MINERVA project

The Marie Sklodowska-Curie project ‘Mid-Pleistocene environments of the lower Vaal river‘ (MINERVA) explored the adaptation of early Homo sapiens to changing environment and prey choices in the arid interior of southern Africa through synthesis of isotopic, zooarchaeological, geomorphological and lithic data sets recovered from excavations at Pniel, and comparison to archaeological sites of similar age in the region.

Project Twitter Account (@MINERVA_MSCA)
now closed

Project duration
May 2019 – April 2021

Principal Investigator
Dr Michaela Ecker

Major collaborators

  • David Morris, McGregor Museum Kimberley and Sol Plaatje University Kimberley, South Africa & Co-permit holder
  • Lloyd Rossouw, National Museum Bloemfontein, South Africa
  • Chris Green, University of Oxford, UK
  • Hilary Duke & Michael Chazan, University of Toronto, Canada
  • Marine Frouin, Stony Brook University, USA
  • Dominic Stratford & Kelita Shadrach, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
  • Cheryl Makarewicz & Nils Andersen, University of Kiel, Germany

Outreach

ArcGIS StoryMap “History and Archaology of Pniel 6, South Africa”. Also available in German.

Ongoing

Research into absolute dating and into lithic aspects of the MINERVA and the Beaumont excavations are ongoing.

Funding

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 (2014-2020) under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 837730: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/837730

Publications

Politt, S. S., Pribliczki, H., Dickinson, M. R., Andersen, N., Henderson, A., Morris, D., Makarewicz, C. A., Penkmann, K., Ecker, M., Insights into the Middle Pleistocene fauna of South Africa: Zooarchaeology, stable isotopes and dating of Pniel 6. Journal of Quaternary Science (2025). https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.70002

Ecker, M., Morris, D. 2023. Pniel 1 and 6, South Africa. In: Beyin, A., Bouzouggar, A., Olszewski, D., Wilkins, J., Wright, D. (eds.), Handbook of Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa: Hominin Behavior, Geography, and Chronology. Springer.

Ecker, M., Bank. C.-G., Chazan, M., Chen, Y., Green, G., Morris, D., Stoikopoulos, N., Shadrach, K., Stratford, D., Duke, H., Revisiting Pniel 6: the 2017-2019 excavations. South African Archaeological Bulletin 76(214), 57-69.

Ecker, M. 2019, Pniel 6. Excursion guidebook, Association of Southern African Professional Archaeologists Meeting, Kimberley.

Ecker, M. 2018, Renewed survey and excavations at Pniel, South Africa. Quaternary Newsletter 146, 32-34.

Ecker, M. 2017, Evolution and the Environment: The First Season of Excavations at Pniel, South Africa. Archaeological Institute of America Toronto Society Newsletter Fall 2017.

Finished Master theses

Helena Pribliczki, 2024, CAU Kiel “Analysis of Faunal Remains from the Middle Stone Age Open-Air Site Pniel 6, South Africa”.

Sophia Politt, 2023, CAU Kiel “Herbivore teeth from Pniel 6, South Africa. Environmental reconstruction via species classification and stable isotope analysis”.