Michael Petraglia

Michael Petraglia is Professor of Human Evolution and Prehistory, at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, in Jena, Germany. He received his PhD from the University of New Mexico in 1987, and in 1988 he was awarded a Smithsonian postdoctoral fellowship. Michael has been associated with the Human Origins Program since its inception. From 2001-2009 he was a Lecturer in the Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, and from 2009-2016 he was a Professor in the School of Archaeology, University of Oxford. Petraglia has conducted large-scale, interdisciplinary archaeological research in the Indian subcontinent and the Arabian peninsula. His research has included study of the Toba volcanic super-eruption of 75,000 years ago and its effects on ecosystems and human populations. More recently, he has directed the “Palaeodeserts” project in Saudi Arabia, where up to 10,000 palaeolakes have been identified through satellite imagery. Surveys and excavations in various locations across Arabia are demonstrating that mammals and hominins repeatedly expanded across the peninsula. Michael is currently directing the Jubbah Palaeolake drilling program, in collaboration with the Saudi Commission of Tourism and National Heritage and an international scientific team, in order to understand environmental variability and its role in shaping human and mammal communities over the last one million years.
Boivin, N. L.; Melinda Zeder, M.; Fuller, D.; Crowther, A.; Larson, G.; Erlandson, J.; Denham, T.; Petraglia, M.D.: Ecological consequences of human niche construction: Examining long-term anthropogenic shaping of global species distributions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 113 (23), pp. 6388-6396 (2016)
Breeze, P.S.; Groucutt, H.S.; Drake, N.A.; White, T.S.; Jennings, R.P.; Petraglia, M. D.: Palaeohydrological corridors for hominin dispersals in the Middle East ~250-70,000 years ago. Quaternary Science Reviews 144, pp. 155-185 (2016)
Stimpson, C.M.; Lister, A.; Parton, A.; Clark-Balzan, L.; Breeze, P.S.; Drake, N.A.; Groucutt, H.S.; Jennings, R.; Scerri, E.M.L.; White, T.S…Petralia, M.D.: Middle Pleistocene vertebrate fossils from the Nefud Desert, Saudi Arabia: Implications for biogeography and palaeoecology. Quaternary Science Reviews 143, pp. 13-36 (2016)
Yang, S.-X.; Hou, Y.-M.; Yue, J.-P.; Petraglia, M. D.; Deng, C.-L.; Zhu, R.-X.: The lithic assemblages of Xiaochangliang, Nihewan Basin: Implications for Early Pleistocene hominin behaviour in North China. PLoS One 2016 (online published)
Blinkhom, J.; Achyuthan, H.; Petraglia, M. D.: Ostrich expansion into India during the Late Pleistocene: Implications for continental dispersal corridors. Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology, Paleoecology 417, pp. 80-90 (2015)
Groucutt, H. S.; Petraglia, M. D.; Bailey, G.; Scerri, E. M. L.; Parton, A.; Clark-Balzan, L.; Jennings, R. P.; Lewis, L.; Blinkhorn, J.; Drake, N. A. et al.: Rethinking the dispersal of Homo sapiens out of Africa. Evolutionary Anthropology 24 (4), pp. 149-164 (2015)
Groucutt, H. S.; White, T. S.; Clark-Balzan, L.; Parton, A.; Crassard, R.; Shipton, C.; Jennings, R. P.; Parker, A. G.; Breeze, P. S.; Scerri, E. M. L…Petraglia, M.D.: Human occupation of the Arabian Empty Quarter during MIS 5: evidence from Mundafan Al-Buhayrah, Saudi Arabia. Quaternary Science Reviews 119, pp. 116-135 (2015)
Jennings, R. P.; Shipton, C.; Breeze, P.; Cuthbertson, P.; Bernal, M. A.; Wedage, W. M. C. O.; Drake, N. A.; White, T. S.; Groucutt, H. S.; Parton, A…Petraglia, M.D.: Multi-scale Acheulean landscape survey in the Arabian Desert. Quaternary International 382, pp. 58-81 (2015)
