symbolic behaviour

Seeing red

A few years ago, Sarah Paris – then a graduate student at Cambridge University – asked if she could access the human skeletons from Khok Phanom Di in order to study the mortuary use of red ochre. I excavated this great Neolithic site in 1985, and I willingly agreed. Last year, she completed her doctoral dissertation and at the last Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand, she won the prize for the best presentation by a graduate student.

CWA news in brief

Neanderthal fossil hunters? Excavations of Prado Vargas cave in northern Spain have uncovered 15 marine fossils in a Neanderthal assemblage dating to 39,800-54,600 years ago. With the exception of one, which had been used as a hammer, none of these…

Doro nawas Animal and human engravings

Footprints in stone

Analysis of human and animal footprints carved into rock faces in Namibia has revealed that they contain a wealth of hidden details. Engravings of human and animal tracks are found in prehistoric rock art around the world, but these images…