Professor Paul Pettitt

Homo Sapiens Rediscovered. The Scientific Revolution Rewriting Our Origins

Paul Pettitt is Professor of Palaeolithic Archaeology at Durham University, UK. He has degrees from the universities of Birmingham, London and Cambridge, at the latter researching Neanderthal behaviour in Southwest France for his PhD. He was Senior Archaeologist at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Research Fellow and Tutor in Archaeology and Anthropology at Keble College, Oxford, and Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Reader in Palaeolithic Archaeology at Sheffield University before taking up his Durham chair in 2013. He researches the behaviour of the Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens in Europe, specialising in the treatment of the dead and the emergence of art. He is currently excavating a campsite of Upper Palaeolithic mammoth hunters in Moldova and researching aspects of the visual psychology underpinning Palaeolithic art.

Who are we, how did we evolve, and how did we disperse through the Palaeolithic Old and New Worlds?

This powerpoint illustrated talk will draw on over25 years experience as a Palaeolithic archaeologist, using the latest science to review these questions, drawing on examples of Upper Palaeolithic archaeology to illustrate the Ice Age life of our Homo sapiens ancestors. Focussing on research in which I've been particularly active, and on sites and materials with which I'm familiar, I will present an up-to-date summary of our species biological and behavioural evolution.