My research focuses on the archaeological record from Africa and the Levant with the main objective to highlight possible cultural/technical diffusions through the study of stone tools. 

 

I am particularly interested in studying changes or persistence in human technical behaviours as shown through the characteristics of the stone assemblages and what it can tell us about broader changes in the ways of life of African modern humans in the last 60 000 years: adaptation to a changing environment (natural and/or social), emergence of different behaviours (e.g. a new hunting technique), contacts with other groups, etc. 

 

My Ph.D research focused on the Late Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Late Stone Age (LSA) of Southeastern Ethiopia and I compared the stone assemblages from Porc-Epic and Goda Buticha. A major gap in human occupation / sedimentation between 25 000 and 10 000 years ago in the area prevents any discussion of the nature of the shift from the MSA to the LSA in this region. However, a relatively late level  (~8ka) at Goda Buticha yielded an industry showing characteristics of both the MSA and the LSA and appears unique in the region. 

 

I have further investigated this particular time period during a one-year postdoc funded by the Fyssen Foundation at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel). The aim was to highlight possible archaeological evidence for contacts between human populations living in the Negev area on one hand and in the Nile Valley on the other hand. Genetic evidence would indeed support hypotheses for pre-Holocene Back-into-Africa dispersals but archaeological evidence for such contacts is - until now - lacking. 

 

I am the Principal Investigator of PleisTechnoVar, under the supervision of Dr Philip Nigst. 

 

PleisTechnoVar is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie project (Horizon 2020). It builds on both my PhD and postdoctoral research and aims to compare stone tool assemblages on different scales (within a local area, intra-regional and inter-regional comparisons) in order to best define and identify what triggers variability in the lithic assemblages and be able to highlight possible evidence for contacts between modern human populations after the main "Out-of-Africa" event: can we trace within Africa, later Out of Africa or Back into Africa dispersals of modern humans with the study of stone tools? 

 

My Academia webpage

My Researchgate webpage

My personal webpage on the Division of Archaeology of the University of Cambridge website