Publications

Politt, S.S., Pribliczki, H., Dickinson, M.R., Andersen, N., Henderson, A., Morris, D., Makarewicz, C.A., Penkman, K., Ecker, M., 2025. Insights into the Middle Pleistocene fauna of South Africa: Zooarchaeology, stable isotopes and dating of Pniel 6. Journal of Quaternary Science 40, 1120–1139. https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.70002

Faul, I., Grandfield, T., Dreibrodt, S., Mothulatshipi, S., Segadika, P., Green, C., Frouin, M., Ecker, M., 2025. Dune, outcrop, and pan sediments from the southern Kalahari Basin: A geoarchaeological case study from the Kgalagadi district, Botswana. safa 20. https://doi.org/10.36615/safa.20.3408.2025

Ecker, M., Rhodes, S., Andersen, N., Horwitz, L.K., Chazan, M., Makarewicz, C.A., 2025. A holocene n-alkane stable isotope record from Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa and its implications for the later stone age record. Sci Rep 15, 14667. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-99054-0

Read here the press release of the University of Kiel for this paper.

Kelley, D.I., Sato, H., Ecker, M., Burton, C.A., Capurucho, J.M.G., Bates, J., 2024. Niche-dependent forest and savanna fragmentation in Tropical South America during the Last Glacial Maximum. npj biodivers 3, 23. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44185-024-00056-4

Ecker, M., Green, C., Henderson, A., Faul, I., Segadika, P., Mothulatshipi, S., 2023. Archaeological survey near Tsabong, Kgalagadi District, southwestern Botswana. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 58, 517–535. https://doi.org/10.1080/0067270X.2023.2260150

Ecker, M., Morris, D., 2023. Pniel 1 and 6, South Africa, in: Beyin, A., Wright, D.K., Wilkins, J., Olszewski, D.I. (Eds.), Handbook of Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa: Hominin Behavior, Geography, and Chronology. Springer International Publishing, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20290-2

Ecker, M., Hariri, N., Heydari-Guran, S., Ghasidian, E., Tuross, N., Zeder, M., Makarewicz, C.A., 2023. Herbivore enamel carbon and oxygen isotopes demonstrate both Homo sapiens and Neanderthals exploited similar habitats in the Zagros Mountains. Journal of Quaternary Science 38, 1279–1288. https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.3561

Horwitz, L.K., Avery, M.D., Bamford, M.K., Berna, F., Brink†, J.S., Ecker, M., Fernandez-Jalvo, Y., Goldberg, P., Holt, S., Lee-Thorp, J., Matmon, A., Pickering, R., Porat, N., Rossouw, L., Scott, L., Shaar, R., Chazan, M., 2022. Wonderwerk Cave, Northern Cape Province: An Early–Middle Pleistocene Paleoenvironmental Sequence for the Interior of South Africa, in: Bobe, R., Reynolds, S.C. (Eds.), African Paleoecology and Human Evolution. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 142–160. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781139696470.014

Rhodes, S.E., Goldberg, P., Ecker, M., Horwitz, L.K., Boaretto, E., Chazan, M., 2022. Exploring the Later Stone Age at a micro-scale: New high-resolution excavations at Wonderwerk Cave. Quaternary International, Quaternary Environments and Archaeology of the Northern Cape (South Africa) 614, 126–145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2021.10.004

Lukich, V., Ecker, M., 2022. Pleistocene environments in the southern Kalahari of South Africa. Quaternary International, Quaternary Environments and Archaeology of the Northern Cape (South Africa) 614, 50–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2021.03.008

Ecker, M., Bank, C.-G., Chazan, M., Chen, Y., Green, C., Morris, D., Stoikopoulos, N., Shadrach, K., Stratford, D., Duke, H., 2021. Revisiting pniel 6: The 2017–2019 excavations. The South African Archaeological Bulletin 76, 57–69.

