Emma Loftus
Biographic Data
| ID | 138806 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Emma Loftus |
| GIVEN NAMES | Emma |
| FAMILY NAME | Loftus |
| SIGNATURE | LOFTUS E |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oxford |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4442-8511 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 176 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
The Faraoskop event
Here we make the case that the interment of twelve skeletons in a small Western Cape rock shelter should be viewed as a single event. We present evidence of the partially disarticulated, clearly overlapping arrangement of human remains and the radiocarbon dating results from the individuals that point to a hasty but coordinated burial at a critical moment in the prehistory of the Cape. The moment was marked by the earliest appearance of the pasto…
Archaeological science in Africa
Dated Holocene Human Remains From South Africa
The study of human remains can provide valuable information about aspects of past populations. Here we present an updated database consisting of 590 radiocarbon ( 14 C) dates for human remains from Holocene South Africa before European contact. We calibrated or recalibrated all the previously published dates using the most recent calibration curve for the southern hemisphere. Each date is roughly georeferenced and plotted according to their Stone…
An innovative integration of ethnoarchaeological models with phytolith data to study histories of C4 crop cultivation
A recommendation of: Abel Ruiz-Giralt, Alemseged Beldados, Stefano Biagetti, Francesca D’Agostini, A. Catherine D’Andrea, Yemane Meresa, Carla Lancelotti Sorghum and finger millet cultivation during the Aksumite period: insights from ethnoarchaeological modelling and microbotanical analysis https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7859673
Best practices for selecting samples, analyzing data, and publishing results in isotope archaeology
Cultural Disruption Suggested by Dates of Late Holocene Burials, Southwestern Cape, South Africa
Radiocarbon dates (3500-900 BP) from human skeletons of late Holocene foragers from the Southwestern Cape coast are calibrated, incorporating estimates of the proportion of diet from marine sources using mixed calibration curves. As with Later Stone Age foragers throughout southern Africa, most were single burials without garb or objects. Cultural change may accompany the regional arrival of pastoralism, here benchmarked to a date for sheep bone …
Isotopes and Diet in African Hominins and Hunter-Gatherers
Stable isotope methods are firmly established as a key tool for investigating the diets of ancient humans, offering insights into broad dietary composition at the scale of an individual’s life. African archaeology and ecosystems have played an important role in the global development of stable isotope approaches, but archaeological applications have been constrained in many African settings by poor preservation conditions for organic remains and …
Fabric Analysis and Chronology at Ga-Mohana Hill North Rockshelter, Southern Kalahari Basin
Seasonal scheduling of shellfish collection in the Middle and Later Stone Ages of southern Africa
An archaeological radiocarbon database for southern Africa
Late Pleistocene human occupation in the Maloti-Drakensberg region of southern Africa
New ages from Boomplaas Cave, South Africa, provide increased resolution on late/terminal Pleistocene human behavioural variability
Boomplaas Cave, South Africa, contains a rich archaeological record, with evidence of human occupation from >66,000 years ago until the protohistoric period. Notwithstanding a long history of research at the site, its existing chronology can benefit from revision. Many of the site’s members are currently delimited by only a single conventional radiocarbon date and some of the existing dates were measured on materials now known to be unsuitable fo…
New ages from Sehonghong rock shelter
New Radiocarbon Dates and Bayesian Models for Nelson Bay Cave and Byneskranskop 1
The southern African Later Stone Age sequence is widely considered to be well dated based on radiocarbon dates from dozens of archaeological sites, and apparently shows more or less synchronous cultural shifts across an extensive area. Yet, closer examination reveals the inadequacy of many of the decades-old and uncalibrated individual site chronologies that underpin this regional chronology, making robust comparisons of the chronology of technol…
Sea surface temperatures from oxygen isotopes in marine molluscs in Middle and Later Stone Age sites, South Africa
The southernmost coast of South Africa has been proposed to have been a uniquely important region in later human evolution, in part due to the abundance of nutritious and dense coastal resources. Yet, strong contrasts in the Middle Stone Age (MSA) and subsequent Later Stone Age (LSA) archaeological records cast uncertainty on the significance of shellfish utilisation for processes of human evolution. Further, climatic shifts are frequently advanc…
An isotopic generation
