Mapping Ancient Africa | Ecology of the past

Mapping Ancient Africa: Seminar 6 (take 2)

September 30, 2022
WDG

Following the postponement of our previous seminar I am pleased to announce the next Mapping Ancient Africa (MAA) seminar (the new number 6 in the series) will take place on Thursday 6 October at 17:00 (CEST).

Speaker: Verena Foerster (Universität zu Köln)
Title: Pleistocene climate variability in eastern Africa influenced hominin evolution
Related publication: Foerster, V., Asrat, A., Bronk Ramsey, C., Brown, E.T., Chapot, M.S., Deino, A., Duesing, W., Grove, M., Hahn, A., Junginger, A., Kaboth-Bahr, S., Lane, C.S., Opitz, S., Noren, A., Roberts, H.M., Stockhecke, M., Tiedemann, R., Vidal, C.M., Vogelsang, R., Cohen, A.S., Lamb, H.F., Schaebitz, F. & Trauth, M.H. (2022) Pleistocene climate variability in eastern Africa influenced hominin evolution. Nature Geoscience. DOI: 10.1038/s41561-022-01032-y

The seminar will be delivered via Zoom. The link for the seminar can be obtained from the MAA Slack channel or by contacting the chair of this seminar Stefanie Kaboth-Bahr. If you want to know more about the Mapping Ancient Africa project visit our web pages and please do not hesitate to get in contact if you want to get involved.

Mapping Ancient Africa: INQUA Rome 2023

July 18, 2022
WDG

I am delighted to announce that there our session “Mapping Ancient Africa: Climate, Vegetation & Humans” has been accepted for the INQUA congress in Rome (14-20 July 2023).

Abstract: Great uncertainty exists surrounding the link between climate change and hominin evolution, cultural development, and dispersal in and out of Africa. Several hypotheses have been proposed about how environmental conditions in Africa might have driven important developments in human origins over the last 4 million years. These findings link important evolutionary events with environmental change including cooling, drying, and wider climate fluctuations over time. However, key questions remain on the type, speed and driver of climate variability in Africa and how it affected evolution and development, e.g., did changing environment affect resources which consequently lead humans to develop new tools, why did so many early hominin species persist, evolve and/or go extinct, why did our species (Homo sapiens) emerge and survive, and how have we shaped our own environment either intentionally or unintentionally? In this session we look to bring together researchers focused on reconstructing past environments in Africa on the basis of empirical data (palaeoclimatic, palaeoecological, archaeological records) with researchers using modelling approaches (climate, vegetation, dispersal and cultural models). We hope to stimulate research and debate on how past change (climate, ecological, behavioral) shaped modern humans and the role of human niche construction on African environments. This session is linked to the INQUA “Mapping Ancient Africa” project, but we welcome all submissions.

Session number: 64
Scientific theme: Geological and climate forcing on ancient societies and feedbacks (3A)
Deadline for abstract submission: 1 November 2022 (OPEN NOW – click here)
Funding available from INQUA and though MAA to attend (please see congress web page or get in contact with MAA organizers for details).

Organizers:

William Gosling (University of Amsterdam)
Stefanie Kaboth-Bahr (University of Potsdam)
Rahab Kinyanjui (National Museums of Kenya)
Lynne Quick (Nelson Mandela University)
Sarah Ivory (Penn State University)

Session sponsored by the INQUA:

Mapping Ancient Africa: Seminar 6

June 8, 2022
WDG

The sixth online Mapping Ancient Africa seminar will take place on Tuesday 21 June at 17:00 CEST

Speakers: Justin Pargeter, Tyler Faith and Brian Stewart
Title: “The potentials and pitfalls of linking climate and cultural change, with a focus on the archaeological record“

The seminar will be delivered via Zoom. The link for the seminar can be obtained from the MAA Slack page, or from seminar chair and chaired by Lynne Quick.

Mapping Ancient Africa: Video of Seminar 5

April 12, 2022
WDG

The fifth Mapping Ancient African project took place on Monday 11 April 2022 and focused on the African Pollen Database and past vegetation change in Africa.

The seminar was delivered by Sarah Ivory (Penn State University), Rahab Kinyanjui (National Museums of Kenya), and Lynne Quick (Nelson Mandela University). The seminar covers the principles behind and the working of the African Pollen Database (why make data openly available?) and the latest advances in eastern and southern Africa.

For more about the African Pollen Database check out:

The African Pollen Database
The Neotoma Database (including the African Pollen Database)
Palaeoecology of Africa, Volume 35 “Quaternary Vegetation Dynamics: The African Pollen Database”

You can watch the seminar now on the Ecology of the Past YouTube channel. Seminar details can be found here.

Mapping Ancient Africa: Video of seminar 4

March 2, 2022
WDG

The fourth of a seminars in the Mapping Ancient African project took place on Tuesday 1 March 2022 and was given by Minchao Wu (Uppsala University). You can watch the seminar now on the Ecology of the Past YouTube channel. Seminar details can be found here.

Mapping Ancient Africa: Seminar 4

February 25, 2022
WDG

The fourth in Mapping Ancient Africa (MAA) online seminar series will take place on Tuesday 1 March at 17:00 CET. This seminar will focus on African climatology and climate modelling.

Speaker: Minchao Wu (Uppsala University)
Title: The impact of regional climate model formulation and resolution on simulated precipitation in Africa

The seminar will be delivered via Zoom. The link for the seminar can be obtained from the MAA Slack page, or from seminar chair and chaired by MAA hub coordinator Stefanie Kaboth-Bahr.

For further information on seminars in this series visit the MAA schedule page.

Mapping Ancient Africa: Video of seminar 3

January 18, 2022
WDG

The third of a seminars in the Mapping Ancient African project took place on Monday 17 January 2022 and was given by Emmanuel Ndiema (National Museums of Kenya). You can watch the seminar now on the Ecology of the Past YouTube channel. Seminar details can be found here.

Mapping Ancient Africa: Seminar 3

January 15, 2022
WDG

The third in Mapping Ancient Africa (MAA) online seminar series will take place on Monday 17 January at 18:00 CET (20:00 EAT). This seminar will focus on the archaeology of eastern Africa.

Speaker: Emmanuel Ndiema (National Museums of Kenya)
Title: The Later Prehistory of South Eastern Lake Turkana basin

The seminar will be delivered via Zoom. The link for the seminar can be obtained from the MAA Slack page, or from seminar chair and chaired by MAA hub coordinator Rahab Kinyanjui.

For further information on seminars in this series visit the MAA schedule page.

Quaternary Perspectives

January 12, 2022
WDG

The new edition (December 2021) of the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA) newsletter “Quaternary Perspectives” is now available for download open access. Among the many interesting reports on Quaternary science contained within it is an update on the progress made by the Mapping Ancient Africa project written by the INQUA Palaeoclimate Commission chair Prof. Tom Johnson (thanks Tom!).

Download from: Quaternary Perspectives

Mapping Ancient Africa: Video of seminar 2

December 16, 2021
WDG

The second in our series of seminars related to the Mapping Ancient Africa project took place on Monday 13 December. You can now watch the seminar given by Tyler Faith on the Ecology of the Past YouTube channel. Seminar details can be found here.

Rethinking the ecological drivers of hominin evolution