificant, anatomical contributions of Eurasian archaic humans (including Neandertals) to modern Eurasians within a framework of the documented African origin of the majority of modern Eurasian ancestry. The AM was based entirely on morphological ev...
The paper reports on the activities and preliminary results of archaeological research of Middle Palaeolithic sites in Dalmatia and geological research consisting of drilling at potential sites. The activities were carried out within the framework of the second and third years of the research project Late Mousterian in the Eastern Adriatic - toward...
This chapter presents some new data on, and interpretations of the Croatian Middle and Early Upper Paleolithic. Alternative interpretations of the Middle/Upper Paleolithic interface in Vindija cave (situated in the Zagorje region of northwestern Croatia) are reported, together with preliminary results of research on the early Upper Paleolithic site...
In this chapter, we discuss Croatian sites that have yielded human skeletal remains from the Pleistocene. These include the well-known Neandertal localities Hušnjakovo (at Krapina) and Vindija cave, as well as the Late Upper Paleolithic hominin fossil site Šandalja II cave in Istria. The Krapina site played an important role in the historical devel...
Archaic Homo refers to the human populations or species that were chronologically and anatomically intermediate between Homo erectus and modern Homo sapiens. Archaic Homo can be further subdivided into two chronological groupings, Early and Late Archaics. Anatomically, Archaic Homo exhibit larger braincases than H. erectus as well as greater body m...
Archaeological excavations in Romuald's Cave (Lim Channel, Istria, Croatia) have yielded evidence of human activity stretching back to the Middle Palaeolithic. This paper reports on recent Bronze Age/Early Iron Age discoveries uncovered during excavations as part of the Croatian National Science Foundation funded project: "Archaeological Investigat...
Članak donosi izvještaj prve godine istraživanja na projektu Kasni musterijen na istočnom Jadranu – temelj za razumijevanje identiteta kasnih neandertalaca i njihovog nestanka koji financira Hrvatska zaklada za znanost. Provedena su probna iskopavanja Matetine pećine kod Kaštela, rekognosciranja zaleđa Kaštela, a nastavljena su ranije započeta istr...
Central European evidence has proven invaluable to our understanding of modern human origins. Important early discoveries such as Feldhofer and Krapina have continued to offer new insights on Neandertal biology and lifeways, as have large samples of early modern humans. More recently, the discoveries at Vindija Cave and sites in Romania have provid...
"This work provides an update of an award-winning classic, which introduced the major competing theories in human evolution. The coverage now features new fossil and molecular evidence, such as the genetic evidence including evolutionary inferences drawn from assesments of modern humans and large segments of the genome of the Neanderthal. The inclu...
"This work provides an update of an award-winning classic, which introduced the major competing theories in human evolution. The coverage now features new fossil and molecular evidence, such as the genetic evidence including evolutionary inferences drawn from assesments of modern humans and large segments of the genome of the Neanderthal. The inclu...
The Late Pleistocene sediments of Vindija Cave, NW Croatia, yield paleontological and archaeological finds that have an important
role in understanding the patterns of late Neandertal/early modern human interaction and succession. The youngest securely
dated Neandertal remains in Europe, found in association with an archaeological assemblage exhibi...
The Hrvatsko Zagorje region of Croatia has yielded numerous, important Paleolithic finds. Most prominent among these are the Neandertal fossils from Krapina Rockshelter. These fossils have proven to be a rich source of data for testing hypotheses about Neandertal evolution, adaptation, and behavior. This study reports on an analysis of sex-related...
The late Neandertal sample from Vindija (Croatia) has been described as transitional between the earlier Central European Neandertals from Krapina (Croatia) and modern humans. However, the morphological differences indicating this transition may rather be the result of different sex and/or age compositions between the samples. This study tests the...
Using living humans as an extant referent, this paper examines the probability that the frequency differences in Neanderthal
“unique” non-metric traits observed between Neanderthals and Upper Paleolithic modern humans could be sampled from two major
populations of the same species. Neanderthal-like features occur in very low frequencies in living h...
Vindija cave in Croatia has yielded the youngest securely dated Neandertal skeletal remains in Central/Eastern Europe. In addition, these remains have been found in association with archaeological material exhibiting Upper Paleolithic elements. Due to its geographic location and date, the Vindija remains are particularly crucial for the understandi...
The anteroposterior position of the foramen magnum distinguishes living Homo sapiens from apes, and has been used as evidence for the hominid status of numerable fossils in the history of human paleontology. During the past decade, foramen magnum position has been cited as evidence of the hominid status of Ardipithecus and Sahelanthropus. Specifica...
This study documents and examines selected implications of the adolescent supraorbital anatomy of the Le Moustier 1 Neandertal. Le Moustier's supraorbital morphology conforms to that expected of an adolescent Neandertal but indicates that significant development of the adult Neandertal torus occurs late in ontogeny. As the best preserved adolescent...
Beginning with excavations during the 1970s, Vindija Cave (Croatia) has yielded significant Middle and Upper Paleolithic fossil and archaeological finds. We report on seven recently identified hominid fossils, a newly associated partial hominid cranial vault from level G(3), nine possible bone retouchers, and a revised interpretation of the Mouster...
The late Neandertal sample from Vindija (Croatia) has been described as transitional between the earlier Central European Neandertals from Krapina (Croatia) and modern humans. However, the morphological differences indicating this transition may rather be the result of different sex and/or age compositions between the samples. This study tests the...
Two analyses conclude that Sts 19 cannot be accommodated within the Australopithecus africanus hypodigm (Kimbel and Rak [1993] In Kimbel and Martin [eds.]: Species, Species Concepts, and Primate Evolution. New York: Plenum, pp. 461-484; Sarmiento [1993] Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. [Suppl.] 16:173). Both studies exclude Sts 19 because it possesses synap...
Two additional cranial specimens from Vindija cave, Croatia, are described. One specimen is a zygomatic, providing the first information about the midfacial anatomy of the Vindija hominids. The other specimen is a frontal/supraorbital torus fragment. Both specimens exhibit morphology typically associated with Neandertals. They derive from level G1...
