HoMeCo Projects

Issa Valley Project

Understanding the stable isotope ecology of African foodwebs, and particularly of primates, in miombo woodlands is crucial for the application of isotope biomarkers in the palaeodietary analysis of fossil hominins which evolved in comparable landscapes.

The Onset and Evolution of Early Hominin Meat Consumption (HoMeCo) - The position of Plio-Pleistocene hominins in African paleo-food webs based on nitrogen isotopes in tooth enamel

The overarching goal of this project is to reconstruct the onset and evolution of meat consumption of Plio-Pleistocene hominins

Paleo-Primate Project Gorongosa

As a research affiliate at the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford, T. Lüdecke is the leading geochemist of the Paleo-Primate Project Gorongosa (PPPG), Mozambique.

South African Homininis

The overarching goal of this pilot study is to reconstruct the position of southern African Australopithecus in its paleo-food web to evaluate the consumption of animal vs. plant resources in this taxon.

Leibniz Collaborative Excellence: Understanding the “Anthropocene”: human alteration of ecosystems in our deep history

Collaborators: S. Gaudzinski-Windheuser (Johannes Gutenberg University) L. Kindler (MONREPOS Archaeological Research Centre and Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution, Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Leibniz- Research-Institute for Archaeology), T. Tütken, T. Tacail (Johannes Gutenberg University), A. Martinez-Garcia (Max Planck Institute for Chemistry)

Early hominin (plant-based) dietary adaptation in the southern East African Rift

The overarching goal of this project is to reconstruct (Plio-)Pleistocene paleotemperature, vegetation, precipitation and evaporation patterns of hominin localities in the southern part of the East African Rift