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Jul 20 - Calpe Conference To Take Place At The University Of Gibraltar

This year’s Calpe Conference, organised by the Gibraltar Museum on behalf of H. M. Government of Gibraltar, will take place between 13th and 16th of September at the University of Gibraltar.

The Gibraltar Museum is an Associate Campus of the University of Gibraltar. The conference commemorates the 170th Anniversary of the discovery of the Forbes’ Quarry Neanderthal skull in 1848.

A spokesperson said: "The conference theme is therefore appropriate for this significant landmark. An exciting programme of international speakers has been put together to discuss the latest results and discoveries, both in Gibraltar and abroad. The speakers are leaders in their fields and significant emphasis will be placed on the two main areas in which the field is rapidly advancing: genetics and behaviour, including cognition.

"Among the speakers will be Professor Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, who is regarded as the pioneer and leader in the research into ancient DNA, including the mapping of the Neanderthal genome. Among the exciting results expected will be a presentation by a member of Professor Paabo’s team, Lukas Bokelmann, on the first ever analysis of the DNA of the Gibraltar Neanderthals: Forbes’ Quarry and Devil’s Tower Rock Shelter.


"A significant part of the sessions will be dedicated to Neanderthal behaviour and cognition. Among visiting speakers in this area will be Professor Francesco d’Errico of the University of Bordeaux, who was instrumental in the research leading to the publication of the Neanderthal engraving found in Gorham’s Cave. There will also be an important session on Neanderthal diet, with speakers showing the diversity of the foods consumed by Neanderthals and breaking away from the stereotype of the big game hunter."

The Gibraltar dimension to the conference will be completed by two other speakers. Dr Alex Menez will also give an update of his research into the history of the discovery of the Forbes’ Quarry skull. Scientific illustrator, Mauricio Anton, will unveil for the first time five images depicting aspects of the lives of the Neanderthals in Gibraltar. These images are being produced in consultation with the Gibraltar Museum team and have been commissioned by the museum to enhance its exhibits.

The program of events is as follows:

Thursday 13th September

0900 Inauguration by the Hon Prof. John Cortes

0930 Milford Wolpoff, University of Michigan, USA
The Origin of Homo: Complicated but Clear

1100 John Hawks, University of Wisconsin, USA
Who were the ancestors of the Neanderthals?

1200 Rachel Caspari, Central Michigan University, USA
Missing the Forest for the Trees: Race, Neandertals and the Significance of Population Relationships among Archaic Populations of Genus Homo

1430 Erella Hovers, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Continuity and change in research about the Neanderthals in the Levant

1530 Carles Lalueza-Fox, Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF), Barcelona, Spain
Paleoproteomic analysis and human evolution

1700 Svante Paabo, Max Planck Institute for. Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
Neandertal Genomics

1800 Lukas Bokelmann, Max Planck Institute for. Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
First Genetic Analysis of the Gibraltar Neandertals

1830 Alexander Menez
Almost Homo calpicus: an updated historiography of the Gibraltar Skull

Friday 14th September

0930 Karen Rosenberg, University of Delaware, USA

The Neandertal pelvis: a view from the Middle Pleistocene

1000 Peter Wheeler, Liverpool John Moores University, UK

Title to be announced

1130 John Shea, Stony Brook University, New York, USA
Why Is It So Difficult to Relate Stone Tools to Major Issues in Human Origins Research?

1230 Marcia Ponce de León and Christoph Zollikofer, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Neanderthal brain development and evolution in cranial, somatic and behavioral context

1500 Francesco d’Errico, University of Bordeaux, France
Neandertals and the end of the one-fossil-species-one-cognition axiom

1630 Geraldine Finlayson, Gibraltar Museum and University of Gibraltar
Neanderthal Ecology – Gibraltar as a Case Study

1730 Clive Finlayson, Gibraltar Museum and University of Gibraltar
Neanderthals and the Cognitive Revolution

1830 Mauricio Anton
Almost a Time Portal: Reconstructing the life and times of the Gibraltar Neanderthals

Saturday 15th September

0930 David W. Frayer, Janet Monge, Davorka Radovčić & Jakov Radovčić, University of Kansas, Lawrence, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and Croatian Natural History Museum, Zagreb 

Krapina and the case for complex behavior in Neandertals


1100 Veronique Laroulandie, University of Bordeaux, France 

Neanderthal exploitation of birds: What do taphonomical and archaeozoological studies tell us?

1200 Stewart Finlayson, The Gibraltar Museum and Anglia Ruskin University
The Birdmen of the Pleistocene

1430 Bruce Hardy, Kenyon College, USA
What’s for dinner? Exploring our changing understanding of Neanderthal diets

1530 Hervé Bocherens, University of Tubingen, Germany
Neanderthal palaeoecology: Insights from stable isotopes

1700 Karen Hardy, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain
Omnivorous Neanderthals: Plants as food, medicine and raw materials in the Middle Palaeolithic

1800 Eugène Morin, Jacqueline Meier, Khalid El Guennouni, Anne-Marie Moigne, Loïc Lebreton, Lucille Rusch, Patricia Valensi, James Conolly and David Cochard, Trent University, Canada, Université Bordeaux I, France, Musée de Préhistoire, France and National Museum of Natural History, France
Revisiting Diet Breadth in Middle and Late Pleistocene Europe: Implications of New Findings


For further information and registration please contact the Gibraltar Museum on 200 74289, visit the Gibraltar Museum website http://www.gibmuseum.gi/ or call at the Gibraltar Museum reception. As in previous years registration is free for Gibraltar residents. 



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