Dr. Brain was presented with a cast of a hyena skull, signed by all participants
From April 28th through May 1st, 2004, scientists from around the world convened in Bloomington, Indiana to celebrate the life and career of Bob Brain, Curator Emeritus of the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria, South Africa. Dr. Brain is an African prehistorian with over 50 years of experience in the natural sciences. He is best known for his research at famous ape-man cave sites in southern Africa .
The conference included:
- A public lecture by Dr. Brain
- A two-day closed session conference on African taphonomy involving sixteen leading scientists in human origins studies. You can read the abstracts (PDF) here.
- A day-long public symposium with lectures by the conference participants
Participants examine casts of cutmarked Pliocene fossils from Ethiopia
This event was sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the Stone Age Institute, and Indiana University (Offices of the Chancellor, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Vice President for Research, and International Programs).
Public Lecture
Wednesday, April 28 th, 2004 , 4:30 pm .
Frangipani Room , Indiana Memorial Union , IU Bloomington
Lecture by paleoanthropologist, C.K. (Bob) Brain,
Curator Emeritus of the Transvaal Museum ( Pretoria , South Africa ):
“Driving Forces Behind the Evolution of Human Technology”
Closed Session
“African Taphonomy: A Tribute to the Career of C.K. ‘Bob’ Brain”
Conference Co-Organizers: Travis Pickering, Kathy Schick and Nicholas Toth
Stone Age Institute, Bloomington, Indiana
April 29 – April 30, 2004
The participants were scientists who study fossils and the processes of fossilization in Africa, try to understand their implications regarding hominid behavior, adaptation, and paleoenvironments. The participants included:
C. K. Brain ( Transvaal Museum, Northern Flagship Institution, South Africa)
Fifty years of fun with fossils: some cave taphonomy-related ideas and concepts that emerged between 1953 and 2003
Anna K. Beherensmeyer (Smithsonian Institution, USA)
Changes over three decades in skeletal part survival and bone modification in the Amboseli ecosystem, southern Kenya
Robert J. Blumenschine ( Rutgers University, USA), Peter Andrews (Natural History Musuem, UK), Salvatore D. Capaldo ( Rutgers University, USA), Jackson K. Njau ( Rutgers University, USA), Charles R. Peters ( University of Georgia, USA) and Briana L. Pobiner ( Rutgers University, USA)
New contributions from vertebrate taphonomy to the understanding of Oldowan hominid landscapes and land use at Olduvai Gorge.
Henry T. Bunn ( University of Wisconsin, USA)
Carcass transport and bone assemblage formation by Hadza foragers at Lake Eyasi, Tanzania
Ron J. Clarke (University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa) and Travis Rayne Pickering ( Indiana University, USA)
On the taphonomy of three Australopithecus skeletons from Sterkfontein
Naomi Cleghorn ( State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA) and Curtis W. Marean ( Arizona State University, USA)
The destruction of human-discarded bone by carnivores: The growth of a general model for bone survival and destruction inzooarchaeological assemblages
Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo ( Universidad Complutense, Spain), Travis Rayne Pickering ( Indiana University, USA) and Charles P. Egeland ( Indiana University, USA)
Models of passive scavenging by early hominids: Problems arising from the equifinality in carnivore tooth mark frequencies and the extended concept of archaeological palimpsests
Gary Haynes ( University of Nevada, USA)
Rather odd detective stories
Gail Krovitz ( Pennsylvania State University, USA) and Pat Shipman ( Pennsylvania State University, USA)
Taphonomy of immature hominid skulls and the Herto, Mojokerto, and Taung specimens
Kathleen Kuman (University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa) and Joel C. Le Baron (University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa)
Site context in the South African Acheulean
Travis Rayne Pickering (Indiana University, USA), Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo (Universidad Complutense, Spain), Charles P. Egeland (Indiana University, USA) and C.K. Brain (Transvaal Museum, Northern Flagship Institution, South Africa)
Carcass foraging by early hominids at SwartkransCave (South Africa): A new investigation of the zooarchaeology and taphonomy of Member 3
Rick Potts (Smithsonian Institution, USA)
Spatial scales of analysis of African mid-Pleistocene hominin activity and faunal change
Kathy Schick (Indiana University, USA), Nicholas Toth (Indiana University, USA), Travis Rayne Pickering (Indiana University, USA), Thomas Gehling and Jason Heaton (Indiana University, USA)
Excavation and taphonomic analysis of a recent striped hyena den in northeastern Jordan
Martha Tappen ( University of Minnesota, USA)
Neotaphonomy of Parc National des Virunga (The Congo) as a model for background frequencies of carnivore damage to bone
Francis Thackeray ( Transvaal Museum, Northern Flagship Institution, South Africa)
Hominids and carnivores at Kromdraai A and B
Alan Walker ( Pennsylvania State University, USA)
The taphonomy of the Rusinga Island Lagerstätte
Tim D. White ( University of California, Berkeley, USA)
Modified vertebrate fossils from Herto, Ethiopia
Public Symposium
" Missing Links: Early Archaeology and Human Origins "
Saturday, May 1, 2004 , 10 am to 4:30 pm, IU Bloomington
- Travis Pickering, “The Career and Life of Bob Brain: Example, Inspiration, and Continued Work at Swarkrans Cave”
- Bob Brain, “Hunters or Hunted? Raymond Dart’s Contribution to Paleoanthropology”
- Francis Thackeray, “Hominids in the Sterkfontein Valley, South Africa”
- Ron Clarke, “The 4-Million-Year-Old Sterkfontein Cave Australopithecus Skeleton”
- Kathleen Kuman, “Excursions into the early archaeology of southern Africa”
- Gary Haynes, “Elephants in the Forest with a Desert Heart”
- Kay Behrensmeyer, “The Bones of Amboseli Park, Kenya: Studying the Present to Understand the Past”
- Robert Blumenschine,“Recent Investigations at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania”
- Henry Bunn, “The Role of Meat in the Foraging of early Homo”
- Manuel Dominguez-Rodrigo, “A New Research Project on Human Evolution at Lake Eyasi, Tanzania”
- Curtis Marean, “The Evolution of Behavioral Modernity: New Evidence for an African Origin”
- Martha Tappen, “New Discoveries from Dmanisi, Republic of Georgia”
- Nicholas Toth and Kathy Schick, “The Dawn of Human Technology: Do it Like an Ape-Man”
- Tim White, “Tracking Technology through the Middle Awash, Ethiopia”
- Questions from the public, followed by a reception
