On Wednesday 19 July 2023 the Mapping Ancient Africa session of the INQUA Rome congress took place. We were delighted to have an full program of speakers despite some late cancellations. The first session featured seven speakers.
No panic as we set up for session 1…
The first two talks focused on southern Africa. The first talk by Liviu Giosan (Woodshole Oceanographic Institute) focused on new sediment cores extracted from the Okavango – Makgadikgadi region and new efforts to obtain sediment cores that can provide information on the dispersal of hominins. Brian Chase (CNRS) then looks us to the Karoo highlighting recent findings that suggest that this currently arid region was more habitable in the past and that a proliferation of stone tools suggests past peoples utilised the region extensively (Carr et al., 2023).
Gosling, W.D. & McMichael, C.N.H. (2023) The use of micro infrared spectroscopy in reconstructing past ecological and environmental change. Reference Module in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences (ed. by R. Bradshaw) Elsevier. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-323-99931-1.00087-8
Mapping Ancient Africa participants at the INQUA Rome ice breaker event ready for action! Left to right: Bahru Zinaye Asegahegn, Alfred Houngnon, Busisiwe Hlophe.
The Mapping Ancient Africa (MAA) project has a double session of talks and a poster session at the INQUA congress in Rome 2023. Our session will be on Wednesday 19 July. Unfortunately a number of the originally planned speakers could not make it to Rome due to a combination of not obtaining visas, logistical challenges and ill health. We wish them all well and hope that they will continue to be involved in the project. Further, many thanks to all those who have agreed to step up and give a presentation at a late notice. Below is an updated schedule correct as of Sunday 16 July based on the information contained on the INQUA Rome App; if you are aware of any further problems or changes please let me know ASAP!
Giosan et al. When the desert was a lake: Providing context for Homo sapiens development in the northern Kalahari
Chase et al. Paleolakes and socioecological implications of glacial “greening” of the South African interior
Blinkhorn et al. Evaluating refugia in recent human evolution in Africa
Aureli et al. Homo sapiens behaviour and adaptation in East Africa. New evidence from an open-air site in a modern Ethiopian savannah environment: the GOT10 site
Effiom et al. Late Holocene palaeoecological studies at Lake St Lucia, KwaZulu-Natal
Tallavaara et al. Pan-African Climate and Vegetation over the Quaternary and Implications for Human Distribution
Quick et al. Palaeoenvironments of the Cape Floristic Region: New research & current developments
van der Sande, M.T., Bush, M.B., Åkesson, C.M., Berrio, J.C., Correia Metrio, A., Flantua, S.G.A., Hooghiemstra, H., Maezumi, S.Y., McMichael, C.N.H., Montoya, E., Mosblech, N.A.S., de Novaes Nascimento, M., Peña-Claros, M., Poorter, L., Raczka, M.F. & Gosling, W.D. (2023) Warming, drought, and disturbances lead to shifts in functional composition: A millennial-scale analysis for Amazonian and Andean sites. Global Change Biology. DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16818
Strandberg, N.A., Edwards, M., Ellison, J.C., Steinbauer, M.J., Walentowitz, A., Fall, P.L., Sear, D., Langdon, P., Cronin, S., Castilla-Beltrán, A., Croudace, I.W., Prebble, M., Gosling, W.D. & Nogué, S. (2023) Influences of sea level changes and volcanic eruptions on Holocene vegetation in Tonga. Biotropica. DOI: 10.1111/btp.13231
McMichael, C.N.H., Vink, V., Heijink, B.M., Witteveen, N.H., Piperno, D.R., Gosling, W.D. & Bush, M.B. (2023) Ecological legacies of past fire and human activity in a Panamanian forest. Plants, People, Planet5, 281-291. DOI: 10.1002/ppp3.10344
William Gosling giving his oratie “The Ecology of the Past” at the Aula (University of Amsterdam), 22 December 2022.
On the 22 December I gave my oratie (inaugural lecture), entitled “The Ecology of the Past”, related to my appointment as Professor of Palaeoecology & Biogeography at the University of Amsterdam. I really enjoyed the opportunity to mark this personal milestone with some many colleagues, friends and family. In case you missed the event you can watch it online via the universities portal by clicking here (or on the photo).
Note: (1) to flip between seeing the slides and the video feed just click on the screen, (2) running time of lecture until 50 minutes.