Through the stones we reach the shore: Studies of a Paleolithic marsh in Jordan
-Dr. April Nowell
The Levantine corridor is one of only two places in the world that was occupied either alternately or simultaneously by Neandertals and modern humans (approximately 50,000 to 100,000 years ago). In order to understand why Neandertals went extinct in this region we are studying their settlement patterns in relation to local climatic variation, their subsistence strategies and technological knowledge. In other words, to understand why they died we must understand how they lived. In this presentation Dr. Nowell will detail the preliminary findings and research directions of the Druze Marsh Paleolithic project in Jordan. She will also briefly discuss the applied component of her work with managers of two local animal and nature reserves to document the complex relationships that existed in the Pleistocene between animals, humans and water in this fragile oasis ecosystem. April Nowell is an associate professor of Anthropology at UVic, where she teaches graduate and undergraduate classes in Paleolithic archaeology, archaeological theory, human paleontology and Paleolithic art. She did her undergraduate degree at McGill University in Anthropology (honours), and her PhD in Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania with Harold Dibble. Her dissertation was The Archaeology of Intelligence: A Study of Symmetry and Standardization in Lithic Artifacts and Their Implications for the Evolution of Human Intelligence. Her research interests are in the origins of language, art, symbol use and the emergence of the modern mind.