M La Grove
Biographic Data
| ID | 4773614 |
|---|---|
| NAME | M La Grove |
| GIVEN NAMES | M |
| FAMILY NAME | La Grove |
| SIGNATURE | LA GROVE M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Liverpool |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2293-8732 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 36 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 261 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 36 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
Assessing the Potential of Latent Class Modelling for Classifying Stone Artefacts and the Quantification of Technological Diversity
Archaeological typologies are used to determine the number and diversity of artefact forms within a prehistoric toolkit. However, objective classification is challenging, complicating cross-assemblage comparisons. We explore the potential of latent class modelling (LCM) for grouping stone tools based on their morphological and technological attributes. LCM identifies unobserved (‘latent’) subgroups that share certain observed characteristics, pro…
Subsistence Strategies in Agent-Based Models of Foraging Hominins
Hominins lived for most of their history as foragers in complete dependence on plants and animals in their surroundings. Depending on the regions they occupied, the available resources may have differed greatly intra- and inter-annually while shifts in climate altered the available ecosystems over time. How hominins may have behaved under these conditions and adapted to new challenges is increasingly studied using agent-based models (ABMs), as th…
Changing Movements in a Changing World
In a world of drastic climatic and ecological changes, our knowledge of how the environment influenced hominin behaviour is of the utmost importance. Archaeology plays a key role in this domain, as it is the only discipline that studies empirical evidence of past societies’ responses to environmental change. Computational models generating predictions about past climatic and ecological conditions are vital for understanding the archaeological rec…
Random forest models highlight early Homo sapiens habitats and their relationship to lithic assemblage composition
Eastern Africa plays an enduring role in understanding the evolution of modern humans in relation to palaeoenvironmental change. Numerous studies have implicated ecological and geographic factors in determining the spatiotemporal patterning of technological and cultural behaviour seen in the region during the Middle Stone Age (MSA), the technological phase associated with the emergence of Homo sapiens in Africa. We use an eco-cultural niche model…
Stone point variability reveals spatial, chronological and environmental structuring of eastern African Middle Stone Age populations
Stone points are one of the key features used to define the African Middle Stone Age (MSA). Regional patterns in their shape and size through time have been thought to reflect inter-group interactions and networks of populations and are used to define cultural phases within the MSA. However, eastern Africa does not have distinctive and widely applied chrono-stratigraphic point variants that divide its MSA record, which is often described as being…
Moving far or moving often? A neglected axis of variation in hunter-gatherer mobility
As one of the hallmarks of a hunting and gathering lifestyle, mobility is a primary concern for both archaeologists and ethnographers studying hunter-gatherer settlement systems. Most research considering hunter-gatherer mobility, however, concentrates primarily on the total distance moved by a group per annum. This paper develops a novel metric, the Distance/Frequency Index (DFI), which describes a continuum between relatively frequent, short mo…
Testing inter-observer error under a collaborative research framework for studying lithic shape variability
Evaluating error that arises through the aggregation of data recorded by multiple observers is a key consideration in many metric and geometric morphometric analyses of stone tool shape. One of the most common approaches involves the convergence of observers for repeat trails on the same set of artefacts: however, this is logistically and financially challenging when collaborating internationally and/or at a large scale. We present and evaluate a…
Testing the Integrity of the Middle and Later Stone Age Cultural Taxonomic Division in Eastern Africa
The long-standing debate concerning the integrity of the cultural taxonomies employed by archaeologists has recently been revived by renewed theoretical attention and the application of new methodological tools. The analyses presented here test the integrity of the cultural taxonomic division between Middle and Later Stone Age assemblages in eastern Africa using an extensive dataset of archaeological assemblages. Application of a penalized logist…
Explanations of variability in Middle Stone Age stone tool assemblage composition and raw material use in Eastern Africa
The Middle Stone Age (MSA) corresponds to a critical phase in human evolution, overlapping with the earliest emergence of Homo sapiens as well as the expansions of these populations across and beyond Africa. Within the context of growing recognition for a complex and structured population history across the continent, Eastern Africa remains a critical region to explore patterns of behavioural variability due to the large number of well-dated arch…
