I am a Palaeolithic Archaeologist with a focus on East African human origins, cognitive archaeology and the use of material culture in constructing hominin social relationships. I completed my Ph.D as part of the British Academy funded "Lucy to Language: the archaeology of the social brain" project which concentrated on testing the predictions of the social brain in regards to hominin cognition against the archaeological record. Since recieving my Ph.D I have taught Human Origins and Evolution at the Universities of Southampton, Bournemouth, Oxford, Royal Holloway, and Reading before accept a lecturership at the University of Brighton. I am a fieldwork active and am currently leading new field work at the famous Stone Age site of Isimila in Tanzania (known for its giant handaxes) with colleagues from the Universities of Dar es Salaam, Southampton, Wales Trinity St David, Gloucestershire and the National Museums of Tanzania.
Experience
–present
Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Brighton
2013–2014
Visiting Lecturer, Royal Holloway, University of London
2013–2014
Visiting Lecturer, Bournemouth University
2012–2013
Lecturer, University of Oxford
2013–2013
Visiting Lecturer, University of Reading
2011–2012
Visiting Lecturer, University of Southampton
2011–2012
Visiting Lecturer, Bournemouth University
2010–2011
Teaching Fellow, University of Southampton
Education
2011
University of Southampton, Ph.D in Palaeolithic Archaeology
2007
University of Southampton, MA in Human Origins
2004
University of Southampton, BA Archaeology
Publications
2015
Handaxe symmetry in the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic: implications for the Acheulean gaze, In F. Wenban-Smith, F. Coward, R. Hosfield and M. Pope (eds). Settlement, Society and Cognition in Human Evolution. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
2015
Hominin language development: a new method of archaeological assessment, Biosemiotics 8: 67-90
2014
The Identity Model: a theory to access visual display and hominin cognition within the Palaeolithic, In R.I.M. Dunbar, C. Gamble and J.A.J. Gowlett (eds). Lucy to Language: Benchmark Papers. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
2012
The Identity Model: a method to access visual display within the Palaeolithic, Human Origins 1: 24 – 40
2012
Papers from the British Academy Lucy to Language: the Archaeology of the Social Brain Seminar Series on Visual Display in the Palaeolithic, Cole, J. and Ruebens, K (eds). Human Origins (1). (https://humanorigins.soton.ac.uk/issues/)
2006
Consuming Passions: Reviewing the Evidence for Cannibalism within the Prehistoric Archaeological Record, Assemblage (9)
Grants and Contracts
2015
Contextualising the Stone Age site of Isimila, Tanzania
Role:
PI
Funding Source:
University of Brighton School of Environment and Technology Research Initiative Award
2014
Dating the Early Stone Age site of Isimila, Tanzania
Role:
PI
Funding Source:
University of Brighton, Rising Stars Fund
2014
Dating the Early Stone Age site of Isimila, Tanzania
Role:
PI
Funding Source:
University of Brighton School of Environment and Technology Research Initiative Award
2013
Contextualising the Neanderthal Assemblage of Oosthoven (Belgium)