Introduction to palaeoanthropology

An Introduction to Paleoanthropology
Prof. Dr J.J. Hublin
MPI-EVA Leipzig/Leiden University
Leiden, January 14-17 th 2014
Faculty of Archaeology
Leiden University
Introduction to palaeoanthropology is a 5 ECTS course for Human Origins track RMA students and an
elective for MA students. After attending the classes, students are required to submit a 3000 word
scholarly piece on one of the research topics presented during the course, within one month after the
final lecture.
Besides those following the course for ECTS, we invite other MA- (as well as BA3-) students and
colleagues to sit in on the lectures without having the possibility to obtain ECTS for the course, provided
there is room for such “non-ECTS”- participants. If you intend to participate, please email Andrew
Sorensen (a.c.sorensen@arch.leidenuniv.nl), the TA for this course, and indicate whether you wish to
acquire the ECTS.
Day 1: (January 14, 15-17 hrs, Lipsius 028)
• Outline of the course
• The skeletal material and it significance.
• New approaches to the fossil record (virtual paleoanthropology, microstructures, isotopic
studies, paleogenetics).
Day 2: (January 15, 10-12 hrs, 14-17 hrs, Lipsius 028)
• Evolutionary theory.
• Classification and Nomenclature
• The emergence of the genus Homo
• The first Eurasian hominins
Day 3: (January 16, 10-12 hrs, 14-17 hrs, Vrieshof 2/004)
The Neandertals and their contemporaries 1:
• Historical background
• Anatomy, Paleogenetics
• Evolutionary history
• Growth and development 1 (Life history theory)
Day 4: (January 17, 10-12 hrs, 14-17 hrs, Lipsius 028)
Neandertals and their contemporaries 2:
• Growth and development 2 (brain development)
• Modern Origins
• Out of Africa

• Neandertal Extinction
Required reading:
Chapters 5, 6 and 8 in Richard Klein, The Human Career: Human Biological and Cultural Origins, Third
Edition, University of Chicago Press, 2009, ISBN 9780226439655 .
Suggested additional reading:
1. Antón, S. C. and C. C. Swisher (2004) Early Dispersals of Homo from Africa. Annual Review of
Anthropology 33:271-296.
2. Bailey, S., Weaver, T.D. and J.-J. Hublin (2009) Who made the Aurignacian and other early Upper
Paleolithic industries? Journal of Human Evolution 57:11-26.
3. Bruner, E. (2010) Morphological Differences in the Parietal Lobes within the Human Genus: A
Neurofunctional Perspective. Current Anthropology 51(s1): S77-S88.
4. Freidline, S.E., Gunz, P., Harvati, K. and J.-J. Hublin (2012) Middle Pleistocene human facial
morphology in an evolutionary and developmental context. Journal of Human Evolution
63(5):723-740.
5. Froehle, A. W. and S. E. Churchill (2009) Energetic competition between Neandertals and
anatomically modern humans. PaleoAnthropology 2009(96-116).
6. Gunz, P., Neubauer, S., Maureille, B. and J.-J. Hublin (2010) Brain development after birth differs
between Neanderthals and modern humans. Current Biology 20:R921-R922.
7. Henry, A. G., Brooks, A. S. and D. R. Piperno (2011) Microfossils in calculus demonstrate
consumption of plants and cooked foods in Neanderthal diets (Shanidar III, Iraq; Spy I and II,
Belgium). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108:486-491.
8. Hublin, J. J. (2009) The origin of Neandertals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
106:16022-16027.
9. Hublin, J.-J. (2012) The earliest modern human colonization of Europe. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences 109(34): 13471-13472.
10. Hublin, J.-J. et al. (2012) Radiocarbon dates from the Grotte du Renne and Saint-Césaire support
a Neandertal origin for the Châtelperronian. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
109(46):18743-18748.
11. Kachel, A.F., Premo, L.S. and J.-J. Hublin (2011) Modeling the effects of weaning age on length of
female reproductive period - Implications for the evolution of human life history. American
Journal of Human Biology 23(4):479-487.
12. Kaplan, H. et al. (2000) A theory of human life history evolution: Diet, intelligence, and longevity.
Evolutionary Anthropology 9(4): 156-185.

13. Meyer, M. et al. (2012) A High-Coverage Genome Sequence from an Archaic Denisovan
Individual. Science 338(6104):222-226.
14. Neubauer, S. and J.-J. Hublin (2012) The Evolution of Human Brain Development. Evolutionary
Biology 39(4):568-586.
15. Premo, L. S., and J.-J. Hublin (2009) Culture, population structure, and low genetic diversity in
Pleistocene hominins. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106(1):33-37.
16. Richards, M. P. (2009) Stable Isotope Evidence for European Upper Paleolithic Human Diets, In:
J.-J. Hublin and M.P. Richards (eds.),The Evolution of Hominin Diets. Integrating Approaches to
the Study of Palaeolithic Subsistence. Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 251-257.
17. Roebroeks, W., Hublin, J.-J. and K. MacDonald (2011) Continuities and Discontinuities in
Neandertal Presence: A Closer Look at Northwestern Europe. In: N.M. Ashton, S.G. Lewis and
C.B. Stringer (eds.), The Ancient Human Occupation of Britain, Developments in Quaternary
Science. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 113-123.
18. Ruff, C. B. et al. (1997) Body mass and encephalization in Pleistocene Homo. Nature 387: 173-
176.
19. Smith, T. M. et al. (2010) Dental evidence for ontogenetic differences between modern humans
and Neanderthals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107:20923-20928.