Hunter-Gatherer Settlement and Mobility
The origins of nomadic pastoralism in the eastern Jordanian steppe
The circumstances in which domestic animals were first introduced to the arid regions of the southern Levant and the origins of nomadic pastoralism have been the subject of considerable debate. Nomadic pastoralism was a novel herd management practice with implications for the economic, social and cultural development of Neolithic communities inhabiting steppe and early village environs. Combining faunal stable isotope and chipped stone analyses f…
Hunter-gatherers adjust mobility to maintain contact under climatic variation
Understanding resource choice at the transition from foraging to farming
The role of the environment in shaping agricultural origins is still not fully understood, despite a century of debate on this topic. Comparison of the expected prevalence of a resource in the landscape with actual archaeological presence of the same resource can provide a metric for assessing resource choice in prehistory. However, the palaeoenvironmental data that would allow resource choice to be evaluated in this way are rarely available. Spe…
Population density, mobility, and cultural transmission
Settlement, Society and Cognition in Human Evolution
This volume provides a landscape narrative of early hominin evolution, linking conventional material and geographic aspects of the early archaeological record with wider and more elusive social, cognitive and symbolic landscapes. It seeks to move beyond a limiting notion of early hominin culture and behaviour as dictated solely by the environment to present the early hominin world as the outcome of a dynamic dialogue between the physical environm…
Steven E. Churchill . Thin on the ground
Steven E. Churchill . Thin on the ground: Neandertal biology, archeology, and ecology. 2014. xvi+453 pages, numerous b&w illustrations and tables. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell; 978-1-118-59087-4 hardback £100. - Volume 89 Issue 346
Environmental variability and hominin dispersal
Climatic variability, plasticity, and dispersal
The Costs of Being a High-latitude Hominin
This chapter examines the challenges that hominins occupying higher latitudes have had to deal with. More specifically, it analyses how hominins were able to maintain social networks over the larger geographic areas associated with decreasing population densities at higher latitudes, along with the mechanisms by which the largest encompassing groups can be maintained. The chapter first considers what the term ‘group’ means before discussing the a…
Recurrent patterning in the daily foraging routes of hamadryas baboons ( Papio hamadryas )
The benefits of spatial memory for foraging animals can be assessed on two distinct spatial scales: small-scale space (travel within patches) and large-scale space (travel between patches). While the patches themselves may be distributed at low density, within patches resources are likely densely distributed. We propose, therefore, that spatial memory for recalling the particular locations of previously visited feeding sites will be more advantag…
The place of the Neanderthals in hominin phylogeny
Palaeoclimates, plasticity, and the early dispersal of Homo sapiens
Visualisation and permutation methods for archaeological data analysis
Food and social complexity at Çayönü Tepesi, southeastern Anatolia
The identification of early social complexity and differentiation in early village societies has been approached in the past most notably through the evaluation of rituals and architectural layouts. Such studies could be complemented by an approach that provides data about everyday behaviours of individuals. We took 540 human and animal bone samples for stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis from the Neolithic site of Çayönü Tepesi in southe…
Counting sheep
The analysis of stable isotopes from biological remains has contributed greatly to archaeological knowledge in recent decades, with major contributions to areas such as prehistoric diet and mobility. The increasing importance of isotopic studies within archaeology has been paralleled by an increasing sophistication of laboratory techniques. At present, however, the relationship between sample size and the strength of the conclusions that can be d…
Speciation, diversity, and Mode 1 technologies
Over geological timescales, organisms encounter periodic shifts in selective conditions driven by environmental change. The variability selection hypothesis suggests that increases in environmental fluctuation have led to the evolution of complex, flexible behaviours able to respond to novel and unpredictable adaptive settings. This hypothesis is tested via the framework of a single locus genetic model in which an invading 'versatilist' allele co…
Logistical mobility reduces subsistence risk in hunting economies
Change and variability in Plio-Pleistocene climates
Fission-fusion and the evolution of hominin social systems
Climatic variability, plasticity, and dispersal
Explanations of variability in Middle Stone Age stone tool assemblage composition and raw material use in Eastern Africa
