Paleoanthropologist | Chair and Professor of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin–Madison 🧪🏺💀https://www.johnhawks.net
John Hawks
This is really the frontier of anthropology and genetics in my opinion. Culture is to humans as water is to fish; essential, in contact with our every surface, so that it becomes unnoticed until it suddenly changes.
www.johnhawks.net/p/how-human-...
Almost every time we look at the DNA from ancient creatures, we find signs that their evolution involved surprising mixtures. New work on cave lions finds they’re not as different as long thought.
www.johnhawks.net/p/the-ancien...
Nice explainer of the H. erectus protein study, by @killgrove.bsky.social, with helpful commentary from @johnhawks.net on complex overlaps of ancient human groups in Africa, Europe & Asia. “Scientists used to call it ‘the muddle in the Middle Pleistocene’; now we know that muddling is just mixing.”🧪
In response to the report, I want to make an observation followed by an argument. My observation is this: The contents of this report are totally disconnected from the scholarship they're talking about. These authors didn't engage in good faith with the fields they're discussing.
theconversation.com/why-do-male-...
Here's a summary of our recent field work studying the accumulative stone throwing behavior of chimpanzees. Thanks to @sshrc-crsh.canada.ca for funding this research!
Today an illustration I made end 2007 for a story about the devastating effect ebola had on the gorilla population in a Dutch scientific magazine. It turned out to be my last real pen and ink illustration. I love this illustration and it hangs in my living room.
The magazine doesn’t exist anymore 🧪
I’d hammer with enamel… all over this land
Next week Sunday May 24, I'll be in Kraków, Poland at the 2026 Copernicus Festival. I'll be talking about "A new history of Homo sapiens", deep time Africa and the intricate history of mixture underlying humanity's origin. Free and open to the public!
copernicusfestival.com/events/nowa-...
I feel a little heretical in saying that the headlines may say Homo erectus, but the Denisovan connection is pointing me a different direction. The connections over time within China are an old topic, and protein data has made them resurface again.
www.johnhawks.net/p/rethinking...
Really neat writeup by @carolynyjohnson.bsky.social of the new work showing that a Neanderthal from Chagyrskaya Cave, Russia, sat for a dental drilling almost 60,000 years ago.
www.washingtonpost.com/science/2026...
