The Southern Dispersal

In 2004-2005 I completed post-doctoral research at the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge.  I was part of a NERC-EFCHED funded programme entitled ‘Searching for Traces of the Southern Dispersal’, directed by Dr. Marta M. Lahr. My research on the project was dedicated to the analyses of the potential routes out of Africa during OIS 4 (ca. 70,000 years BP).  I employed GIS data and analyses to generate a ‘wandering path’ model, which originated in Africa and travelled along the perimeter of the Indian Ocean to the coastline of Sunda. I also examined potential subroutes and barriers to the dispersal of modern humans along the coastline. This research is summarized in Field and Lahr 2006. A related project that emerged from this research concerned the potential dispersal routes of modern humans through the South Asian continent.  These analyses examined the routes and barriers between Central Asia, the Makran Coast, and South Asia, and compared the various dispersal routes into the interior with the distribution of Pleistocene-aged archaeological sites.  This research is summarized in Field et al. 2007.

Routes of the Southern Dispersal;  routes through South Asia.

Routes of the Southern Dispersal; routes through South Asia.

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