Recipient Robert Foley
Date 01 June, 2023
Amount £7000.00
Summary Between 2007 and 2011 the Desert Migrations Project surveyed and excavated Pleistocene localities in the Awbari sand seas and the Messak Settafet (Fazzan). These have a rich record of hominins shown by abundant stone tools. In addition to the Holocene material, the Project recovered large samples of Acheulean and Middle Stone Age lithics, as well as smaller ones of Oldowan) and Mode 4 (blades). The samples were studied in the Jarma Museum, and preliminary quantitative and photographic data recorded. This application seeks funding to employ a research assistant to digitise the paper records and use Pylithics software (an ML procedure for automatic data capture of lithics) to enhance the data from drawings and photographs, allowing a quantitative comparative analysis of assemblages across Africa, and to complete the DMP. The objective is to contribute to the current debate about the role of the Saharan MSA in the emergence of modern humans.