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Shannon McPherron

Research Group Leader - Stone Tool Origins

Department of Human Origins
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6
04103 Leipzig

phone: +49 (0) 341 3550 363
e-mail: mcpherro@[>>> Please remove the text! <<<]eva.mpg.de

Research Interests
Academic Positions
Education
Supervision PhD students
Publications

Research Interests

Shannon McPherron is a Paleolithic archaeologist primarily interested in the evolution of hominin cultural abilities from the origins of stone tool use through to the dispersal of modern humans. Over the years he has directed or participated in a number of Paleolithic excavation projects in Europe and in northern and eastern Africa.  His research has been primarily focused on stone tools and on methods in archaeology, but he has also published on other aspects of material culture including bone tools, fire, and burial.  Currently, McPherron is working on three areas.  First, he is publishing the data generated by these excavations.  Second, he is working to better understand the fundamentals of flake formation through computer modelling and controlled experiments.  The latter are a continuation of work that Dibble initiated, and McPherron has installed Dibble’s first flaking apparatus in his lab.  The immediate application of this fundamentals work is to the earliest stone tool assemblages where we want know what these early hominins knew about flake manufacture.  Third, McPherron will continue to do field research in Ethiopia in search of evidence for very early stone tool production.

Academic Positions

Since 2004 Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology,
Leipzig, Germany.
2003-2004Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, George Washington University
2000-2003Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina Greensboro
1994-2000Associate Anthropologist, Anthropology Department, Bishop Museum

Education

1994 PhD from the Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania
1985BA from the Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona

Supervision PhD students

  • Philip Nigst – Graduated 2010
  • Morgan Roussel – Graduated 2010
  • Nicolas Zwyns – Graduated 2012
  • Will Archer – Graduated 2016
  • Marcel Weiss – Graduated 2019
  • Tamara Dogandžić – Graduated 2021
  • Cornel Pop – Graduated 2022
  • Li Li – Graduated 2022

Publications

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