Project information
Contact person at Linnaeus University
Anders Högberg
Other project members
Marlize Lombard (PI)
Gerrit Dusseldorp
Carina Schlebusch
Mattias Jakobsson
Peter Gärdenfors
Jaco van der Walt
Anzel Veldman
Participating organizations
Linnaeus University, University of Johannesburg
Timetable
2016 - 2026
Subject
Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Website
ResearchGate
The project is based at Palaeo-Research Institute, University of Johannesburg.
More about the project
The Palaeo-TrACKS (Tracing Ancient Cognition and Knowledge Systems through the Stone Age) Research Programme is designed as a structure to stimulate and discuss research that is driven by questions (small and large) and curiosity about the origins and evolution of Homo sapiens (biologically, behaviourally and cognitively).
Core activities, such as fieldwork, symposiums and Post-Doctoral Fellows and students are funded through an African Origins Platform Grant from the National Research Foundation of South Africa. The programme is organised along four research foci: Micro-TrACKS (Tracing Ancient Cognition and Knowledge Systems through Micro-methods) Geno-TrACKS (Tracing Stone Age Population History through DNA) Mind-TrACKS (Tracing Ancient Cognition through Stone Age Technologies) TrACKS on the Highveld (Tracing Hominin/Human Presence on the trans-Vaal Highveld Grassland Bioregion during the Stone Age) All four tracks are intimately linked with each other and the research programmes of local and international collaborators.
Together we aim to explore:
- a) the Stone Age occupational history of southern Africa
- b) behavioural and cognitive evolutionary trends during the Stone Age/Palaeolithic
- c) indigenous knowledge systems associated with the Middle and Later Stone Ages/Palaeolithic.
