Geoff Smith 

Geoff Smith received his PhD in Palaeolithic Zooarchaeology from University College London (UCL) in 2010. His research is focussed on taphonomy, site formation processes and hominin behaviour at Lower and Middle Palaeolithic sites across Europe. Since 2012 he has been a post-doctoral researcher at MONREPOS Archaeological Research Centre (RGZM), undertaking faunal analysis of the Eemian Interglacial site of Neumark-Nord 2.  He has been actively involved in fieldwork and research across Europe and in the Levant and published extensively on taphonomy and hominin subsistence behaviour throughout the Palaeolithic. He is a Visiting Professor at Lanzhou University (China) teaching zooarchaeology and is involved with ongoing research and fieldwork in Gansu province.
​
In 2015, he successfully received funding through the German Academic Exchange (DAAD) PRIME funding fellowship and is based at the University of Mainz but on secondment in the Department of Anthropology since March 2016. His research project, in collaboration with Dr Teresa Steele, is investigating and comparing behavioural transitions in subsistence behaviour during the Earlier to Middle Stone Age in Africa and Lower to Middle Palaeolithic in Europe. Both these periods are of critical importance as they witness the emergence of modern human traits and behaviour in Africa and, similarly, the development of Neanderthal morphology and associated behaviours in Europe. This project provides a much needed inter-regional perspective on a crucial period in human evolution, developing new methodological approaches and research collaborations to further investigate hominin subsistence behaviour at a broader geographic and temporal scale.

204 Young Hall 
Department of Anthropology 
University of California, Davis 
One Shields Avenue
Davis , California 95616, USA, ​