Sara Rhodes
Research Interests
Short Bio
After earning my Bachelors and Masters at the University of Toronto (Canada), I completed a doctorate of natural sciences (Dr. rer. nat) at the University of Tübingen (Germany) in 2019. My dissertation recreated the paleoenvironment of the Ach Valley, Germany, during the period between 60,000 and 35,000 cal BP when modern humans replaced Neanderthal groups in the region (Rhodes et al., 2018, 2019; Rhodes 2019; Rhodes & Conard, 2021).
In 2020, I was awarded a DAAD Postdoctoral Researcher International Mobility Experience (PRIME) fellowship to conduct research at the University of Witwatersrand (South Africa) and University of Toronto (Canada), on the paleoecological context of the Later Stone Age in the Northern Cape and elsewhere in South Africa. I joined ICArEHB in July 2021, with plans to expand this research through new excavations on the Ghaap plateau escarpment and elsewhere in the savannah biome and analysis of new high-resolution paleoecological material records firmly situated in robust radiocarbon chronologies.
Selected Professional Experience:
| 2021 – Present | Microfauna Specialist: Lapa do Picareiro Project. Director(s): N. Bicho and J. Haws. |
| 2019 – Present | Co-Principle Investigator: Northern Cape Archaeology and Ecology Project (with M. Chazan, University of Toronto) |
| Field Director: Wonderwerk Cave, Later Stone Age Project. Director(s): M. Chazan and L. Kolska Horwitz | |
| Microfauna Specialist: Sterkfontein Caves Project, Jacovec Cavern. Director: D. Stratford | |
| 2016 – Present | Co-Founder and ICAZ Liason: ICAZ Microvertebrate Working Group (MVWG) with A. Blanco-Lapaz |
| Lab Director: Wonderwerk Cave Project. Director(s): M. Chazan and L. Kolska Horwitz | |
| 2016 – 2018 | Lab Director: Hohle Fels Cave and Langmaldhalde Rockshelter. Director: N. Conard. |
For my complete CV please click HERE
Key Publications
Rhodes, S.E., Conard N.J. (in press) “A quantitative paleoclimatic reconstruction of the non-analogue environment of Oxygen Isotope Stage 3: new data from small mammal records of southwestern Germany.” Archaeological and Archaeological Sciences, Fall 2021
Rhodes, S.E. (2019) “A Synthesis of the Paleoecology of the Ach Valley during the Middle to Upper Paleolithic Transition.” Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Urgeschichte. Band 28.
Rhodes, S.E., Starkovich, B.M., Conard, N.J. (2019) “Did climate determine Late Pleistocene settlement dynamics in the Ach Valley, SW Germany?” PLOS ONE. I14(5): e0215172
Rhodes, S.E., Ziegler, R., Starkovich, B.M., Conard, N.J (2018) “Small mammal taxonomy, taphonomy, and the palaeoenvironmental record during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic at Geißenklösterle Cave (Ach valley, southwestern Germany)”. Quaternary Science Reviews, 185 (April): 199 – 221.
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