João Marreiros
Researcher, ICArEHB
Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behaviour (ICArEHB)
FCHS, University of Algarve
Campus de Gambelas
8005-139 Faro
Portugal
Researcher Group Leader, TraCEr, Laboratory for Traceology and Controlled Experiments
MONREPOS Archaeological Research Centre and Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution, LEIZA. Schloss Monrepos
56567 Neuwied
Germany

Research Interests
I’m an archaeologist interested in unravelling and understanding early hominin technological evolution, with a special fascination with how stone tools were designed, produced, and used. My main interests are focused on the study of why, how, and what humans transform their technological system and what can those changes tell us about past human behavioural dynamics. I also found it intriguing how the technological choices made in the past guided us to what we are today. So, to investigate this topic, I focus on three main lines of study: 1) understanding when the design and production of stone tools change over time, 2) the association between tool design and tool used, and ultimately, 3) why humans change the way they design and used their tools, and what does this tell us about changes on the evolution of human behaviour. So, to address these questions my methodological approach combines different disciplines such as techno-typological analysis, raw material characterization, use-wear analysis (i.e. traceology) and experimental replication.

Short Bio
I completed my PhD in 2013, at the University of Algarve. After a 3-year post-doctoral position at the same institute, in 2017 I moved to Germany where I started as an independent Research Group Leader of the TraCEr laboratory (LEIZA). Starting this project and setting up this laboratory allowed me to build a unique interdisciplinary framework for the study of past human tools use. I am also currently an Assistant Professor at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, where I mainly teach Late Pleistocene archaeology and Experimental Archaeology.
Apart from my laboratory research and teaching, I’m also involved in several field projects either as a field director or project collaborator. In this area, my research has been an active part of many internationally funded projects in Europe and Western Asia (in countries such as Portugal, France, Bulgaria, Germany, Romania, Azerbaijan, and Israel), in the field of Middle and Upper Palaeolithic, and Africa, in the study of Old and Middle Stone Age archaeological sites (in countries such as Mozambique and Ethiopia) (please find more here: www.joaomarreiros.com).