Updates 2023

The report outlines science policy recommendations regarding biodiversity and pandemics with the goal of developing transformative policies for human, animal, and ecosystem health more

The project will bring an interdisciplinary approach to understanding how natural environments impact urban development in the Amazon more

Further information available in German more

A recent systematic review by new Human Palaeosystems Group member Dr. Lucy Timbrell highlights links between climate change, population dynamics and archaeological diversity in eastern Africa during the Middle Stone Age, the period of prehistory linked to the emergence of our species. more

In a new study titled published in Scientific Reports, a team of researchers led by the Max Plank Institute of Geoanthropology applied statistics and machine learning to develop a predictive model for the foundation of new structures. more

A novel study combines analysis of wear marks and biochemistry of fossil animal teeth at the site of Ahl al Oughlam (dating to 2.5 million years ago) to study past Moroccan ecosystems in deep time. more

podcast in German more

MDR features documentation about saved dogs by the animal welfare. More information in German. more

A new study, led by researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, the University of Otago, and the Australian National University uses chemical information from excavated animal teeth to study the impact of climate change on human-occupied island environments in the Bismarck Archipelago. more

Excavations at Nyayanga, Kenya have revealed the oldest-yet Oldowan tools in close proximity to butchered animal bones and molars from the human relative Paranthropus more

On Friday evening, 23 June 2023, six scientists from across the Max Planck Society competed in a Science Slam as part of the celebrations surrounding the 75^th anniversary of the Max Planck Society. The public event was held in Göttingen’s Old Town Hall, with the goal of presenting scientific research in an engaging, entertaining way more

Researchers use animal bone remains from Panga ya Saidi, a cave in southeastern Kenya, to argue that people in the Middle and Later Stone Age used archaeologically invisible tools like snares, traps and nets to capture small game in forested environments more

Attendees of the European Climate Conference in Warsaw, including Prof Jürgen Renn of the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, jointly drafted the following communiqué. The European Climate Conference was co-organized by the Polish Academy of Sciences and Leopoldina, the German National Academy of Sciences more

New study provides detail into human hunting strategies in tropical Sri Lankan forests more

A new paper in Communications Earth & Environment uses plant wax biomarkers from archaeological sediments to understand human-environment interactions in mountain ecosystems for the past 60,000 years more

A new study reveals that the inhabitants of Kuumbi Cave in Zanzibar Island utilized forest dominated mosaic habitats that served as a refuge for foragers during glacial periods more

A new article, co-authored by Rahab Kinyanjui from the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and published in the journal Science, reports the earliest evidence for regionally widespread C₄ grasses in eastern Africa and shows how these grasses, along with open habitats, influenced early ape evolution. For more information, please follow the link more

From FAZ (paywalled): Geoanthropology researches the influence of humans on the rest of the Earth's systems. At the Max Planck Institute in Jena, work is underway on the great synthesis more

A high-resolution Bayesian multi‑proxy approach validates the conventional image of a multi-cultural hierarchical society in late medieval Capitanata, southern Italy. more

Hydrothermal vent animals adapt differently to drastic biogeochemical disturbance more

Evidence from modern day Nigeria indicates that humans relied on rainforest resources as early as 14,000 years ago, millennia before the dawn of farming. more

A new model of paleoclimate and hydrology in Iran reveals favorable routes for Neanderthals and modern human expansions eastwards into Asia more

A new paper in Nature Ecology & Evolution shows how interdisciplinary research into human-environment interactions can be used to understand the origins of the Anthropocene and address its contemporary challenges more

A new thematic special issue of the Brazilian Journal for Anthropological Linguistics focuses on isolated and recently contacted Tupi-speaking Indigenous groups from the Amazon forest, highlighting the potential of archaeology to provide new insights into the history and adaptation of these populations more

Documents from the Spanish Inquisition reveal a cultural melting pot in 17^th Century Manila more

Plant remains used in some of the earliest Great Wall segments show climatic and environmental changes across northwestern China since the Han Dynasty more