[Socrates] Human Origins talk TODAY during free hour - Year of South Africa

[Larissa Swedell]

I'd like to invite you all to the next lecture in our Short Course on South
Africa as part of the Year of South Africa programming.  It will be held
TODAY during free hour in the Godwin-Ternbach museum.

*So You Found Some Old Bones:*
*The Role of South Africa in our Understanding of Human Origins*
Dr. George Leader
Monday March 23, 2015
12:15PM to 1:30PM
Godwin-Ternbach Museum
Klapper Hall, Queens College

For details see: http://southafrica.qc.cuny.edu/so-you-found-some-old-bones
Short Course on South Africa:
http://southafrica.qc.cuny.edu/south-africa-short-course

For over a hundred years, South Africa has produced some of the most
important discoveries in palaeoanthropology and archaeology.  In this
lecture, Dr. George Leader will look at a selection of the most important
finds and put them into perspective within the bigger picture of human
evolution. These include beautifully preserved fossil finds that illustrate
major transitions in diet, locomotion, and brain size, as well as
archaeological finds that inform us about the cultural origins and mental
capabilities of early forms of human.

As a discussant for this lecture, we welcome Dr. Thomas Plummer
(QC-Anthropology), who co-directs excavations at the Early Stone Age site
of Kanjera, Kenya.

Dr. George Leader received his PhD in paleoarchaeology from the University
of Witwatersrand in South Africa.  His research focuses on the stone tool
technology that our hominid ancestors made during the Earlier Stone Age in
southern Africa.  He is particularly interested in the technological change
through the Early Acheulean.  During the emergence of Homo ergaster, the
stone tool technology becomes increasingly complex and refined.  Dr. Leader
excavates the site of Canteen Kopje in central South Africa, which contains
artifact assemblages in layers that are dated in sequential order from 2.3
Ma all the way down to 1.2 Ma.  This provides his a unique opportunity to
analyze the complexity of the methods used in the manufacture of tools over
time at a single site.  Dr. Leader’s research has pointed to origins of
prepared core technology in the Early Acheulean as well as the roots of
social traditions (culture) at an earlier point in time than previously
suggested.  The evolution of our cognitive abilities throughout this time
period proves instrumental in our understanding of the past.  Dr. Leader is
currently based at The College of New Jersey.



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Larissa Swedell, Ph.D.
Professor, Queens College, City University of New York
Doctoral Faculty in Anthropology and Biology, City University of New York
Core Faculty, New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology
Honorary Research Associate, University of Cape Town

http://larissaswedell.org/
http://qc-cuny.academia.edu/LarissaSwedell

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