Post-doctoral research fellow at the Computational Archaeology Laboratory

Research Project topic: Human population dynamics in the Middle Paleolithic Levant: A computer vision-based approach to mandibular analysis

Supervisor: Prof. Uzy Smilansky

In the framework of the current project, I am engaged with the development of a computer vision-based software for morphological analysis of hominin mandibles, with the aim of elucidating aspects of population dynamics in the Middle Paleolithic Levant. This computational tool will be based on analytical geometry principles to provide an objective, quantitative, and high-resolution morphological characterization of specific mandibular structures directly from 3D digital models. Among others, the tool will quantitatively express the symmetry, curvature, and topological aspects of anatomical regions such as the superior ramus area, dental arcade, and mental protuberance. Its application to fossil and modern samples of human mandibles will facilitate the association between specific patterns of morphological variability and different demographic, behavioral and taxonomic factors known to affect mandibular morphology. Applying the computational tool to specimens from the Middle Paleolithic Levant, commonly classified as either Neanderthals or anatomically modern humans (AMH), will provide a more reliable and precise characterization of their variability than is currently available from previous studies. Examination of the morphological variability in structures associated with different factors will allow to assess the degree to which it is associated with different taxonomies rather than differences in demographic or life-history factors.

Previous projects:

• Exploring Hominin Behavioral Patterns Through Time and Space: A Morpho-Techno-Functional Analysis of 3d Digital Models of Stone Handaxes
• Biface Morpho-Technological Variability at Gesher Benot-Ya‘aqov and its Significance to the Cultural, Social and Cognitive Evolution of Middle-Pleistocene Hominins in the Levant
• The Erq El-Ahmar paleontological site excavations
• Kaizer Hill PPNA quarry project

Recent publications:

• Zaidner, Y., Centi L., Prévost, M., Mercier, N., Falguères, C., Guérin, G., Valladas, H., Richard, M., Galy, A., Pécheyran, C., Tombret, O., Pons-Branchu, E., Porat, N., Shahack-Gross, R., Friesem, D.E., Yeshurun, R., Turgeman-Yaffe, Z., Frumkin, A., Herzlinger, G., Ekshtain, R., Shemer, M., Varoner, O., Sarig, R., May, H., Hershkovitz, I. 2021. Middle Pleistocene Homo behavior and culture at 140 - 120 ka suggest interactions with Homo sapiens. Science, 372: 1429-1433
• Hovers, E., Gossa, T., Asrat, A., Niespolo, E., Resom, A., Renne, P., Ekshtain, R., Herzlinger, G., Ketema, N., Martínez-Navarro, B. 2021. The expansion of the Acheulian to the Southeastern Ethiopian Highlands: Insights from the new early Pleistocene site-complex of Melka Wakena. Quaternary Science Reviews, 253: 106763
• Yahalom-Mack, N., Herzlinger, G., Bogdanovsky, A., Tirosh, O., Garfinkel, Y., Dugaw, S., Lipschits, O. 2020. Combining chemical and lead isotope analyses with 3-d geometric – morphometric shape analysis: A methodological case study of socketed bronze arrowheads from the Southern Levant. Journal of Archaeological Science, 118:105147
• Alperson-Afil, N., Goren-Inbar, N., Herzlinger, G., Wynn, T. 2020. Expert retrieval structures and prospective memory in the cognition of Acheulian hominins. Psychology, 11: 173-189.
• Novoselsky, I., Grosman, L., Herzlinger, G., Goren-Inbar, N. 2020. Limestone wedges: ad hoc quarrying tools of the Kaizer Hill quarry site. Lithic Technology, 45: 68-85.
• Herzlinger, G., Goren-Inbar, N. 2020. Beyond a cutting edge: a morpho-technological analysis of Acheulian handaxes and cleavers from Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov, Israel. Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology, 2: 1-26
• Rabinovich, R., Herzlinger, G., Calvo, R., Rivals. F., Mischke, S., Beiner, G. 2019. Erq el Ahmar Elephant Site – a mammoth skeleton at a rare and controversial Plio-Pleistocene site along the mammal migration route out of Africa. Quaternary Science Reviews, 221: 105885
• Herzlinger, G., Goren-Inbar, 2019. Do a few tools necessarily mean a few people? A techno-morphological approach to the question of group size at Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov, Israel. Journal of Human Evolution, 128: 45-58
• Goren-Inbar, N., Aplerson-Afil, N., Sharon, G., Herzlinger, G. 2018. The Acheulian site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov volume IV: The lithic assemblages. Springer.
• Herzlinger, G., Grosman, L. 2018. AGMT3-D: A software for 3-D landmarks-based geometric morphometric shape analysis of archaeological artifacts. PLoS One, 13(11): e0207890