York’s YEAR Centre to partner with Brisbane’s GEAR Centre
The York Experimental Archaeological Research (YEAR) Centre is to partner with a new research centre in Australia to foster a wider global understanding of our hunter-gatherer ancestors.
The collaboration with the Griffith Experimental Archaeological Research (GEAR) Centre at Griffith University in Brisbane will support cutting-edge experimental archaeological research on prehistoric material culture such as stone tools, personal ornaments, cooking and adhesive technologies.
Exciting
YEAR Centre Director Dr Aimee Little said: “This international research partnership has genuinely exciting possibilities for strengthening our global understanding of a broad variety of questions relating to prehistoric hunter-gatherer technologies in the northern and southern hemispheres.”
The YEAR Centre, in the Department of Archaeology, employs experimental archaeology to address questions relating to the material culture of northern European prehistoric hunting and gathering societies, as well as other prehistoric and historic time periods.
The GEAR Lab, affiliated to the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution and School of Environment and Science at Griffith University, has a primary research interest in experimental archaeological research relating to the material culture of Pleistocene and early Holocene hunting and gathering societies from Australia and Southeast Asia.
Contrasting
Dr Michelle Langley founded the GEAR Lab. She said: “Through comparing and contrasting our methods, the two research teams will be able to address archaeological questions in a manner more rigorous than ever before.
“We’ll also be able to test and inform each other’s projects through comparing the results of north and south.”
As well as creating opportunities for new research, it is hoped the collaboration will create opportunities for student exchanges in the future.