Jamie L. Clark, PhD

Jamie L. Clark, PhD

Assistant Professor, Sociology and Anthropology

Faculty Directory

Research Focus

My research focuses on human-environmental interactions during the Later Pleistocene (~125,000 – 10,000 years ago). My work is driven by a desire to understand the factors that account for the success and spread of our species relative to the Neanderthals and other archaic human groups. I approach this through the lens of zooarchaeology– the study of animal remains from archaeological sites. Not only do zooarchaeological data provide information about past environmental conditions, but they also speak directly to human subsistence choices and landscape use. I am engaged in research at a number of sites, including Sibudu (South Africa), Border Cave (South Africa), Mughr el-Hamamah (Jordan), and Sefunim (Israel). I am particularly interested in the ways in which early human groups adapted to climate change.

Current Projects

■ Reconstructing past subsistence and landscape use at Sefunim Cave (Israel) from ~60-20,000
years ago.

■ Exploring the relationships between climate change and human behavioral change in the
Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa.

Select Publications

■ Clark, J. L. (2019). The Still Bay and pre-Still Bay fauna from Sibudu Cave: taphonomic and taxonomic analysis of the macromammal remains from the Wadley excavations. Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology 2, 26-73.

■ Shimelmitz, R., et al. (2018). The Upper Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic of Sefunim Cave, Israel. Quaternary International 464,106-125.

Contact

Phone: 703-993-1440

Email: jclark68@gmu.edu

Website: https://soan.gmu.edu/people/jclark68