Bryn Mawr College

Reading Bones to Unlock Mysteries of the Evolution of Hunting and Warfare

Read any good bones lately?

Visiting biological anthropologist Jill Rhodes has, and they may provide some of the earliest evidence of when modern humans started doing something that would have been a pivotal development in the evolution of hunting and warfare—something we all take for granted.

Visiting Assistant Professor Jill Rhodes

What’s the crucial development? The overhead throw.

New research by Rhodes and Steven E. Churchill of Duke University published in the Journal of Human Evolution addresses the question of when human hunters added  long-range projectile weapons (those thrown overhead) to their arsenal and whether this was a hunting method also employed by Neandertals of the time.

“We were able to use analyses of the humerus bone (upper limb) to show that early humans in Europe were possibly using projectile weapons as early as the Middle Upper Paleolithic period and that Neandertals did not have or habitually use this form of technology,” says Rhodes.

Rhodes’ research calls on recent studies in the field of sports medicine that indicate that individuals who engage in habitual overhead throwing, like baseball pitchers, have increased humeral retroversion angles in their throwing arms and a greater degree of bilateral asymmetry in retroversion angles than do non-throwers.

In other words, if someone forcefully throws overhand a lot and from an early age—be it a spear or a baseball—it’s going to leave a signature on the throwing arm that won’t be seen on the non-throwing arm.

While their sample sizes were small, Rhodes did find tell-tale signs of the use of overhead projectile use in the bones of the human remains they studied but not in the Neandertal remains.

“There’s not a lot we can say definitely, but there are a lot of interesting hints about what might have been going on,” says Rhodes. “Archaeologically, we don’t really have a lot of information as to the origins of projectile technology, but the osteological record does point to the use of projectile spear use by early humans at this time and not by Neandertals.”

Rhodes is hesitant to make too much out of their findings but acknowledges that there are interesting implications for those who wonder why humans prospered and Neandertals died out.

“There are implications about the efficiency of hunting for the two species. When you are thrusting a spear, you’re basically an ambush hunter and have to hide behind cover and jump out and stab your prey at short range. Whereas if you have projectile technology, you can remain at a safe distance where you won’t scare your prey and you will increase your efficiency, effectiveness and your kill rate,” says Rhodes.

Rhodes points out that the use of projectile weapons by humans at this time may have been especially advantageous as it would have coincided with the warming of Europe and the opening up of forests.

“If the forests aren’t as dense, you don’t have as many opportunities to hide and ambush prey,” explains Rhodes.

Rhodes has been studying how the use of different weapons imprints itself on the skeleton ever since her days as a Ph.D. student at The University of Bradford in the United Kingdom, when she identified a biomechanical signature associated with long-bow use among soldiers who fought in the War of the Roses.

She is currently the principle osteologist on the archaeological investigations in the Coastal Zone of Jalisco (Mexico) project, where she works with student assistants in applied bioarchaeology and funerary archaeology.

“Material culture is great, but when I want to know what the people were doing, it makes sense to me to go to the people and essentially read their skeletons,” says Rhodes.

Cities Program’s Carola Hein awarded Humboldt Fellowship

The German port city of Hamburg has a history of reinventing itself, says Associate Professor Carola Hein of the Growth and Structure of Cities Program. A major redevelopment project focused on the city’s historic warehouse district continues that tradition, but it also shares characteristics with waterfront-redevelopment projects in Baltimore, London, Rotterdam, and Sydney, among others.

How much of Hamburg’s transformation constitutes a local response to local needs, and how much does it owe to the influence of international developments in urban planning that have revitalized waterfronts and ports? Over the next two years, Hein will investigate these questions with the aid of a 2008 grant from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

The Humboldt Foundation’s Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers funds up to 18 months of study in Germany for foreign scholars and scientists who are selected solely on the basis of their academic records, irrespective of academic discipline or country of origin. Hein is dividing 17 months of research into three extended visits to Hamburg, to take place over three summers and the fall semester of the 2010-11 academic year. She completed the first leg of her research trip last summer, just before this semester began.

Hein’s research on Hamburg and the larger theme of port cities and international connections was recently highlighted through the well-attended international and interdisciplinary two-day conference, Port Cities and Networking, that she organized with Bryn Mawr and Haverford College colleagues.

According to Hein, a growing body of research about the relationship of globalization and urban form has discussed primarily the role of government in the global transmission of ideas, “but does not analyze the exchange of architectural and urban form along economic networks.” Existing research, Hein says, also focuses almost exclusively on world capitals and national population centers. Cities like Hamburg–”second cities” that have successfully capitalized on the unification of Europe over the last two decades to promote themselves as destinations for both business and tourism–represent an important aspect of urbanism that has been largely ignored.