The Middle Stone Age (MSA) corresponds to a critical phase in human evolution, overlapping with the earliest emergence of Homo sapiens as well as the expansions of these populations across and beyond Africa. Within the context of growing recognition for a complex and structured population history across the continent, Eastern Africa remains a critical region to explore patterns of behavioural variability due to the large number of well-dated arch…
Palaeoclimates, plasticity, and the early dispersal of Homo sapiens
Amplitudes of orbitally induced climatic cycles and patterns of hominin speciation
Population density, mobility, and cultural transmission
Testing inter-observer error under a collaborative research framework for studying lithic shape variability
Evaluating error that arises through the aggregation of data recorded by multiple observers is a key consideration in many metric and geometric morphometric analyses of stone tool shape. One of the most common approaches involves the convergence of observers for repeat trails on the same set of artefacts: however, this is logistically and financially challenging when collaborating internationally and/or at a large scale. We present and evaluate a…
An archaeological signature of multi-level social systems
From Individual Neurons to Social Brains
The manufacture of stone tools is an integral part of the human evolutionary trajectory. However, very little research is directed towards the social and cognitive context of the process of manufacture. This article aims to redress this balance by using insights from contemporary neuroscience. Addressing successively more inclusive levels of analysis, we will argue that the relevant unit of analysis when examining the interface between archaeolog…
Counting sheep
The analysis of stable isotopes from biological remains has contributed greatly to archaeological knowledge in recent decades, with major contributions to areas such as prehistoric diet and mobility. The increasing importance of isotopic studies within archaeology has been paralleled by an increasing sophistication of laboratory techniques. At present, however, the relationship between sample size and the strength of the conclusions that can be d…
Stone point variability reveals spatial, chronological and environmental structuring of eastern African Middle Stone Age populations
Stone points are one of the key features used to define the African Middle Stone Age (MSA). Regional patterns in their shape and size through time have been thought to reflect inter-group interactions and networks of populations and are used to define cultural phases within the MSA. However, eastern Africa does not have distinctive and widely applied chrono-stratigraphic point variants that divide its MSA record, which is often described as being…
Understanding resource choice at the transition from foraging to farming
The role of the environment in shaping agricultural origins is still not fully understood, despite a century of debate on this topic. Comparison of the expected prevalence of a resource in the landscape with actual archaeological presence of the same resource can provide a metric for assessing resource choice in prehistory. However, the palaeoenvironmental data that would allow resource choice to be evaluated in this way are rarely available. Spe…
Visualisation and permutation methods for archaeological data analysis
Stone circles and the structure of Bronze Age society
A Spatio‐temporal Kernel Method for Mapping Changes in Prehistoric Land‐use Patterns
Archaeologists are accustomed to considering both the spatial distributions of sites and the temporal distributions of dates as means of analysing the dynamics of prehistoric societies. However, spatial and temporal approaches have thus far remained largely separate, rather than being combined within a single, unified framework. A formal methodology is outlined that combines univariate kernel density estimation based on radiocarbon dates with biv…
Moving far or moving often? A neglected axis of variation in hunter-gatherer mobility
As one of the hallmarks of a hunting and gathering lifestyle, mobility is a primary concern for both archaeologists and ethnographers studying hunter-gatherer settlement systems. Most research considering hunter-gatherer mobility, however, concentrates primarily on the total distance moved by a group per annum. This paper develops a novel metric, the Distance/Frequency Index (DFI), which describes a continuum between relatively frequent, short mo…
Hunter-gatherers adjust mobility to maintain contact under climatic variation
From Individual Neurons to Social Brains
The manufacture of stone tools is an integral part of the human evolutionary trajectory. However, very little research is directed towards the social and cognitive context of the process of manufacture. This article aims to redress this balance by using insights from contemporary neuroscience. Addressing successively more inclusive levels of analysis, we will argue that the relevant unit of analysis when examining the interface between archaeolog…
Hunter–gatherer movement patterns
The Quantitative Analysis of Mobility
Stone circles and the structure of Bronze Age society
Logistical mobility reduces subsistence risk in hunting economies
Change and variability in Plio-Pleistocene climates