Ecker, M., Kelley, D., Sato, H., 2020. Modelling the effects of CO2 on C3 and C4 grass competition during the mid-Pleistocene transition in South Africa. Sci Rep 10, 16234. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-72614-2

Chazan, M., Berna, F., Brink, J., Ecker, M., Holt, S., Porat, N., Thorp, J.L., Horwitz, L.K., 2020. Archeology, Environment, and Chronology of the Early Middle Stone Age Component of Wonderwerk Cave. J Paleo Arch 3, 302–335. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41982-020-00051-8

Ecker, M., Lee-Thorp, J.A., 2018. The dietary ecology of the extinct springbok Antidorcas bondi. Quaternary International 495, 136–143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2018.09.012

Ecker, M., Brink, J.S., Rossouw, L., Chazan, M., Horwitz, L.K., Lee-Thorp, J.A., 2018. The palaeoecological context of the Oldowan–Acheulean in southern Africa. Nat Ecol Evol 2, 1080–1086. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0560-0

Ecker, M., Brink, J., Horwitz, L.K., Scott, L., Lee-Thorp, J.A., 2018. A 12,000 year record of changes in herbivore niche separation and palaeoclimate (Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa). Quaternary Science Reviews 180, 132–144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2017.11.025

Chazan, M., Horwitz, L., Ecker, M., Shaw, C., Rhodes, S., Morris, D., Berna, F., 2017. Renewed excavations at Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa. Evolutionary anthropology 26, 258–260. https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.21558

Ecker, M., Brink, J., Chazan, M., Horwitz, L.K., Lee-Thorp, J.A., 2017. Radiocarbon Dates Constrain the Timing of Environmental and Cultural Shifts in the Holocene Strata of Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa. Radiocarbon 59, 1067–1086. https://doi.org/10.1017/RDC.2017.55

Demarchi, B., Hall, S., Roncal-Herrero, T., Freeman, C.L., Woolley, J., Crisp, M.K., Wilson, J., Fotakis, A., Fischer, R., Kessler, B.M., Rakownikow Jersie-Christensen, R., Olsen, J.V., Haile, J., Thomas, J., Marean, C.W., Parkington, J., Presslee, S., Lee-Thorp, J., Ditchfield, P., Hamilton, J.F., Ward, M.W., Wang, C.M., Shaw, M.D., Harrison, T., Domínguez-Rodrigo, M., MacPhee, R.D., Kwekason, A., Ecker, M., Kolska Horwitz, L., Chazan, M., Kröger, R., Thomas-Oates, J., Harding, J.H., Cappellini, E., Penkman, K., Collins, M.J., 2016. Protein sequences bound to mineral surfaces persist into deep time. eLife 5, e17092. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.17092

Ecker, M., Botha, J., Lee-Thorp, J., Piuz, A., Horwitz, L., 2015. Ostrich eggshell as a source of Palaeoenvironmental information in the arid interior of South Africa: A case study from Wonderwerk Cave. Palaeoecology of Africa 33, 95-115. https://doi.org/10.1201/b19410-8. PDF

Ecker, M., Lee-Thorp, J., n.d. Holocene Environmental Change at Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa: Insights from Stable Light Isotopes in Ostrich Eggshell. African Archaeological Review 32(4), 793-811. https://doi.org/10.1007/S10437-015-9202-Y

Ecker, M., Sato, H., Kelley, D, 2025. Rekonstruktion des Amazonas-Ökosystems zu letzten Eiszeit. Archäologie in Deutschland 3(2025), 14-17. See the journal.

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

Ecker, Michaela, 2018. Excavating the fossil bearing strata at Pniel 6, lower Vaal River, South Africa. Rust Family Foundation: Archaeology Grants Program. https://www.rfamfound1.org/proj33find.html.

Ecker, M., 2017, Evolution and the Environment: The First Season of Excavations at Pniel, South Africa. Archaeological Institute of America Toronto Society Newsletter Fall. http://mailchi.mp/070de078bad1/aia-toronto-society-fall-2017-newsletter.

Winterhalder, R., 2023. Treasure between rubble: Lithics from Itireleng and Maralaleng, southern Kalahari, Botswana. Kiel University, Kiel.

Read the abstract here.

Politt, S., 2023. Herbivore teeth from Pniel 6, South Africa. Environmental reconstruction via species classification and stable isotope analysis. Kiel University, Kiel.

Read the abstract here.