Hamburg, with its ongoing, extensive renewal project and its well-documented history of transformation, is an ideal lens through which to examine the interplay between global and local forces in urban planning. Hein plans to publish her research in a book that will first look closely at Hamburg’s current planning project and then situate it in both a global and a historical context.

“The city presents its redevelopment project as a model of collaboration between private and public forces in the creation of what they argue is an exceptionally multifunctional and democratically designed new piece of the city,” Hein says. Through archival sources and interviews with both public and private decision-makers, she plans to analyze the current plans and how they were developed, to see whether they are as innovative as their proponents claim.

“Certainly, Hamburg isn’t blindly following the lead of earlier waterfront-development projects,” Hein notes. “For instance, planners are trying very hard to integrate the new development with the rest of the city,” she says, contrasting Hamburg to cities that have transformed historic port districts into glittering tourist traps while other parts of their urban landscapes languished in postindustrial decline.

International and local concerns both have roles, and precedents, in Hamburg’s redevelopment, Hein says: “Hamburg has a long history of local transformation and innovation; it also has far-flung trading and political networks … Hamburg has traditionally been run by merchants with global connections, who also held the main political positions and facilitated the emergence of new architectural and urban concepts. While urban form largely developed in response to local needs, Hamburg’s leaders have always taken into account international concepts and borrowed or transformed them if necessary to supplement their local developments.”

Bryn Mawr in the Media: The Philadelphia Inquirer

In “Bryn Mawr College eyeing campus in Abu Dhabi,” The Philadelphia Inquirer reports on the College’s preliminary exploration of the possibility of opening a campus in Abu Dhabi.

A note to the BMC community about the potential Abu Dhabi initiative:

Bryn Mawr College is in the process of determining whether it will begin negotiations in June with the government of Abu Dhabi to open a campus there. The College is conducting a thorough review of this opportunity, because it presents a number of issues that require consideration and the collective input of the entire Bryn Mawr community.

As part of preliminary explorations of U.S. educational initiatives and women’s education in Abu Dhabi, a group of Bryn Mawr faculty members and administrators visited the emirate in October, during the College’s Fall Break. Upon its return, the group reported on its initial fact finding and recommended further exploration.

Bryn Mawr is interested in opportunities to demonstrate the power of a liberal-arts education for women not just in the United States, but around the world. The College is at a very early stage in its conversations with colleagues in Abu Dhabi and within its own community, seeking to better understand the challenges and possibilities that a partnership would represent.

Bryn Mawr in the Media: The New York Times

Constance Rosenblum ’65, editor of The New York Times’ City Section, will take questions from readers through Dec. 12 as part of the Times’ “Talk to the Newsroom” series. Rosenblum, who holds an A.B. in English from Bryn Mawr, an M.A. in English from New York University, and an M.S. in journalism from Columbia University, helped draft New York City’s first master plan before embarking on a distinguished career in journalism, working for the Bergen Record, the New York Daily News, and The Philadelphia Inquirer before starting at The Times.

Bryn Mawr president takes part in U.K./U.S. study group on higher education

Photo courtesy of Rudolph Schuba

Bryn Mawr President Jane McAuliffe is in London this week meeting with a small group of fellow higher-education leaders from the United States and the United Kingdom who are studying the current state of U.S./U.K. academic collaboration; how to strengthen those relationships; and how to leverage the unique ties that exist between the two countries in a global context.

The group, known as the U.K./U.S. Study Group on Higher Education in a Globalized World, was formed at the request of U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Over the last six months, it has met twice in London and twice in New York. This will be the group’s final meeting, and an official report of its findings will be presented to the Prime Minister in January.

“The United States and United Kingdom currently dominate in terms of being home to the world’s top colleges and universities. One of the big questions was, “How do we continue to set the standard of excellence while also promoting the growth of quality higher education all around the world?’” says McAuliffe.

The members of the group from the United Kingdom are Rick Trainor, principal, King’s College, University of London and president, Universities, U.K.; Dame Janet Finch, vice chancellor, Keele University; Chris Snowden, vice chancellor, University of Surrey; Eric Thomas, vice chancellor, University of Bristol; and Nigel Thrift, vice chancellor, Warwick University.

In addition to McAuliffe, the U.S. members are John Sexton, president, New York University; Bob Berdhal, president, Association of American Universities; Molly Corbett Broad, president, American Council on Education; and Shirley Tilghman, president, Princeton University.

Bryn Mawr in the Media: CNN.com

In “Getting Inside Obama’s ‘Brain’,” CNN’s Ashley Fantz interviews Karen Kornbluh ’84, who is President-elect Barack Obama’s chief policy adviser and the principal architect of the 2008 Democratic Party Platform. She talks about Obama’s decision-making process and policy reforms designed to meet the needs of working families.