A Spatio‐temporal Kernel Method for Mapping Changes in Prehistoric Land‐use Patterns
Archaeologists are accustomed to considering both the spatial distributions of sites and the temporal distributions of dates as means of analysing the dynamics of prehistoric societies. However, spatial and temporal approaches have thus far remained largely separate, rather than being combined within a single, unified framework. A formal methodology is outlined that combines univariate kernel density estimation based on radiocarbon dates with biv…
Speciation, diversity, and Mode 1 technologies
Over geological timescales, organisms encounter periodic shifts in selective conditions driven by environmental change. The variability selection hypothesis suggests that increases in environmental fluctuation have led to the evolution of complex, flexible behaviours able to respond to novel and unpredictable adaptive settings. This hypothesis is tested via the framework of a single locus genetic model in which an invading 'versatilist' allele co…
An archaeological signature of multi-level social systems
Amplitudes of orbitally induced climatic cycles and patterns of hominin speciation
Fission-fusion and the evolution of hominin social systems
Food and social complexity at Çayönü Tepesi, southeastern Anatolia
The identification of early social complexity and differentiation in early village societies has been approached in the past most notably through the evaluation of rituals and architectural layouts. Such studies could be complemented by an approach that provides data about everyday behaviours of individuals. We took 540 human and animal bone samples for stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis from the Neolithic site of Çayönü Tepesi in southe…
Counting sheep
The analysis of stable isotopes from biological remains has contributed greatly to archaeological knowledge in recent decades, with major contributions to areas such as prehistoric diet and mobility. The increasing importance of isotopic studies within archaeology has been paralleled by an increasing sophistication of laboratory techniques. At present, however, the relationship between sample size and the strength of the conclusions that can be d…
The Costs of Being a High-latitude Hominin
This chapter examines the challenges that hominins occupying higher latitudes have had to deal with. More specifically, it analyses how hominins were able to maintain social networks over the larger geographic areas associated with decreasing population densities at higher latitudes, along with the mechanisms by which the largest encompassing groups can be maintained. The chapter first considers what the term ‘group’ means before discussing the a…
Recurrent patterning in the daily foraging routes of hamadryas baboons ( Papio hamadryas )
The benefits of spatial memory for foraging animals can be assessed on two distinct spatial scales: small-scale space (travel within patches) and large-scale space (travel between patches). While the patches themselves may be distributed at low density, within patches resources are likely densely distributed. We propose, therefore, that spatial memory for recalling the particular locations of previously visited feeding sites will be more advantag…
The place of the Neanderthals in hominin phylogeny
Palaeoclimates, plasticity, and the early dispersal of Homo sapiens
Visualisation and permutation methods for archaeological data analysis
Settlement, Society and Cognition in Human Evolution
This volume provides a landscape narrative of early hominin evolution, linking conventional material and geographic aspects of the early archaeological record with wider and more elusive social, cognitive and symbolic landscapes. It seeks to move beyond a limiting notion of early hominin culture and behaviour as dictated solely by the environment to present the early hominin world as the outcome of a dynamic dialogue between the physical environm…
Steven E. Churchill . Thin on the ground
Steven E. Churchill . Thin on the ground: Neandertal biology, archeology, and ecology. 2014. xvi+453 pages, numerous b&w illustrations and tables. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell; 978-1-118-59087-4 hardback £100. - Volume 89 Issue 346
Environmental variability and hominin dispersal
Climatic variability, plasticity, and dispersal
Population density, mobility, and cultural transmission
The origins of nomadic pastoralism in the eastern Jordanian steppe
The circumstances in which domestic animals were first introduced to the arid regions of the southern Levant and the origins of nomadic pastoralism have been the subject of considerable debate. Nomadic pastoralism was a novel herd management practice with implications for the economic, social and cultural development of Neolithic communities inhabiting steppe and early village environs. Combining faunal stable isotope and chipped stone analyses f…
Hunter-gatherers adjust mobility to maintain contact under climatic variation
Geography (27 works) · Archaeology (25 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (25 works) · Biology (24 works) · Ecology (18 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (16 works) · Primate Behavior and Ecology (13 works) · Computer Science (11 works) · Demography (9 works) · Population (9 works)