January 13 2023 – 10h45: international seminar Palevoprim n° 40
Speaker
Raphaël Hanon
Post-doctorant, Evolutionary Studies Institute de l’Universite du Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
UMR 7194 Histoire Naturelle de l’Homme Préhistorique (MNHN/CNRS) Muséum national d’Histoire Naturelle de Paris, France
Topic
Subsistence Behaviors of Plio-Pleistocene Hominins: Archaeozoological, Paleoecological, and Taphonomic Approaches to Southern African Sites.
My research aims to better characterize the hominin subsistence behaviors between the Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene (3.6 – 0.7 Ma) in southern Africa, while placing them in their paleoenvironmental context. To do so, I am studying faunal series from South Africa, Angola and Zimbabwe, in order to produce new taphonomic data but also to evaluate the role of hominins, namely the genera Australopithecus, Paranthropus and Homo, in the origin of these assemblages. I am also working on the modes of accumulation of large mammal remains, including hominins, within the characteristic deposits of this region. Eventually, I wish to evaluate the part of animal resources in the diet of these hominins as well as characterize the modalities of access to these resources (e.g. active/passive scavenging, hunting). Moreover, I am interested in the emergence of the first bone tools. I explore the functions of these industries through the use of different methods (CT-scan, confocal microscopy) and the development of ethnological approaches. The study of associated faunas, combined with the use of multivariate approaches, aims to explore the ecological preferences of Australopithecus, Paranthropus and the first representatives of the genus Homo in southern Africa and thus to reconstruct the paleo-environments in which these hominins evolved.
I defended my doctoral dissertation in 2019, specializing in prehistory, entitled “Subsistence behaviors of Early Pleistocene hominins in South Africa: archaeozoological analysis of the Cooper’s D site (Bloubank Valley)” at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle de Paris under the supervision of Marylène Patou-Mathis, Stéphane Péan and Sandrine Prat. Afterwards, I undertook a post-doctoral project at the Evolutionary Studies Institute of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. I am currently working on the taxonomy of large bovids and the taphonomy of large mammal bone from the new excavations at the Kromdraai site. In addition, my work extends to the study of Sterkfontein, Cooper’s, Motsetse and Gondolin.
Place
Room 410, build. B35 (3rd floor, northern wing), University of Poitiers.