Nicholas Conard

Conard received his bachelor's degrees in Anthropology and Chemistry at the University of Rochester, New York, in 1983. He continued at the University of Rochester to be awarded with an interdisciplinary master's degree in physics, geology and anthropology in 1986. Conard earned an additional master's degree and a doctoral degree in anthropology at Yale University in 1988 and 1990, respectively. After achieving his Ph.D. he worked at the University of Connecticut as an assistant professor in Anthropology from 1991 until 1993. In the mid-1990s, he worked at the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum in Mainz/Neuwied as a Humboldt Research Fellow. He was appointed to the position Chair of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology at the University of Tübingen in 1995.

Conard is a specialist in the study of Paleolithic archaeology. He mainly works on sites from the Middle to Late Pleistocene of Germany and South Africa, but has also directed and co-directed fieldwork taking place in Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and Syria.{{cite web | url=https://uni-tuebingen.de/fakultaeten/mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche-fakultaet/fachbereiche/geowissenschaften/arbeitsgruppen/urgeschichte-naturwissenschaftliche-archaeologie/ina/aeltere-urgeschichte-quartaeroekologie/mitarbeiter/prof-nicholas-j-conard-phd/excavationsfieldwork/ | title=Excavations/Fieldwork | Universität Tübingen }} His research combines analysis of stone tools, faunal remains, and site formation processes to better understand the context of late human evolution, including the evolution of modern humans and their subsequent dispersal out-of-Africa.{{cite web | url=https://uni-tuebingen.de/fakultaeten/mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche-fakultaet/fachbereiche/geowissenschaften/arbeitsgruppen/urgeschichte-naturwissenschaftliche-archaeologie/ina/aeltere-urgeschichte-quartaeroekologie/mitarbeiter/prof-nicholas-j-conard-phd/ | title=Prof. Nicholas J. Conard Ph.D. | Universität Tübingen }}

Some of his most important scientific contributions have come as the project leader of a team working on an archaeological examination of the Hohle Fels cave in the Swabian Jura area, a low mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, bounded by the Danube in the southeast and the upper Neckar in the northwest. This is near where the Löwenmensch figurine, (meaning "lion-human") was found in 1939, forgotten due to the war, and only reexamined following a 1997 discovery of additional parts of the figurine. Conard's team has been exploring the Hohe Fels site for approximately twenty years. Recently they uncovered more fragments of human female figurines that date to the Aurignacian, an Upper Paleolithic culture, confirming dates exceeded only by the Löwenmensch figurine and that such female figurines are more widely distributed than thought previously.Thurman, Judith, [http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/ur-mothers-paleolithic-statuettes Ur-Mothers], The New Yorker, August 13, 2015 While under his direction, the Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2017. {{cite web | url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1527 | title=Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura }}

Conard is leader of the research project at Schöningen, a 300,000 year-old site where prehistoric humans made and used wooden spears and throwing sticks, hunted horses, butchered straight-tusked elephants, and processed bear pelts.{{cite web | url=https://www.senckenberg.de/en/institutes/shep/research-centre-schoeningen/ | title=Research Center Schöningen }}{{cite journal |last1=Conard |first1=Nicholas J. |last2=Serangeli |first2=Jordi |last3=Bigga |first3=Gerlinde |last4=Rots |first4=Veerle |title=A 300,000-year-old throwing stick from Schöningen, northern Germany, documents the evolution of human hunting |journal=Nature Ecology & Evolution |date=20 April 2020 |volume=4 |issue=5 |pages=690–693 |doi=10.1038/s41559-020-1139-0 |pmid=32313174 |bibcode=2020NatEE...4..690C }}{{psc|date=May 2024}}{{cite journal |last1=Conard |first1=Nicholas J. |last2=Serangeli |first2=Jordi |last3=Böhner |first3=Utz |last4=Starkovich |first4=Britt M. |last5=Miller |first5=Christopher E. |last6=Urban |first6=Brigitte |last7=Van Kolfschoten |first7=Thijs |title=Excavations at Schöningen and paradigm shifts in human evolution |journal=Journal of Human Evolution |date=December 2015 |volume=89 |pages=1–17 |doi=10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.10.003 |pmid=26653207 |bibcode=2015JHumE..89....1C }}{{psc|date=May 2024}}

