Professor Katerina Harvati

Details of Professor Katerina Harvati's Munro lecture.

Neanderthals and modern human origins: Insights from the fossil record

Event details

Date: Monday 24 March, 5.15pm - 6.15pm

Venue: St Cecilia's Hall, Niddry Street, Cowgate, Edinburgh EH1 1NQ

Biography

Katerina Harvati is Professor of Paleoanthropology at the Institute for Early Prehistory and Medieval Archaeology and the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment, University of Tübingen.

Her research focuses on Neanderthal evolution, modern human origins and the application of 3-D geometric morphometrics and virtual anthropology to paleoanthropology.

She has conducted fieldwork in Europe and Africa, and is currently the director of the ERC 5-year project 'Paleoanthropology at the Gates of Europe' (PaGE). Her work has been published in Nature, Science, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PLoS1, Journal of Human Evolution, Evolutionary Anthropology, American Journal of Physical Anthropology and other peer-reviewed international journals and edited volumes.

Lecture abstract

The extinction of Neanderthals, the appearance of modern humans in Europe, and the possible interactions between the two taxa, have long fascinated paleoanthropologists and the public alike.

The lecture will present recent breakthroughs in the study of the fossil record that have shed light on Neanderthal adaptation and behavior, on the timing and route of dispersal of modern humans into Europe, and on the potential for hybridization or aggression among the two species.

Important methodological advances, including ancient DNA and virtual anthropology, will be discussed in this context.