The application of stable isotope analysis in African archaeology has a long and distinguished pedigree. Many new developments were inspired by questions in the archaeology of the continent, helped considerably by the availability of African landscapes as natural laboratories for providing the essential underpinning of isotope ecology systematics. Stable isotopes are now regularly built into multi-disciplinary archaeological projects spanning the…
Technical note
Stable isotope analysis of skeletal tissues is widely used in archeology and paleoanthropology to reconstruct diet. In material that is poorly preserved or very old, the tissue of choice is frequently tooth enamel, since this is less susceptible to diagenesis. The relationships between carbon isotope ratios in tooth enamel (δ 13 C enamel ), bone collagen (δ 13 C collagen ), and bone apatite (δ 13 C bone apatite ) are, however, not well understood…
New ages from Sehonghong rock shelter
New ages from Boomplaas Cave, South Africa, provide increased resolution on late/terminal Pleistocene human behavioural variability
Boomplaas Cave, South Africa, contains a rich archaeological record, with evidence of human occupation from >66,000 years ago until the protohistoric period. Notwithstanding a long history of research at the site, its existing chronology can benefit from revision. Many of the site’s members are currently delimited by only a single conventional radiocarbon date and some of the existing dates were measured on materials now known to be unsuitable fo…
New Radiocarbon Dates and Bayesian Models for Nelson Bay Cave and Byneskranskop 1
The southern African Later Stone Age sequence is widely considered to be well dated based on radiocarbon dates from dozens of archaeological sites, and apparently shows more or less synchronous cultural shifts across an extensive area. Yet, closer examination reveals the inadequacy of many of the decades-old and uncalibrated individual site chronologies that underpin this regional chronology, making robust comparisons of the chronology of technol…
Late Pleistocene human occupation in the Maloti-Drakensberg region of southern Africa
An archaeological radiocarbon database for southern Africa
Technical note
Stable isotope analysis of skeletal tissues is widely used in archeology and paleoanthropology to reconstruct diet. In material that is poorly preserved or very old, the tissue of choice is frequently tooth enamel, since this is less susceptible to diagenesis. The relationships between carbon isotope ratios in tooth enamel (δ 13 C enamel ), bone collagen (δ 13 C collagen ), and bone apatite (δ 13 C bone apatite ) are, however, not well understood…
Fabric Analysis and Chronology at Ga-Mohana Hill North Rockshelter, Southern Kalahari Basin
Cultural Disruption Suggested by Dates of Late Holocene Burials, Southwestern Cape, South Africa
Radiocarbon dates (3500-900 BP) from human skeletons of late Holocene foragers from the Southwestern Cape coast are calibrated, incorporating estimates of the proportion of diet from marine sources using mixed calibration curves. As with Later Stone Age foragers throughout southern Africa, most were single burials without garb or objects. Cultural change may accompany the regional arrival of pastoralism, here benchmarked to a date for sheep bone …
An isotopic generation
The application of stable isotope analysis in African archaeology has a long and distinguished pedigree. Many new developments were inspired by questions in the archaeology of the continent, helped considerably by the availability of African landscapes as natural laboratories for providing the essential underpinning of isotope ecology systematics. Stable isotopes are now regularly built into multi-disciplinary archaeological projects spanning the…
Seasonal scheduling of shellfish collection in the Middle and Later Stone Ages of southern Africa
The Faraoskop event
Here we make the case that the interment of twelve skeletons in a small Western Cape rock shelter should be viewed as a single event. We present evidence of the partially disarticulated, clearly overlapping arrangement of human remains and the radiocarbon dating results from the individuals that point to a hasty but coordinated burial at a critical moment in the prehistory of the Cape. The moment was marked by the earliest appearance of the pasto…
Technical note
Stable isotope analysis of skeletal tissues is widely used in archeology and paleoanthropology to reconstruct diet. In material that is poorly preserved or very old, the tissue of choice is frequently tooth enamel, since this is less susceptible to diagenesis. The relationships between carbon isotope ratios in tooth enamel (δ 13 C enamel ), bone collagen (δ 13 C collagen ), and bone apatite (δ 13 C bone apatite ) are, however, not well understood…
New Radiocarbon Dates and Bayesian Models for Nelson Bay Cave and Byneskranskop 1
The southern African Later Stone Age sequence is widely considered to be well dated based on radiocarbon dates from dozens of archaeological sites, and apparently shows more or less synchronous cultural shifts across an extensive area. Yet, closer examination reveals the inadequacy of many of the decades-old and uncalibrated individual site chronologies that underpin this regional chronology, making robust comparisons of the chronology of technol…