Sibudu Cave is a prehistoric rock shelter and an important archaeological site from the Middle Stone Age in South Africa, dating between 77,000 and 38,000 years ago.{{cite journal |last1=Jacobs |first1=Zenobia |last2=Roberts |first2=Richard G. |last3=Galbraith |first3=Rex F. |last4=Deacon |first4=Hilary J. |last5=Grün |first5=Rainer |last6=Mackay |first6=Alex |last7=Mitchell |first7=Peter |last8=Vogelsang |first8=Ralf |last9=Wadley |first9=Lyn |title=Ages for the Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa: Implications for Human Behavior and Dispersal |journal=Science |date=31 October 2008 |volume=322 |issue=5902 |pages=733–735 |doi=10.1126/science.1162219 |pmid=18974351 |bibcode=2008Sci...322..733J |hdl=1885/32902 |hdl-access=free }} Conard, director of excavations at the site since 2011, has lauded it for the quality of preservation of an extensive Middle Stone Age record, as shown by the large assemblage of stone tools and organic materials.{{cite web | url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/place/sibudu-cave-north-coast-near-ballito | title=Sibudu Cave, North Coast near Ballito | South African History Online }}

• 2010 Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg
• 2011 Member of the Heidelberg Academy for Sciences and Humanities
• 2021 Distinguished Alumnus, Oakwood High School, Ohio {{cite web | url=https://uni-tuebingen.de/fakultaeten/mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche-fakultaet/fachbereiche/geowissenschaften/arbeitsgruppen/urgeschichte-naturwissenschaftliche-archaeologie/ina/aeltere-urgeschichte-quartaeroekologie/mitarbeiter/prof-nicholas-j-conard-phd/honors-and-awards/ | title=Honors and Awards | Universität Tübingen }}

