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| Name |
Beyene Gebremichael, Yonas |
| Location
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Centre Francais des Etudes Ethiopiennes |
| Primary Field
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Anthropology |
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 Research Interests
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The study of biological and cultural evolution of hominids needs a large team of professionals working together. Understanding the environment we evolved in is also very essential. That is why we need to conduct more field work in old rocks that could provide us with more data, and find more sites that enable us to understand our evolutionary history. It is only since the last 2.6 million years ago that stone tool making became a culture; an event possibly triggered by major environmental change and an event accompanied with the appearance of the first Homo. Since then, human biological evolution broadly appears to go side by side with the changes in stone tool technologies. Research suggests that the making of the first handaxes roughly coincided with the appearance of Homo ergaster/erectus by circa 1.8 Ma. Throughout the history of stone tool technology commonly known as the Acheulean techno-complex which lasted for close to 1.5 million years (from approximately 1.75 - 0. 3Ma), which covers the longest portion of the history of Homo, we have travelled through a complex and yet not well understood biological steps and technological process. It is with this question in mind that my work in the Konso and Middle Awash research areas is pursued. I equally try to understand the functioning of human/environment interactions through the study of Bio-Cultural Landscapes of traditional societies and Indigenous Knowledge adapting to different environmental settings, drylands vs. wetland, as in the Konso and Gedeo areas; thereby supporting Heritage Management efforts. |
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