Dr Michaela Ecker

Emmy Noether Research Group Leader

University of Kiel, Germany

mecker@ufg.uni-kiel.de

Bluesky: @isotopesrule.bsky.social

Research interests

  • Palaeolithic archaeology
  • Africa and Europe
  • Past environments and human evolution
  • Stable isotope research
  • Quaternary science
  • Fieldwork techniques

Academic positions

since 2026

since 2021


since 2024

2021 – 2025


2019 – 2021

2018

2016 – 2018

PI, Cluster of Excellence ROOTS, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany.

Emmy Noether Research Group Leader, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany.

Honorary Research Associate, McGregor Museum, Kimberley, South Africa.

Member, Cluster of Excellence ROOTS, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany.

Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany.

Associate Lecturer, Oxford Brookes University, United Kingdom.

Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Anthropology, Arts & Science Faculty, University of Toronto, Canada.

Fieldwork

since 2010

2017 – 2019

2013 – 2019

2008 & 2012

2011 & 2012

2011

2010

2009

2008 – 2009

2007


2005

2003

Director of fieldwork in the Kgalagadi district (KHO Project), Botswana.

Director of Excavations, Pniel (Palaeolithic), South Africa.

Field director, Wonderwerk Cave (Palaeolithic), South Africa.

Field Archaeologist, Hohle Fels (Palaeolithic), Germany.

Field Archaeologist, Sibudu (Palaeolithic), South Africa.

Field Archaeologist, Hoidjiespunt (Palaeolithic), South Africa.

Field Archaeologist, Wadi Mushkuna (Palaeolithic), TDASP Project, Syria.

Supervisor, Vogelherd Cave post-excavation laboratory (Palaeolithic), Germany.

Field Archaeologist, Schöningen (Palaeolithic and Neolithic), Germany.

Staff archaeologist, Dettingen/Teck, Hessigheim and Holzgerlingen (Medieval), Germany.

Field Archaeologist, Wahlheim (Roman), Germany.

Field Archaeologist, Ottmarsheimer Höhe (Roman), Germany.

Education

2012 – 2016     

Thesis title:

2006 – 2011

Thesis title:

Dr Phil, University of Oxford, UK

Two million years of environmental change: a case study from Wonderwerk Cave, Northern Cape, South Africa.

Magister Artium, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Germany

Stable isotope analyses on the fauna from Payre (Ardèche, France).