Human Origins (research)

Prof. Roebroeks

“A charact-eristic of this Leiden programme is the linking of theoretical research with fieldwork.”

“Within the master’s in archaeology I am involved in prehistoric archaeology, in particular with the archaeology of the Neanderthals. Who were these mobile hunter-gatherers who lived, 400,000 to 30,000 years ago, in a wide range of environments? The field of Neanderthal studies is a very dynamic field. For instance, we cooperate with a German institute where pioneering work is being done: DNA from the cells of Neanderthals is being examined. The findings will be revolutionary!

We recently published a related article in Nature, and The New Scientist is devoting a cover story to one aspect of our research. Both are well respected scientific journals. These publications will certainly lead to a greater interest of international master’s students. My specialist field is a composite of disciplines: geology, archaeology, anthropology, biology and more. This makes it both interesting and difficult, because students have to learn about all these differentdisciplines.

A characteristic of this Leiden programme is the linking of theoretical research with fieldwork, with “hands on” experience of finds and sites. A few weeks ago I went with our students to the caves in the Dordogne to study some of the famous cave paintings there. It is relatively easy for us to provide students with material; this is one of the strong points of Leiden. My interest in Neanderthals can to some degree certainly be traced back to my youth in the very south of the Netherlands, where flint objects dating back thousands of years were lying around just waiting to be picked up.”