Curtis W. Marean
Professor
Associate Director, Institute of Human Origins
Ph.D., Archaeology, University of California at Berkeley
SHESC Themes: Human Origins, Evolution and Diversity; Societies and their Natural Environments
Field Specializations: Human Origins, Evolution & Diversity, Societies & their Natural Environments, Archaeology, Paleoanthropology, Zooarchaeology
Regional Focus: Africa; Near East
Contact: Curtis Marean, SHESC 226B
Fall 2011 Office Hours: Tuesdays, 10–11 a.m.; Thursdays, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. (please e-mail for an appointment)
Research:
Curtis Marean received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1990, and is now a member of the Institute of Human Origins and School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. His research interests focus on the origins of modern humans, the prehistory of Africa, the study of animal bones from archaeological sites and climates and environments of the past. In the area of the origins of modern humans, he is particularly interested in questions about foraging strategies, for example when humans became effective hunters of large antelope, and the timing and processes underlying the evolution of modern human behavior. Marean has a special interest in human occupation of grassland and coastal ecosystems, and the role people play in the form of these ecosystems.
Marean's primary methodological approach to investigating these questions is zooarchaeology, the study of animal bones, and taphonomy, the study of how bones become fossils. In particular, Marean focuses on experimental taphonomy and the replication of bone destruction processes with the goal of refining zooarchaeological methods. His work in this area has had a profound impact on zooarchaeological methodology and our understandings of Neanderthals and early modern human hunting behavior. He, along with his student Yoshiko Abe, recently developed a novel image-analysis zooarchaeological recording system that utilizes GIS software. This approach is a substantial improvement in zooarchaeological methodology.
He is currently directing archaeological excavations, with Peter Nilssen, at Mossel Bay in South Africa. The sites are mostly large caves in the steep coastal cliffs above the Indian Ocean. These excavations are targeted at refining our understanding of the origins of modern human behavior and placing that event in its environmental context. To that end, he is a leading a team that is seeking to develop a continuous sequence of environmental change from 400,000 to 30,000 years ago. This will have implications for our understanding of modern human origins, but also will inform us on the response of terrestrial ecosystems to potential long-term climate change, and thus be directly relevant to the future of humanity in the light of future climatic shifts.
Research Projects:
Mossel Bay Archaeology Project
Paleoclimatic and Paleoenvironmental Context of the Origins of Modern Humans in South Africa
Teaching:
Marean teaches courses on the Stone Age of Africa, prehistoric and historic hunger-gatherers, zooarchaeology, paleoecology and introduction to archaeology.
Select Publications:
Marean, C. W., et al. (2007). Early human use of marine resources and pigment in South Africa during the Middle Pleistocene. Nature 449(7164), 905-908.
Faith, J. T., Marean, C. W. & Behrensmeyer, A. K. (2007). Carnivore competition, bone destruction, and bone density. Journal of Archaeological Science, 34(12), 2025-2034.
Cleghorn, N. & Marean, C. W. (2007). The destruction of human-discarded bone by carnivores: The growth of a general model for bone survival and destruction in zooarchaeological assemblages. In T. R. Pickering, N. Toth & K. Schick (Eds.), African taphonomy: A tribute to the career of C. K. "Bob" Brain (pp. 13-42). Bloomington: Stone Age Press.
Bird, C., Minichillo, T. & Marean, C. W. (2007). Edge damage distribution at the assemblage level on Middle Stone Age lithics: An image-based GIS approach. Journal of Archaeological Science 34(5), 771-780.
Marean, C. W. (2005). From the tropics to the colder climates: Contrasting faunal exploitation adaptations of modern humans and Neanderthals. In F. D'Errico & L. Backwell (Eds.), From tools to symbols. From Hominids to Modern Humans (pp. 333-371). Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.
