Large research grant goes to project researching the earliest human expansion into Asia

When did humans arrive in Central Asia and what was the environment and climate like at the time? Were there waves of migration of different species and did they only move when the climate was favourable, for example in the warm periods between glaciations? These questions are important because if we truly want to understand who we are today we need to understand our evolutionary past. And that is what this exciting cross-disciplinary project will try to answer.

The timing and ecology of the human occupation of Central Asia (THOCA)

A research consortium of Nordic researchers of which Thomas Stevens is a key member, has been awarded around 14,5 million SEK from the Nordforsk call for interdisciplinary research.  

This exciting cross-disciplinary project is a collaboration between scientists from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Russia and Tajikistan. It will answer questions such as when did humans arrive in Central Asia and what was the environment and climate like at the time? Were there waves of migration of different species and did they only move when the climate was favourable, for example in the warm periods between glaciations? These questions are important because if we truly want to understand who we are today we need to understand our evolutionary past.

- The project is called "The timing and ecology of the human occupation of Central Asia" and will look at human evolution, migration, and occupation of central Asia over the last 1 Ma, and link this to the environmental and climatic context. It will tackle questions of human migration and evolution and aims to make a major contribution to our understanding of human evolutionary ecology, including the earliest expansions of hominins out of Africa, explains Thomas Stevens. 

Read more about the project here.