Sea surface temperatures from oxygen isotopes in marine molluscs in Middle and Later Stone Age sites, South Africa
The southernmost coast of South Africa has been proposed to have been a uniquely important region in later human evolution, in part due to the abundance of nutritious and dense coastal resources. Yet, strong contrasts in the Middle Stone Age (MSA) and subsequent Later Stone Age (LSA) archaeological records cast uncertainty on the significance of shellfish utilisation for processes of human evolution. Further, climatic shifts are frequently advanc…
An isotopic generation
The application of stable isotope analysis in African archaeology has a long and distinguished pedigree. Many new developments were inspired by questions in the archaeology of the continent, helped considerably by the availability of African landscapes as natural laboratories for providing the essential underpinning of isotope ecology systematics. Stable isotopes are now regularly built into multi-disciplinary archaeological projects spanning the…
New ages from Sehonghong rock shelter
New ages from Boomplaas Cave, South Africa, provide increased resolution on late/terminal Pleistocene human behavioural variability
Boomplaas Cave, South Africa, contains a rich archaeological record, with evidence of human occupation from >66,000 years ago until the protohistoric period. Notwithstanding a long history of research at the site, its existing chronology can benefit from revision. Many of the site’s members are currently delimited by only a single conventional radiocarbon date and some of the existing dates were measured on materials now known to be unsuitable fo…
Seasonal scheduling of shellfish collection in the Middle and Later Stone Ages of southern Africa
An archaeological radiocarbon database for southern Africa
Late Pleistocene human occupation in the Maloti-Drakensberg region of southern Africa
Fabric Analysis and Chronology at Ga-Mohana Hill North Rockshelter, Southern Kalahari Basin
Isotopes and Diet in African Hominins and Hunter-Gatherers
Stable isotope methods are firmly established as a key tool for investigating the diets of ancient humans, offering insights into broad dietary composition at the scale of an individual’s life. African archaeology and ecosystems have played an important role in the global development of stable isotope approaches, but archaeological applications have been constrained in many African settings by poor preservation conditions for organic remains and …
An innovative integration of ethnoarchaeological models with phytolith data to study histories of C4 crop cultivation
A recommendation of: Abel Ruiz-Giralt, Alemseged Beldados, Stefano Biagetti, Francesca D’Agostini, A. Catherine D’Andrea, Yemane Meresa, Carla Lancelotti Sorghum and finger millet cultivation during the Aksumite period: insights from ethnoarchaeological modelling and microbotanical analysis https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7859673
Best practices for selecting samples, analyzing data, and publishing results in isotope archaeology
Cultural Disruption Suggested by Dates of Late Holocene Burials, Southwestern Cape, South Africa
Radiocarbon dates (3500-900 BP) from human skeletons of late Holocene foragers from the Southwestern Cape coast are calibrated, incorporating estimates of the proportion of diet from marine sources using mixed calibration curves. As with Later Stone Age foragers throughout southern Africa, most were single burials without garb or objects. Cultural change may accompany the regional arrival of pastoralism, here benchmarked to a date for sheep bone …
Archaeological science in Africa
Dated Holocene Human Remains From South Africa
The study of human remains can provide valuable information about aspects of past populations. Here we present an updated database consisting of 590 radiocarbon ( 14 C) dates for human remains from Holocene South Africa before European contact. We calibrated or recalibrated all the previously published dates using the most recent calibration curve for the southern hemisphere. Each date is roughly georeferenced and plotted according to their Stone…
The Faraoskop event
Here we make the case that the interment of twelve skeletons in a small Western Cape rock shelter should be viewed as a single event. We present evidence of the partially disarticulated, clearly overlapping arrangement of human remains and the radiocarbon dating results from the individuals that point to a hasty but coordinated burial at a critical moment in the prehistory of the Cape. The moment was marked by the earliest appearance of the pasto…
Geography (15 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (14 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (14 works) · Archaeology (13 works) · Geology (12 works) · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies (9 works) · Radiocarbon dating (8 works) · Holocene (6 works) · Physical geography (6 works) · Pleistocene (6 works)