Jennings, R. P.; Singarayer, J.; Stone, E. J.; Krebs-Kanzow, U.; Khon, V.; Nisancioglu, K. H.; Pfeiffer, M.; Zhang, X.; Parker, A.; Parton, A…Petraglia, M.D.: The greening of Arabia: Multiple opportunities for human occupation of the Arabian Peninsula during the Late Pleistocene inferred from an ensemble of climate model simulations. Quaternary International 382, pp. 181-199 (2015)
Parton, A.; White, T. S.; Parker, A. G.; Breeze, P. S.; Jennings, R.; Groucutt, H. S.; Petraglia, M. D.: Orbital-scale climate variability in Arabia as a potential motor for human dispersals. Quaternary International 382, pp. 82-97 (2015)
Parton, A.; Farrant, A. R.; Leng, M. J.; Telfer, M. W.; Groucutt, H. S.; Petraglia, M. D.; Parker, A. G.: Alluvial fan records from southeast Arabia reveal multiple windows for human dispersal. Geology 43 (4), pp. 295-298 (2015)
Roberts, P.; Boivin, N.; Petraglia, M.: The Sri Lankan 'microlithic' tradition c. 38,000 to 3,000 years ago: Tropical technologies and adaptations of Homo sapiens at the southern edge of Asia. Journal of World Prehistory 28 (2), pp. 69-112 (2015)
Roberts, P.; Boivin, N.; Petraglia, M. D.; Masser, P.; Meece, S.; Weisskopf, A.; Silva, F.; Korisettar, R.; Fuller, D.Q.: Local diversity in settlement, demography and subsistence across the southern Indian Neolithic-Iron Age transition: site growth and abandonment at Sanganakallu-Kupgal from a regional environmental perspective. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, pp. 1-25 (2015)
Roberts, P.; Petraglia, M.: Pleistocene rainforests: barriers or attractive environments for early human foragers? World Archaeology 47 (5), pp. 718-739 (2015)
Roberts, P.; Perera, N.; Wedage, O.; Deraniyagala, S.; Perera, J.; Eregama, S.; Gledhill, A.; Petraglia, M. D.; Lee-Thorp, J. A.: Direct evidence for human reliance on rainforest resources in late Pleistocene Sri Lanka. Science 347 (6227), pp. 1246-1249 (2015)
Scerri, E. M. L.; Breeze, P. S.; Parton, A.; Groucutt, H. S.; White, T. S.; Stimpson, C.; Clark-Balzan, L.; Jennings, R.; Alsharekh, A.; Petraglia, M. D.: Middle to Late Pleistocene human habitation in the western Nefud Desert, Saudi Arabia. Quaternary International 382, pp. 200-214 (2015)
Mark, D. F.; Petraglia, M.; Smith, V. C.; Morgan, L. E.; Barfod, D. N.; Ellis, B. S.; Pearce, N. J.; Pal, J. N.; Korisettar, R.: A high-precision Ar-40/Ar-39 age for the Young Toba Tuff and dating of ultra-distal tephra: Forcing of Quaternary climate and implications for hominin occupation of India. Quaternary Geochronology 21, pp. 90-103 (2014)
Roberts, P.; Delson, E.; Miracle, P.; Ditchfield, P.; Roberts, R. G.; Jacobs, Z.; Blinkhorn, J.; Ciochon, R. L.; Fleagle, J. G.; Frost, S. R…Petraglia, M. D.: Continuity of mammalian fauna over the last 200,000 y in the Indian subcontinent. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 111 (16), pp. 5848-5853 (2014)
Scerri, E. M. L.; Groucutt, H. S.; Jennings, R. P.; Petraglia, M. D.: Unexpected technological heterogeneity in northern Arabia indicates complex Late Pleistocene demography at the gateway to Asia. Journal of Human Evolution 75, pp. 125-142 (2014)
Blinkhorn, J.; Achyuthan, H.; Petraglia, M. D.; Ditchfield, P.: Middle palaeolithic occupation in the Thar Desert during the upper pleistocene: The signature of a modern human exit out of Africa? Quaternary Science Reviews 77, pp. 233-238 (2013)
Boivin, N.; Fuller, D. Q.; Dennell, R.; Allaby, R.; Petraglia, M. D.: Human dispersal across diverse environments of Asia during the Upper Pleistocene. Quaternary International 300, pp. 32-47 (2013)