Paola Villa, one of the world’s most insightful researchers on early human behavior in Africa and southern Europe, presents, “Stone Tools for the Hunt: Weapons of Neandertals and Early Modern Humans” Thursday, March 26 at 7:30 p.m.in the Anthropology Lecture Hall rm 163. The lecture is part of the Distinguished Lecture Series sponsored by the Journal of Anthropological Research.
Photo: Paola Villa
Villa is an adjoint curator at the University of Colorado Museum. Her current collaborative research involves the study of stone “points” from several Middle Stone Age sites in South Africa, notably Sibudu Cave. She has also worked on hunting weaponry of Middle Paleolithic people including the study of Neandertal projectile points from Italy.
Villa began her career as a classical archaeologist, earning her first doctorate from the University of Rome. She went on to earn a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, and has done extensive research into ways natural phenomena can mimic humanly caused archeological materials.
Villa will also present a specialized seminar on Friday, March 27, at noon in Anthropology 248, titled, “The Evolution of Behavioral Modernity in the Middle Stone Age of South Africa.”
Both events are free and open to the public. For more information, call (505) 277-4544 or visit Journal of Anthropological Research lecture.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu