QRC members lead and participate in a wide range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary research projects from the study of past earth climates and glaciations to shifts in the geographic distributions and evolution of vegetation and faunal communities, to the evolution and dispersals of the genus Homo and the increasing scales of human modification of earth environments through the Holocene. QRC provides a venue for meeting and collaborating with scholars across Quaternary disciplines. We are also fortunate to be able to provide seed funding and small grants for member research projects. We are especially happy to support grad student and junior scholar research activities, much of which leads to larger, external funding from agencies like the National Science Foundation.
Termite geoarchaelogy at Madjedbebe, Northern Australia
Abstract: Madjedbebe (Northern Territory, Australia) is an important location for understanding human evolution. We recently presented new ages of 65 ka for human occupation at Madjedbebe (Clarkson, et al. 2017). These new ages have significance for the arrival humans in Australia, the dispersal of modern humans out of Africa, and the subsequent interactions of modern humans with Neanderthals and Denisovans. However, many factors can influence the relationship between the archaeological material and the dated samples. This project is a geoarchaeological study to improve our understanding of archaeological site formation processes at this important site. We will use three-dimensional shape and size statistics to study the larger size fraction of the sedimentary deposit – cobbles – to test previously posited hypotheses about the role of termites in formation of the deposit at Madjedbebe.