Francesco d'Errico

Professor

Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion

E-mailfrancesco.derrico@uib.no
Visitor Address
Øysteins gate 3

5007 Bergen
Postal Address
Postboks 7805

5020 Bergen

Publications

Academic article

Show author(s) (2022). Plant bedding construction between 60,000 and 40,000 years ago at Border Cave, South Africa. Quaternary Science Reviews.
Show author(s) (2022). Innovative ochre processing and tool use in China 40,000 years ago. Nature. 284-289.
Show author(s) (2022). Geoarchaeology and zooarchaeology of Border Cave, South Africa: Initial multiproxy considerations of stratigraphy and site formation processes from the Backwell et al. excavations. Quaternary Science Reviews.
Show author(s) (2022). Critical evaluation of in situ analyses for the characterisation of red pigments in rock paintings: a case study from El Castillo, Spain. PLOS ONE.
Show author(s) (2022). Border Cave: A 227,000-year-old archive from the southern African interior. Quaternary Science Reviews.
Show author(s) (2022). A reappraisal of the Border Cave 1 cranium (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa). Quaternary Science Reviews.

Show author(s) (2021). Zhoukoudian Upper Cave personal ornaments and ochre: Rediscovery and reevaluation. Journal of Human Evolution. 27 pages.
Show author(s) (2021). The symbolic role of the underground world among Middle Paleolithic Neanderthals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. e2021495118.
Show author(s) (2021). The perception of quantity ain’t number: Missing the primacy of symbolic reference. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. e199.
Show author(s) (2021). Revisiting the Middle-to-Upper Palaeolithic transition at Gruta do Caldeirão (Tomar, Portugal) . PLOS ONE. e0259089.
Show author(s) (2021). New evidence of bone tool use by Early Pleistocene hominins from Cooper’s D, Bloubank Valley, South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. 11 pages.
Show author(s) (2021). Neuroimaging and neuroarchaeology : a window on cognitive evolution . Intellectica. 67-91.
Show author(s) (2021). Earliest known human burial in Africa. Nature. 95-100.
Show author(s) (2021). Border Cave: una aproximación a la práctica arqueológica sudafricana. Práctica Arqueológica. 56-62.
Show author(s) (2021). An ecological niche shift for Neanderthal populations in Western Europe 70,000 years ago. Science Advances. 5346-5346.
Show author(s) (2021). A 115,000-year-old expedient bone technology at Lingjing, Henan, China. PLOS ONE. e0250156.

Show author(s) (2020). Un berceau à l'échelle du continent africain. La Recherche (Imprimé). 36-43.
Show author(s) (2020). Trajectories of cultural innovation from the Middle to Later Stone Age in Eastern Africa: Personal ornaments, bone artifacts, and ocher from Panga ya Saidi, Kenya. Journal of Human Evolution. 1-25.
Show author(s) (2020). Quantitative methods demonstrate that environment alone is an insufficient predictor of present-day language distributions in New Guinea. PLOS ONE.
Show author(s) (2020). Last Interglacial Iberian Neandertals as Fisher-Hunter-Gatherers. Science. 1-15.
Show author(s) (2020). Fire and grass-bedding construction 200 thousand years ago at Border Cave, South Africa. Science. 863-866.
Show author(s) (2020). Cooked starchy rhizomes in Africa 170 thousand years ago. Science. 87-91.
Show author(s) (2020). Bone tools from Beds II-IV, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania and implications for the origins and evolution of bone technology. Journal of Human Evolution.
Show author(s) (2020). A Palaeolithic bird figurine from the Lingjing site, China. PLOS ONE. 24 pages.

Show author(s) (2019). What processes sparked off symbolic representations? A reply to Hodgson and an alternative perspective. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. 1-8.
Show author(s) (2019). Variability in Still Bay symbolic traditions: the marine shell beads from Sibudu Cave, South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. 1-17.
Show author(s) (2019). Provenance, modification and use of manganese-rich rocks at Le Moustier (Dordogne, France). PLOS ONE.
Show author(s) (2019). Manganese and iron oxide use at Combe-Grenal (Dordogne, France): A proxy for cultural change in Neanderthal communities. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. 239-256.
Show author(s) (2019). L’industrie osseuse châtelperronienne de la Grotte du Renne, (Arcy-sur-Cure. Paleo. 139-190.
Show author(s) (2019). Les objets de parure. Paleo. 27 pages.
Show author(s) (2019). La chronologie des couches Châtelperroniennes de la Grotte du Renne. Paleo.
Show author(s) (2019). Engraved bones from the archaic hominin site of Lingjing, Henan Province. Antiquity. 886-900.
Show author(s) (2019). Characterization of bone surface modifications on an Early to Middle Pleistocene bird assemblage from Mata Menge (Flores, Indonesia) using multifocus and confocal microscopy . Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 1-11.

