Dr. Jennifer Miller on Stone Age Africa and Ostrich Eggshell Beads

That Anthro Podcast

Today Dr. Jennifer Miller from the Max Planck Institute joins us today to talk about her work investigating research questions in Stone Age Africa, focusing on Ostrich eggshell beads (OES). Her PhD focused on these beads and their symbolic and cultural meanings, while also looking more broadly at multiple sites to see if there was any regional change or change throughout time. OES beads have been used for the last 50,000 years in Africa and Asia, and are still produced in Africa today; so she asks, have they changed throughout this time? Is there some sort of evolution evident in the beads themselves that could inform population differences and changes the way lithic and ceramic technologies do? Dr. Miller plans to present and publish these results soon. She also talks about working in cave structures, what technologies they use to map them, and what excavating in Africa is like, particularly a newer project at Panga ya Saidi cave in Eastern Africa ( https://www.shh.mpg.de/1466873 ). We end the episode with her very valuable advice for other researchers, and look forward to what future projects will hold for her.

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Check out her publications here: https://www.shh.mpg.de/person/101112/25522

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