The Liverpool Palaeoanthropology Group is one of the three groupings within the British Academy Centenary Project ‘Lucy to Language’.  The major project, which runs from 2003-2010 is engaged in examining human origins in the context of the idea of the social brain. bringing together the archaeological record and the work of evolutionary psychologists for the testing of hypotheses.  Our group is concentrating especially on three themes relating to social and technical developments in the middle periods of hominin evolution, in the time range about 2 million to about 200,000 years ago - after the Australopithecines, and extending up to the point that modern humans appear.

These are:

The focus of the hearth - a study of social interactions in relation to early fire use

Assemblage dynamics of lithic artefacts in the Middle Pleistocene, a project concentrating on movements of materials at Beeches Pit and other sites (PDRA Dr Jane Hallos from 2003-2005).

‘Multiplexity’ in early material culture, a project which aims to escape the constraints of a ‘stone age’ as it becomes more and more evident that early humans had strategies for dealing with various kinds of resources.

Further projects are being developed.  Our extended group is similar but not identical to the SACE Human Origins group - it includes Fellows of the project in other departments and areas:

Dr Larry Barham (SACE) (Luangwa Valley project site)

Prof. Robin Crompton (PREMOG, Human Anatomy)

Iris Glaesslein (PG Research Student)

Hannah Hafezi (PG Research Student)

V Macaulay (PG Research Student)

Emma Nelson (PG Research Student)

Adam Newton (PG Research Student)

Dr Jessica Pearson (SACE)

Dr Anthony Sinclair (SACE)

Dr Vicky Winton (SACE)

A combined list of publications is given on the Lucy to Language site.