Show author(s) (2018). The origin and evolution of sewing technologies in Eurasia and North America. Journal of Human Evolution. 71-86.
Show author(s) (2018). The antiquity of bow-and-arrow technology: evidence from Middle Stone Age layers at Sibudu Cave. Antiquity. 289-303.
Show author(s) (2018). Seeking black. Geochemical characterization by PIXE of Palaeolithic manganese-rich lumps and their potential sources. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. 54-68.
Show author(s) (2018). New Excavations at Border Cave, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Journal of Field Archaeology. 417-436.
Show author(s) (2018). Neuroimaging supports the representational nature of the earliest human engravings. Royal Society Open Science. 1-12.
Show author(s) (2018). Long-distance stone transport and pigment use in the earliest Middle Stone Age. Science. 90-94.
Show author(s) (2018). Innovation in bone technology and artefact types in the Late Upper Palaeolithic of China: Insights from Shuidonggou Locality 12. Journal of Archaeological Science. 82-93.
Show author(s) (2018). From number sense to number symbols. An archaeological perspective. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Biological Sciences. 1-10.
Show author(s) (2018). Discovery of circa 115,000-year-old bone retouchers at Lingjing, Henan, China. PLOS ONE. 1-16.
Show author(s) (2018). Did Our Species Evolve in Subdivided Populations across Africa, and Why Does It Matter? Trends in Ecology & Evolution.
Show author(s) (2018). Culture: the driving force of human cognition. Topics in Cognitive Science.
Show author(s) (2018). Cultural Exaptation, Cultural Neural Reuse: A mechanism for the emergence of modern culture and behaviour. Biological Theory. 213-227.
Show author(s) (2018). Assessing the significance of Palaeolithic engraved cortexes. A case study from the Mousterian site of Kiik-Koba, Crimea. PLOS ONE. 1-26.
Show author(s) (2018). An abstract drawing from the 73,000-year-old levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa. Nature. 115-118.
Show author(s) (2018). 78,000-year-old record of Middle and Later stone age innovation in an East African tropical forest. Nature Communications. 1-8.

Show author(s) (2017). Vegetation and environmental changes at Wonderkrater, Limpopo, South Africa. Implications for Middle Stone Age cultural adaptations. Quaternary Research. 313-326.
Show author(s) (2017). The earliest evidence of coloured ornaments in China: The ochred ostrich eggshell beads from Shuidonggou Locality 2. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. 102-113.
Show author(s) (2017). Identifying early modern human ecological niche expansions and associated cultural dynamics in the South African Middle Stone Age. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 7869-7876.
Show author(s) (2017). A technological and morphological study of Late Paleolithic ostrich eggshell beads from Shuidonggou, North China. Journal of Archaeological Science. 83-104.

Show author(s) (2016). The technology of the earliest European cave paintings: El Castillo Cave, Spain. Journal of Archaeological Science. 48-65.

Show author(s) (2015). The archaeology of teaching: a conceptual framework. Cambridge Archaeological Journal. 859-866.
Show author(s) (2015). Tephra studies and the reconstruction of Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic cultural trajectories. Quaternary Science Reviews. 182-193.
Show author(s) (2015). Taphonomic analysis of the faunal assemblage associated with the hominins (Australopithecus sediba) from the early pleistocene cave deposits of Malapa, South Africa. PLOS ONE.
Show author(s) (2015). Ornaments reveal resistance of North European cultures to the spread of farming. PLOS ONE.
Show author(s) (2015). Homo erectus at Trinil on Java used shells for tool production and engraving. Nature. 228-231.
Show author(s) (2015). Evaluating the photoprotective effects of ochre on human skin by in vivo SPF assessment: Implications for human evolution, adaptation and dispersal. PLOS ONE.
Show author(s) (2015). Assessing the photoprotective effects of red ochre on human skin by in vitro laboratory experiments. South African Journal of Science.
Show author(s) (2015). Assessing the accidental versus deliberate color modification of shell beads. A case study on perforated Nassarius kraussianus from Blombos Cave Middle Stone Age levels. Archaeometry. 51-76.
Show author(s) (2015). Analysis of site formation and assemblage integrity does not support attribution of the Uluzzian to modern humans at Grotta del Cavallo. PLOS ONE.

