Cover Page
The handle http://hdl.handle.net/1887/137931 holds various files of this Leiden University dissertation.
Author: Fewlass, H.K.
Acknowledgements
Countless thanks are given to all the people who have provided help during the course of this project. This dissertation would not have been possible without the support of my three supervisors: Sahra Talamo, Bernd Kromer and Jean-Jacques Hublin. To Sahra, thank you so much for all your guidance, encouragement and enthusiasm over the last four years. To Bernd, thank you for all your fascinating insights and willingness to share your never-ending knowledge about radiocarbon. Unending thanks to both of you for always answering every question, email and draft in double quick timing! To Jean-Jacques, thank you for your support throughout the project and the opportunities to work on such incredible projects.
I would like to thank all of my collaborators for providing scientific insights and access to samples. To Edouard Bard, Thibaut Tuna, Yoann Fagault and Lukas Wacker – I thank you all for the care and attention you put into dating so many old bones and for sharing your time and expertise in AMS. To Helene Hoffmann, thank you for taking the time to teach me the ins and outs of a manual vacuum line. To Tsenka Tsanova and Nikolay Sirakov, thank you for the opportunities to visit Bacho Kiro Cave and work on samples from such an incredible site, and for your hospitality during my trips to Dryanovo. To Jiří Svoboda and Sandra Sázelová, thank you for allowing me to work with such amazingly precious human remains.
To all the members of the Dept of Human Evolution at the MPI-EVA over the past four years, thank you for providing a stimulating and welcoming environment. I am particularly proud of and inspired by the many strong female academic role-models in the department who have set wonderful examples. Specific thanks are extended to Shannon McPherron, Tsenka Tsanova, Zeljko Rezek, Geoff Smith, Susann Heinrich, Adeline Le Cabec and Mateja Hajdinjak for always being willing to offer invaluable help and advice.
I am hugely grateful to all the technicians – Lysann Klausnitzer, Manuel Trost, Annabel Reiner, Steffi Hesse and Sven Steinbrenner – who have provided invaluable training and assistance along the way and for running the labs so smoothly, and to all the administrative staff – particularly, Silke Streiber, Candy Felber, Conny Schicke – who provided amazing support.
To my fellow PhD students and pals, past and present, thanks for making the MPI such a great place to be. To Alexa Benson, Steffi Stelzer, Zewdi Tsegai, Frido Welker, Shira Gur-Arieh, Mateja Hajdinjak, Tom Davies, Nic Bourgon, Sarah Pederzani, Julia van Beesel, Micha Hein, Virginie Sinet-Mathiot and Quentin and Arthur – thanks for all the adventures within and beyond the MPI! Most importantly, Senator Sanders – we salute you, long may your reign continue.
To Mikaela Lui, Alexandra Schuh and Elena Zavala, I would not have gotten through these four years without your love and support. I am so happy we got to share the ride! Mikaela and Lukas Schamberger, thanks for all the Lasagne!
To my family - Mum, Dad, Rosie, Nick and Xavier - thank you so much for all your support and encouragement during all these long years of study! Dad, thank you for giving me the book which sparked my interest in anthropology and human evolution and thank you for the 8+ years of proof-reading essays, articles and theses which followed! Mum, thank you for always, always, always supporting me. You have been my rock through all the ups and downs that life has thrown and I would not be who or where I am without you.
To Adam van Casteren, thank you for your unwavering support from near and far and all the happiness you have given me over the last three years.
Curriculum Vitae
The author of this dissertation, Helen Kimberley Fewlass, was born in London, UK, on the 7th of April 1991.
After completing her A-levels at St Albans Girls School in 2010, she pursued her interest in biological anthropology by collecting primate behavioural data in the rainforest in Cross River State, Nigeria, whilst volunteering for a primate and rainforest conservation charity. In 2011, she undertook a four-year integrated undergraduate and master’s degree program in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences (Msci) which spanned the departments of Earth Sciences, Archaeology and Anthropology and Chemistry at the University of Bristol, UK. She graduated with a First-Class degree with Honours in 2015. After graduating from Bristol, she started her doctoral research under the supervision of Prof. dr. Sahra Talamo, Dr. Bernd Kromer and Prof. dr. Jean-Jacques Hublin in the Department of Human Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. After publishing her research in international peer-reviewed journals and presenting her work at conferences in Europe and North America, she submitted her doctoral dissertation to the University of Leiden in the Netherlands in 2019.
