Archaeology: Palaeolithic Archaeology

This is a specialisation of the Master’s programme of Archaeology

Leiden University has been running large-scale excavations at Neumark-Nord 2 in collaboration with German research and heritage institutions. Neumark-Nord is a unique Middle Palaeolithic site with excellent preservation of bone and stone material in fine-grained lake deposits, dating from about 125,000 years ago. Students are able to work on some of the lithic material from the site and its context. Co-operation with the scientists working on Neumark-Nord 2 provides students with the opportunity to learn how archaeologists study the depositional environment, chronology, environment, spatial patterning of archaeology, and lithic and faunal material from the site.
An important research focus is the prehistory of early fire usage, in which graduate students participate with a wide variety of thesis research. Staff as well as student members of our group also participate in new studies of the Eugène Dubois collection, which includes the type fossil of Homo erectus, at the Naturalis Museum in Leiden. The ongoing multidisciplinary study of this important collection yields fascinating topics for graduate student research, more than a century after Dubois returned from Trinil, Java.

Staff : prof. dr Wil Roebroeks, dr Alexander Verpoorte.