Show author(s) (2014). The way we wear makes the difference: Residue analysis applied to Mesolithic personal ornaments from Hohlenstein-Stadel (Germany). Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. 133-144.
Show author(s) (2014). Stratigraphic and spatial distribution of ochre and ochre processing tools at Porc-Epic Cave, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia. Quaternary International. 85-99.
Show author(s) (2014). Searching for consistencies in Châtelperronian pigment use. Journal of Archaeological Science. 180-193.
Show author(s) (2014). Multiproxy record of late Quaternary climate change and Middle Stone Age human occupation at Wonderkrater, South Africa. Quaternary Science Reviews. 42-59.
Show author(s) (2014). Il y a 100 000 ans, un atelier pour la préparation et le stockage de mélanges pigmentés. Paleo. 117-124.
Show author(s) (2014). An Early Upper Palaeolithic decorated bone tubular rod from Pod Hradem Cave, Czech Republic. Antiquity. 30-46.
Show author(s) (2014). A short-term, task-specific site: Epipalaeolithic settlement patterns inferred from marine shells found at Praileaitz I (Basque Country, Spain). Journal of Archaeological Science. 666-678.
Show author(s) (2014). A rock engraving made by Neanderthals in Gibraltar. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 13301-13306.

Show author(s) (2013). Thinking strings: Additional evidence for personal ornament use in the Middle Stone Age at Blombos Cave, South Africa. Journal of Human Evolution. 500-517.
Show author(s) (2013). Identifying Mechanisms behind Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age Cultural Trajectories. Current Anthropology. S371-S387.
Show author(s) (2013). Human-climate interaction during the Early Upper Paleolithic: testing the hypothesis of an adaptive shift between the Proto-Aurignacian and the Early Aurignacian. Journal of Human Evolution. 39-55.
Show author(s) (2013). Ecological constraints on the first prehistoric farmers in Europe. Journal of Archaeological Science. 2746-2753.
Show author(s) (2013). An ochered fossil marine shell From the mousterian of Fumane Cave, Italy. PLOS ONE. 15 pages.
Show author(s) (2013). Air-sea temperature decoupling in western Europe during the last interglacial-glacial transition. Nature Geoscience. 837-841.

Show author(s) (2012). Technological, elemental and colorimetric analysis of an engraved ochre fragment from the Middle Stone Age levels of Klasies River Cave 1, South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science. 942-952.
Show author(s) (2012). SELECTION AND HEATING OF COLOURING MATERIALS IN THE MOUSTERIAN LEVEL OF ES-SKHUL (c. 100 000 YEARS BP, MOUNT CARMEL, ISRAEL). Archaeometry. 698-722.
Show author(s) (2012). Identifying regional variability in Middle Stone Age bone technology: The case of Sibudu Cave. Journal of Archaeological Science. 2479-2495.
Show author(s) (2012). Early evidence of San material culture represented by organic artifacts from Border Cave, South Africa. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 13214-13219.
Show author(s) (2012). Criteria for identifying bone modification by termites in the fossil record. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 72-87.
Show author(s) (2012). Border cave and the beginning of the later stone age in South Africa. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 13208-13213.

Show author(s) (2011). The reality of Neandertal symbolic behavior at the Grotte du Renne, Arcy-sur-Cure, France. PLOS ONE. 11 pages.
Show author(s) (2011). Eco-cultural niches of the Badegoulian: Unraveling links between cultural adaptation and ecology during the Last Glacial Maximum in France. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. 359-374.
Show author(s) (2011). Crache perforée dans le Gravettien du Sire (Mirefleurs, Puy-de-Dôme): Etude archéozoologique, technologique et fonctionelle. Paleo. 301-310.
Show author(s) (2011). A 100,000-Year-Old Ochre-Processing Workshop at Blombos Cave, South Africa. Science. 219-222.