• {{cite journal |last1=Conard |first1=Nicholas J. |last2=Rots |first2=Veerle |title=Rope making in the Aurignacian of Central Europe more than 35,000 years ago |journal=Science Advances |date=2 February 2024 |volume=10 |issue=5 |pages=eadh5217 |doi=10.1126/sciadv.adh5217 |pmid=38295167 |pmc=10830101 |bibcode=2024SciA...10H5217C }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Kandel |first1=Andrew W. |last2=Sommer |first2=Christian |last3=Kanaeva |first3=Zara |last4=Bolus |first4=Michael |last5=Bruch |first5=Angela A. |last6=Groth |first6=Claudia |last7=Haidle |first7=Miriam N. |last8=Hertler |first8=Christine |last9=Heß |first9=Julia |last10=Malina |first10=Maria |last11=Märker |first11=Michael |last12=Hochschild |first12=Volker |last13=Mosbrugger |first13=Volker |last14=Schrenk |first14=Friedemann |last15=Conard |first15=Nicholas J. |title=The ROCEEH Out of Africa Database (ROAD): A large-scale research database serves as an indispensable tool for human evolutionary studies |journal=PLOS ONE |date=1 August 2023 |volume=18 |issue=8 |pages=e0289513 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0289513 |doi-access=free |pmid=37527270 |pmc=10393170 |bibcode=2023PLoSO..1889513K }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Venditti |first1=Flavia |last2=Rodríguez-Álvarez |first2=Bárbara |last3=Serangeli |first3=Jordi |last4=Cesaro |first4=Stella Nunziante |last5=Walter |first5=Rudolf |last6=Conard |first6=Nicholas J. |title=Using microartifacts to infer Middle Pleistocene lifeways at Schöningen, Germany |journal=Scientific Reports |date=15 December 2022 |volume=12 |issue=1 |page=21148 |doi=10.1038/s41598-022-24769-3 |pmid=36522355 |pmc=9755147 |bibcode=2022NatSR..1221148V }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Conard |first1=Nicholas J. |last2=Serangeli |first2=Jordi |last3=Bigga |first3=Gerlinde |last4=Rots |first4=Veerle |title=A 300,000-year-old throwing stick from Schöningen, northern Germany, documents the evolution of human hunting |journal=Nature Ecology & Evolution |date=20 April 2020 |volume=4 |issue=5 |pages=690–693 |doi=10.1038/s41559-020-1139-0 |pmid=32313174 |bibcode=2020NatEE...4..690C }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Posth |first1=Cosimo |last2=Wißing |first2=Christoph |last3=Kitagawa |first3=Keiko |last4=Pagani |first4=Luca |last5=van Holstein |first5=Laura |last6=Racimo |first6=Fernando |last7=Wehrberger |first7=Kurt |last8=Conard |first8=Nicholas J. |last9=Kind |first9=Claus Joachim |last10=Bocherens |first10=Hervé |last11=Krause |first11=Johannes |title=Deeply divergent archaic mitochondrial genome provides lower time boundary for African gene flow into Neanderthals |journal=Nature Communications |date=4 July 2017 |volume=8 |issue=1 |page=16046 |doi=10.1038/ncomms16046 |pmid=28675384 |pmc=5500885 |bibcode=2017NatCo...816046P }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Riehl |first1=Simone |last2=Zeidi |first2=Mohsen |last3=Conard |first3=Nicholas J. |title=Emergence of Agriculture in the Foothills of the Zagros Mountains of Iran |journal=Science |date=5 July 2013 |volume=341 |issue=6141 |pages=65–67 |doi=10.1126/science.1236743 |pmid=23828939 |bibcode=2013Sci...341...65R }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Conard |first1=Nicholas J. |last2=Malina |first2=Maria |last3=Münzel |first3=Susanne C. |title=New flutes document the earliest musical tradition in southwestern Germany |journal=Nature |date=August 2009 |volume=460 |issue=7256 |pages=737–740 |doi=10.1038/nature08169 |pmid=19553935 |bibcode=2009Natur.460..737C }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Conard |first1=Nicholas J. |title=A female figurine from the basal Aurignacian of Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany |journal=Nature |date=May 2009 |volume=459 |issue=7244 |pages=248–252 |doi=10.1038/nature07995 |pmid=19444215 |bibcode=2009Natur.459..248C }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Conard |first1=Nicholas J. |last2=Grootes |first2=Pieter M. |last3=Smith |first3=Fred H. |title=Unexpectedly recent dates for human remains from Vogelherd |journal=Nature |date=July 2004 |volume=430 |issue=6996 |pages=198–201 |doi=10.1038/nature02690 |pmid=15241412 |bibcode=2004Natur.430..198C }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Conard |first1=Nicholas J. |title=Palaeolithic ivory sculptures from southwestern Germany and the origins of figurative art |journal=Nature |date=December 2003 |volume=426 |issue=6968 |pages=830–832 |doi=10.1038/nature02186 |pmid=14685236 |bibcode=2003Natur.426..830C }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Conard |first1=Nicholas |last2=Asch |first2=David L. |last3=Asch |first3=Nancy B. |last4=Elmore |first4=David |last5=Gove |first5=Harry |last6=Rubin |first6=Meyer |last7=Brown |first7=James A. |last8=Wiant |first8=Michael D. |last9=Farnsworth |first9=Kenneth B. |last10=Cook |first10=Thomas G. |title=Accelerator radiocarbon dating of evidence for prehistoric horticulture in Illinois |journal=Nature |date=March 1984 |volume=308 |issue=5958 |pages=443–446 |doi=10.1038/308443a0 |bibcode=1984Natur.308..443C }}

• http://www.geo.uni-tuebingen.de/en/work-groups/prehistory-archaeological-sciences/institut/early-prehistory-and-quaternary-ecology.html
• http://www.geo.uni-tuebingen.de/en/work-groups/prehistory-archaeological-sciences/early-prehistory-and-quaternary-ecology/staff-directory/prof-nicholas-j-conard-phd/curriculum-vitae.html

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Category:Living people

Category:1961 births

Category:American archaeologists

Category:Recipients of the Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg