EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY 24:1–2 (2015)
NEWS
Fourth Annual Meeting of the European Society for the Study of Human Evolution
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n the renaissance city of Florence, Italy, the European Society for the Study of Human Evolution (ESHE) witnessed the rebirth of old debates, the reinterpretation of previously excavated sites, and the delivery of new hypotheses. The annual meeting took place from 18– 20 September 2014 at the University of Florence, with 150 talks and posters presented to an audience of 230 people. According to a report issued by the ESHE board, the society has grown to a total of 389 professionals and students. In an inaugural initiative, twelve students were supported with e 350 travel grants. The meeting included a field excursion and a day of geometric morphometrics training led by the EVAN Society (Vienna). Guido Barbujani (Ferrara) delivered the keynote address, providing an overview of research comparing genetic and linguistic diversity in modern human populations. Novel methods quantifying linguistic differences from syntactic and grammatical features, he argued, provide a promising alternative to classical vocabulary approaches. Applying this method to Europeans, he showed that populations are more genetically differentiated if they speak different languages. In contrast to previous studies, he concluded that language is a better predictor of genomic differences than geography. Barbujani highlighted prospects for the parallel analysis of genes and languages at a worldwide scale in order to reconstruct the biocultural evolution of modern human populations. In the paleoanthropology sessions, Adeline LeCabec (Cambridge, US) and colleagues presented their synchrotron imaging results on the dental development of the Early Pleistocene MH1 specimen from the Malapa site (South Africa). The authors argued that the age-at-death of the specimen is 7.5 years, substantially younger than the
age inferred using modern human standards. Rodrigo Lacruz (New York) and colleagues reported on facial growth remodeling in subadult fossil hominins from Atapuerca, Spain. Using confocal microscopy, the authors found that the naso-maxillary anatomy of the Sima de los Huesos adolescents primarily reflected bone deposition. While the KNM-WT 15000 and Gibraltar 2 specimens corroborated this pattern, remodeling in modern humans and the ATD6–69 specimen of the Gran Dolina site was instead attributed chiefly to resorption. The authors hypothesized that these contrasting remodeling patterns account for differences in facial prognathism between hominin lineages. Alexander Stoessel (MPI-EVA) and colleagues presented the first comprehensive shape analysis of the ear ossicles in Neanderthals, modern humans, and chimpanzees. They found that ossicle shape reliably distinguished species and that Neanderthals appear to exhibit a derived morphology with low intraspecific variation. The authors hypothesized that differences in cranial base integration may account for these observations, although functional associations remain to be explored. In the archeological sessions, two papers focused on the Middle Paleolithic locality of Neumark-Nord 2 (Germany), taking advantage of its lacustrine setting, which facilitated rapid sedimentation and provided both excellent preservation conditions and coupled paleoenvironmental proxy data. Alejandro GarcıaMoreno (Neuwied) and colleagues conducted a spatial analysis of interglacial faunal remains that exhibited high frequencies of cut marks and a low incidence of carnivore damage. A patterned distribution, appears to correlate with seasonal fluctuation in water level. Daniel Richter (MPIEVA) and colleagues used independent age controls from pollen sequen-
ces recovered from the basin to test the reliability of dating at the site, arguing that spatially resolved luminescence techniques provide better precision. Early Upper Paleolithic sites from the Levant were also featured by two speakers. Elisabetta Boaretto (Rehovoth) and Omry Barzilai (Jerusalem) conducted finegrained chemical analyses to gain the most reliable radiocarbon dates. They assessed 80 charcoal samples from Kebara Cave and, in selecting the 11 best- preserved samples, dated the recolonization of the Levant by modern humans to 48-46 ka. Boaretto also stressed the importance of tailoring the sampling strategy to optimize dating results. Adding to this picture, Barzilai and colleagues reported on the Ahmarian and Levantine Aurignacian complexes from Manot Cave (Israel), which, respectively, dated between 46-42 and 39-35 ka. The early dates reported for both industries improve the regional understanding of cultural changes through these pivotal Upper Paleolithic sequences. Two talks presented experimental approaches to understanding past human behavior using the fossil and archeological records. Chelsea Leonard (Utah) and colleagues demonstrated that diet does not equate with the starch granules recovered from calculi. They recorded what 77 Namibian Ovatwe individuals ate, then sampled their calculus to determine what residues remained. While the team recognized a third of the actual diet in calculus, common foods such as pumpkin eluded detection. Furthermore, certain activities such as palm basketry contributed nondietary residues in women. Cynthianne Debono Spiteri (MPI-EVA) and colleagues tested the effect of burial on three types of starch adhering to stone tools. Considering the effects of climate, sediment, pH, and
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Figure 1. The excursion was a highlight of the meeting for speleology aficionados. A) The educational exhibits inside the Grotta della Tecchia featured cave bear bones and displays of lithic artifacts. B) Participants view a variety of speleothems that decorate the Buca. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]
microbial activity, the team observed that, on average, more than 95% of granules disappeared after one year of burial. While microbial activity was found to be most important for starch preservation, the researchers argued that geological context also plays a considerable role. In a trial session, researchers communicated their work in the Pecha Kucha format of concise and rapid presentation (www.pechakucha. org/). Participants followed strict guidelines limiting them to 20 slides advanced at 20-second intervals. The format encouraged images over text, with animations, visual cues, and well-timed speech keeping viewers engaged. The speakers presented a wide range of topics: rock art, a targeted study of endocasts, a web-based outreach project, and a succinct review of the Ch^ atelperronian. The latter, presented by Marie Soressi and Morgan Roussel (Leiden), included recent analyses of bladelets from the site of Les Cottes (France). The poster sessions spanned two days, held concurrently with receptions. Paul Kozowsky (Leiden) collected e 1500 for his poster entitled “Stuck in the Middle with Glue.” The poster outlined the results of stress tests that he and his colleague Geeske Langejans (Johannesburg) did on experimental mixtures of ocher and beeswax meant to simu-
late Middle Stone Age (MSA) hafting materials. Kozowsky’s poster complemented that of Daniela Rosso (Bordeaux) and colleagues; they presented analytical results of MSA ochers from Porc-Epic Cave (Ethiopia). Notable paleoanthropology posters included those by Stefanie Stelzer (MPI-EVA) and Lisa Buchegger (Vienna) and their colleagues. The former introduced a promising method for predicting the shape of the articulating dental arcade when either the mandible or maxilla is missing. The latter, in a study of upper premolars, suggested enamel dentine juncture morphology reliably separates modern humans from Pongo. The conference dinner took place in the courtyard of the ornate Palazzo Nonfinito, home to the National Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology. In this palatial setting, participants enjoyed a sumptuous buffet and perused the museum’s collections of more than 62,000 artifacts. The postconference field trip to the Apuane Alps of Northern Tuscany featured an ecologically themed hike near the town of Equi Terme, a deep-caving tour of the Buca karst system, and a visit to the archeological and paleontological site of Grotta della Tecchia (Fig. 1). Tours of the site, provided by U. Weirer (National Archaeological Monument Office of Tuscany) and E. Ghezzo (Florence),
highlighted the rich history of the cave as an occupation space for Pleistocene cave bears and, sporadically, for people from the Mousterian through Medieval periods. Participants enjoyed the lovely views of mountains and marble quarries, and a lavish buffet lunch that featured local meats, cheeses, wines, and pastries. The fifth annual meeting will be held from 10–12 September in London, UK, and will include an excursion to Swanscombe Heritage Park and Charles Darwin’s Down House residence. Further information, including the 2014 abstract volume, can be found on-line at www.eshe.eu.
Hugo Reyes-Centeno Paleoanthropology, Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment
Susan M. Mentzer Geoarchaeology, Institute for Archaeological Sciences
Andrew W. Kandel The Role of Culture in Early Expansions of Humans (ROCEEH) Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities € bingen Eberhard Karls University of Tu C 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. V Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/evan.21438
NEWS
Fourth Annual Meeting of the European Society for the Study of Human Evolution
I
n the renaissance city of Florence, Italy, the European Society for the Study of Human Evolution (ESHE) witnessed the rebirth of old debates, the reinterpretation of previously excavated sites, and the delivery of new hypotheses. The annual meeting took place from 18– 20 September 2014 at the University of Florence, with 150 talks and posters presented to an audience of 230 people. According to a report issued by the ESHE board, the society has grown to a total of 389 professionals and students. In an inaugural initiative, twelve students were supported with e 350 travel grants. The meeting included a field excursion and a day of geometric morphometrics training led by the EVAN Society (Vienna). Guido Barbujani (Ferrara) delivered the keynote address, providing an overview of research comparing genetic and linguistic diversity in modern human populations. Novel methods quantifying linguistic differences from syntactic and grammatical features, he argued, provide a promising alternative to classical vocabulary approaches. Applying this method to Europeans, he showed that populations are more genetically differentiated if they speak different languages. In contrast to previous studies, he concluded that language is a better predictor of genomic differences than geography. Barbujani highlighted prospects for the parallel analysis of genes and languages at a worldwide scale in order to reconstruct the biocultural evolution of modern human populations. In the paleoanthropology sessions, Adeline LeCabec (Cambridge, US) and colleagues presented their synchrotron imaging results on the dental development of the Early Pleistocene MH1 specimen from the Malapa site (South Africa). The authors argued that the age-at-death of the specimen is 7.5 years, substantially younger than the
age inferred using modern human standards. Rodrigo Lacruz (New York) and colleagues reported on facial growth remodeling in subadult fossil hominins from Atapuerca, Spain. Using confocal microscopy, the authors found that the naso-maxillary anatomy of the Sima de los Huesos adolescents primarily reflected bone deposition. While the KNM-WT 15000 and Gibraltar 2 specimens corroborated this pattern, remodeling in modern humans and the ATD6–69 specimen of the Gran Dolina site was instead attributed chiefly to resorption. The authors hypothesized that these contrasting remodeling patterns account for differences in facial prognathism between hominin lineages. Alexander Stoessel (MPI-EVA) and colleagues presented the first comprehensive shape analysis of the ear ossicles in Neanderthals, modern humans, and chimpanzees. They found that ossicle shape reliably distinguished species and that Neanderthals appear to exhibit a derived morphology with low intraspecific variation. The authors hypothesized that differences in cranial base integration may account for these observations, although functional associations remain to be explored. In the archeological sessions, two papers focused on the Middle Paleolithic locality of Neumark-Nord 2 (Germany), taking advantage of its lacustrine setting, which facilitated rapid sedimentation and provided both excellent preservation conditions and coupled paleoenvironmental proxy data. Alejandro GarcıaMoreno (Neuwied) and colleagues conducted a spatial analysis of interglacial faunal remains that exhibited high frequencies of cut marks and a low incidence of carnivore damage. A patterned distribution, appears to correlate with seasonal fluctuation in water level. Daniel Richter (MPIEVA) and colleagues used independent age controls from pollen sequen-
ces recovered from the basin to test the reliability of dating at the site, arguing that spatially resolved luminescence techniques provide better precision. Early Upper Paleolithic sites from the Levant were also featured by two speakers. Elisabetta Boaretto (Rehovoth) and Omry Barzilai (Jerusalem) conducted finegrained chemical analyses to gain the most reliable radiocarbon dates. They assessed 80 charcoal samples from Kebara Cave and, in selecting the 11 best- preserved samples, dated the recolonization of the Levant by modern humans to 48-46 ka. Boaretto also stressed the importance of tailoring the sampling strategy to optimize dating results. Adding to this picture, Barzilai and colleagues reported on the Ahmarian and Levantine Aurignacian complexes from Manot Cave (Israel), which, respectively, dated between 46-42 and 39-35 ka. The early dates reported for both industries improve the regional understanding of cultural changes through these pivotal Upper Paleolithic sequences. Two talks presented experimental approaches to understanding past human behavior using the fossil and archeological records. Chelsea Leonard (Utah) and colleagues demonstrated that diet does not equate with the starch granules recovered from calculi. They recorded what 77 Namibian Ovatwe individuals ate, then sampled their calculus to determine what residues remained. While the team recognized a third of the actual diet in calculus, common foods such as pumpkin eluded detection. Furthermore, certain activities such as palm basketry contributed nondietary residues in women. Cynthianne Debono Spiteri (MPI-EVA) and colleagues tested the effect of burial on three types of starch adhering to stone tools. Considering the effects of climate, sediment, pH, and
2
NEWS
Figure 1. The excursion was a highlight of the meeting for speleology aficionados. A) The educational exhibits inside the Grotta della Tecchia featured cave bear bones and displays of lithic artifacts. B) Participants view a variety of speleothems that decorate the Buca. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]
microbial activity, the team observed that, on average, more than 95% of granules disappeared after one year of burial. While microbial activity was found to be most important for starch preservation, the researchers argued that geological context also plays a considerable role. In a trial session, researchers communicated their work in the Pecha Kucha format of concise and rapid presentation (www.pechakucha. org/). Participants followed strict guidelines limiting them to 20 slides advanced at 20-second intervals. The format encouraged images over text, with animations, visual cues, and well-timed speech keeping viewers engaged. The speakers presented a wide range of topics: rock art, a targeted study of endocasts, a web-based outreach project, and a succinct review of the Ch^ atelperronian. The latter, presented by Marie Soressi and Morgan Roussel (Leiden), included recent analyses of bladelets from the site of Les Cottes (France). The poster sessions spanned two days, held concurrently with receptions. Paul Kozowsky (Leiden) collected e 1500 for his poster entitled “Stuck in the Middle with Glue.” The poster outlined the results of stress tests that he and his colleague Geeske Langejans (Johannesburg) did on experimental mixtures of ocher and beeswax meant to simu-
late Middle Stone Age (MSA) hafting materials. Kozowsky’s poster complemented that of Daniela Rosso (Bordeaux) and colleagues; they presented analytical results of MSA ochers from Porc-Epic Cave (Ethiopia). Notable paleoanthropology posters included those by Stefanie Stelzer (MPI-EVA) and Lisa Buchegger (Vienna) and their colleagues. The former introduced a promising method for predicting the shape of the articulating dental arcade when either the mandible or maxilla is missing. The latter, in a study of upper premolars, suggested enamel dentine juncture morphology reliably separates modern humans from Pongo. The conference dinner took place in the courtyard of the ornate Palazzo Nonfinito, home to the National Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology. In this palatial setting, participants enjoyed a sumptuous buffet and perused the museum’s collections of more than 62,000 artifacts. The postconference field trip to the Apuane Alps of Northern Tuscany featured an ecologically themed hike near the town of Equi Terme, a deep-caving tour of the Buca karst system, and a visit to the archeological and paleontological site of Grotta della Tecchia (Fig. 1). Tours of the site, provided by U. Weirer (National Archaeological Monument Office of Tuscany) and E. Ghezzo (Florence),
highlighted the rich history of the cave as an occupation space for Pleistocene cave bears and, sporadically, for people from the Mousterian through Medieval periods. Participants enjoyed the lovely views of mountains and marble quarries, and a lavish buffet lunch that featured local meats, cheeses, wines, and pastries. The fifth annual meeting will be held from 10–12 September in London, UK, and will include an excursion to Swanscombe Heritage Park and Charles Darwin’s Down House residence. Further information, including the 2014 abstract volume, can be found on-line at www.eshe.eu.
Hugo Reyes-Centeno Paleoanthropology, Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment
Susan M. Mentzer Geoarchaeology, Institute for Archaeological Sciences
Andrew W. Kandel The Role of Culture in Early Expansions of Humans (ROCEEH) Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities € bingen Eberhard Karls University of Tu C 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. V Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/evan.21438
