Senior Lecturer in Archaeology
Office: BS 4.44 James Parsons Building, Byrom Street, Liverpool, L3 3AF
+44 151 231 2421
R.P.Jennings@ljmu.ac.uk
Research Interests
My main research interest is in human evolution. My current focus is on the behaviour, ecology, and disappearance of Neanderthals in southern Iberia. I co-direct archaeological excavations at the Gorham’s Cave Complex UNESCO World Heritage site, training students from LJMU and other universities in cutting edge field techniques in the process. I also undertake fieldwork in Ireland to address the key question there of why there is no substantial evidence for an Irish Palaeolithic. In terms of scientific approaches, I specialise in landscape archaeology and GIS applications to explores Palaeolithic site distributions with respect to environmental data and climate models in mid-latitude Eurasia. I also work with Arches cultural heritage management software designed by the Getty Conservation Institute and World Monuments Fund to develop heritage and research projects in the Pacific and Gibraltar.
Current Research Projects
Directed by the Gibraltar National Museum, this project explores evidence for Neanderthal and modern human behaviour and ecology at the UNESCO-World Heritage archaeological cave sites of Gibraltar, including Gorham’s Cave and Vanguard Cave. The sites contain a wealth of archaeological and palaeoenvironmental evidence including lithics, engravings, cave art, and faunal remains.
The Dungarvan Valley Caves Project
This project involves the first excavation of Pleistocene deposits at an Irish Cave for more than 70 years. Our focus is on the search for substantive evidence that people were in Ireland during the last ice age. At Ballynamintra Cave, Co. Waterford, we have unearthed potential climate records pertaining to the penultimate and last interglacial cycles in Ireland in the form of speleothems, which are undergoing isotopic analysis
The Polynesian Origins Project integrates disparate radiocarbon datasets using international heritage recording standards of the CiDOC CRM (Council of Museums Conceptual Reference Model) in order to establish an accurate chronology of the initial movement of peoples into Oceania and of their subsequent cultural transformations
Associations
Francisco Giles Guzman
Research Centre for Evolutionary Anthropology and Palaeoecology 