Show author(s) (2007). Additional evidence for bone technology in the southern African middle stone age. Journal of Human Evolution. 142-163.

Show author(s) (2005). Nassarius kraussianus shell beads from Blombos Cave: evidence for symbolic behaviour in the Middle Stone Age. Journal of Human Evolution. 3-24.

Show author(s) (2004). Middle stone age shell beads from South Africa. Science. 404-404.

Show author(s) (2002). Emergence of Modern Human Behaviour: Middle Stone Age engravings from South Africa. Science. 1278-1280.

Show author(s) (2001). An engraved bone fragment from ca. 75 kyr Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa: implications for the origin of symbolism. Antiquity. 309-318.
Show author(s) (2001). An early bone tool industry from the Middle Stone Age at Blombos Cave, South Africa: implications for the origins of modern human behaviour, symbolism and language. Journal of Human Evolution. 631-678.

Lecture

Show author(s) (2021). Panga Ya Saidi and the earliest known burial from Africa.

Show author(s) (2020). The origin and evolution of symbolic material culture.

Popular scientific lecture

Show author(s) (2021). Les plus anciennes cultures matérielles symboliques Quelques nouveautés. .
Show author(s) (2021). CUMILA - Innovations culturelles au cours de la préhistoire en l'Afrique de l'Est.

Show author(s) (2020). L’emergence de comportement symboliques, fruit d’un évolution biologique ou culturelle ? .
Show author(s) (2020). Come abbiamo scoperto la più antica arte cinese.

Show author(s) (2019). A day in the life: Homo sapiens 100 000 years ago.
Show author(s) (2019). Nouvelles découvertes archéologiques en Europe et en Afrique: comment changent-elles notre vision de l’origine des cultures humaines ?

Show author(s) (2018). The origin of modern cultures.
Show author(s) (2018). I simboli e la mente.

Academic lecture

Show author(s) (2021). When, how and why did symbolic practices emerge and become more complex?
Show author(s) (2021). Using surface analysis to understand ochre use during the middle stone age.
Show author(s) (2021). The technology of the non-figurative red paintings from El Castillo Cave, Spain: invasive and non-invasive analysis.
Show author(s) (2021). Prehistoric ornamental and symbolic productions. Method and on-going analytical development by 3D surface imaging and AI applied to Neolithic impressed ceramics and Palaeolithic engraved animal hard tissues .
Show author(s) (2021). Of Rock ‘n’ Bones: Knapping and using long bone fragments at the early Late Pleistocene site of Lingjing, Henan, China.
Show author(s) (2021). New bone tools from Beds II-IV, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania and implications for the origins and evolution of bone technology.
Show author(s) (2021). L’origine graduale della cognizione moderna.
Show author(s) (2021). L’origine des comportements symboliques: état de la question.
Show author(s) (2021). Les premières manifestations symboliques. Au Louvre ou au Quai Branly ?
Show author(s) (2021). La parure : traceur de changements cognitifs, sociaux, identitaires, technologiques et populationnels.
Show author(s) (2021). Il Middle Stone Age Africano: Innovazioni culturali a Panga Ya Saidi.
Show author(s) (2021). From number sens to number symbols.
Show author(s) (2021). Ecocultural niche modelling and the construction of the human niche .
Show author(s) (2021). Discussant of the Presentation: Henshilwood, Ch. Studying the behavioural origins of Homo sapiens in southern Africa between 120 000 – 50 000 years ago: Norway/South Africa Co-operative Research.
Show author(s) (2021). Confocal microscopy for 3D surface texture characterization of diverse paleolithic artifacts, and more.
Show author(s) (2021). Advanced Mass Spectrometry Applied to Cultural Heritage. Round Table. .
Show author(s) (2021). A Paleolithic bird figurine from the Lingjing site, Henan, China.

Show author(s) (2020). The complex and gradual origin of modern cognition.
Show author(s) (2020). Riflessioni sulla relazione tra cultura, ambiente e educazione: i San del Kalahari e gli Ovahimba del Kunene.
Show author(s) (2020). Origin of symbolic thinking in the Palaeolithic.
Show author(s) (2020). La faute des civilisations.
Show author(s) (2020). Human ancestors' dispersal: the role of climate.

Show author(s) (2019). What does archeology tell us about the origin of modern cognition.
Show author(s) (2019). The origin of human creativity.
Show author(s) (2019). The emergence of symbolic thinking in human evolution.
Show author(s) (2019). The earliest beads and methods to make them speak.
Show author(s) (2019). Middle Stone Age symbolic material culture and its significance.
Show author(s) (2019). L’origine della creatività umana. Una prospettiva archeologica.
Show author(s) (2019). Geochemical characterization of the earliest Palaeolithic paintings from southwestern Europe: Ardales Cave, Spain.
Show author(s) (2019). Environmental changes and cultural adaptations of human populations during the Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition in southwestern France (44,000 and 38,000 years BP).
Show author(s) (2019). Engravings on weathered bones from the archaic hominin site of Lingjing (Xuchang, Henan, P. R. of China).
Show author(s) (2019). Can we trigger Serendipity?
Show author(s) (2019). Archaic hominin behavioural variability and the issue of a Chinese Middle Palaeolithic. Insights from bone technologies.
Show author(s) (2019). Archaeological evidence for a gradual and multiregional origin of modern cognition and language.

Show author(s) (2018). The origin of symbolic thinking in the Palaeolithic.
Show author(s) (2018). The emergence of symbolic mediated behavior. Looking at Europe from Africa and Asia.
Show author(s) (2018). The earliest known abstract representations.
Show author(s) (2018). Synthesis of Previous Results Obtained on Panga ya Saidi by the Bordeaux Team and the CUMILA Project: Documenting a New Cultural Trajectory Toward Modernity.
Show author(s) (2018). Preliminary analysis of shell beads from recent excavations and result of the 2018 fieldwork.
Show author(s) (2018). Preliminary analysis of ochre from recent excavations and results of the 2018 season fieldwork.
Show author(s) (2018). Neanderthals and the end of the one-fossil-species-one-cognition-axiom.
Show author(s) (2018). Middle and Later Stone Age archaeology: interdisciplinary perspectives.
Show author(s) (2018). L’origine du sens esthétique. Qu’est qu’il nous enseigne l’archéologie ?
Show author(s) (2018). Les premières utilisations du rouge en Afrique.
Show author(s) (2018). La contribution de la parure châtelperronienne de la grotte du Renne à la remise en question de l’axiome d’une cognition propre à chaque espèce fossile.
Show author(s) (2018). I gioielli dei Neandertaliani.
Show author(s) (2018). From Material culture to cognition. Interdisciplinary perspectives.

Show author(s) (2010). Tracing the evolution of symbolically mediated behaviours within variable environments in Europe and southern Africa.

Show author(s) (2009). Origins of symbolically mediated behavior. From antagonistic scenarios to a unified research strategy.
Show author(s) (2009). Ochre as a media for symbolic expression during the Southern Africa Middle Stone Age: examining the evidence from the Western Cape, South Africa.

Show author(s) (2008). Les ocres gravées de Blombos Cave (Afrique du Sud) : découverte d'une tradition symbolique qui remonte à 140 00 BP. Représentations préhistoriques.

Editorial

Show author(s) (2013). Revisiting the chronology of the Proto-Aurignacian and the Early Aurignacian in Europe: A reply to Higham et al.'s comments on Banks et al. (2013). Journal of Human Evolution. 810-817.

Reader opinion piece

Show author(s) (2012). Reply to Evans: Use of poison remains the most parsimonious explanation for Border Cave castor bean extract. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. E3291-E3292.

Academic anthology/Conference proceedings

Show author(s) (2011). Homo Symbolicus: The Dawn of Language, Imagination and Spirituality. John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Show author(s) (2009). Becoming Eloquent: Advances in the emergence of language, human cognition, and modern cultures. John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Show author(s) (2009). Becoming Eloquent. Advances in the emergence of language, human cognition, and modern cultures. John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Show author(s) (2005). From Tools to Symbols. Form Early Hominids to Modern Humans. Witwatersrand University Press.

Academic monograph

Show author(s) (2021). San Elders speak. Ancestral knowledge of the Kalhari San.

Non-fiction book

Show author(s) (2003). The chronology of the Aurignacian and of the transitional technocomplexes. Dating, stratigraphies, cultural implications. Proceeding of the Symposium 6.1 of the XIVth Congress of the UISPP. Instituto Portugues de Arqueologia.