Centre for Early Sapiens Behaviour - Sapience

23/04/2026

Congratulations to our researchers, especially the leading author Alexandra Pearson, on a new publication!

20/04/2026

Congratulations to our PI Francesco d'Errico and colleagues on their new publication! The publication is part of a special volume of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society titled 'The evolution of collective intelligence'. 👏👏👏

Abstract. Human collective intelligence (CI)—the capacity of groups to solve problems, make decisions and acquire knowledge beyond individual capabilities—

16/04/2026

Congratulations to our friend and collaborator Dr Tammy Hodgskiss Reynard on her new appointment!

Congratulations to Dr Tammy Hodgskiss Reynard, known as the ‘Ochre Lady’, on her appointment as Head of the Origins Centre as it marks 20 years. 💙🏛️

A Wits-trained archaeologist and heritage professional, her leadership ushers in an exciting new chapter for the Centre.

Read More: https://ow.ly/crJT50YJu4J

09/04/2026

Many thanks to our friends from Archeolodzy.org for their expertise and help this season at the Cave and Shelter excavations! Please read their post below for details. 🫶🙌👏🇿🇦🇳🇴🇵🇱

09/03/2026

Last weekend SapienCE scientists currently working at Klipdrift complex organized an outreach event at the De Hoop Collection Nature Reserve for the guests of the reserve and visitors from the local community. The event, called 'Digging De Hoop', consisted of guided tours of the SapienCE exhibition housed at the Collection, lectures by our researchers inuding one by the SapienCE Director Professor Christopher Stuart Henshilwood as well as a day-long collection of hands-on activities. We thank all the visitors for their interest and especially Nini and William Stephens and Dalfrenzo Laing for their help. Special thanks to our researchers who took the time out of there very busy schedules to organize this amazing event. 🫡🙏🙏🫶🫶🇳🇴🇿🇦👏👏👏👏

04/03/2026

As we approach the end of the third week of fieldwork at Klipdrift, during the last few days we had the great pleasure of hosting distinguished visitors and dear colleagues from Bergen. We were honored by a visit from the Dean of Det humanistiske fakultet, UiB, Prof. Camilla Brautaset, the Head of AHKR - Institutt for arkeologi, historie, kultur- og religionsvitskap, UiB, Prof. Teemu Ryymin, and AHKR's research coordinator, Prof. Marie Steine von der Lippe. Our guests had the opportunity to observe at work in South Africa and meet our field team and several of our South African collaborators. They visited SapienCE exhibitions at Cape Point guided by the curators, Craig Foster and Petro Keene, and at De Hoop Collection Nature Reserve, guided by Dalfrenzo Laing. They also met our field team and had a chance to witness them in action at Klipdrift first hand. Our guests were particularly impressed with SapienCE researchers' ability to run a very successful field project despite enormus logistical complexities associated with excavating at a remote location such as Klipdrift complex. The guests were hosted by Prof Christopher Henshilwood, SapienCE Director, and Dr Karen van Niekerk, SapienCE Deputy Director and the leader of the Klipdrift excavations. SapienCE thanks everybody involved with making this visit possible. 🙏We believe that our guests enjoyed seeing archaeology in action and we look forward to hosting them soon again! 🇳🇴🇿🇦

04/02/2026

Check out a story on the SapienCE web site on the new article by a SapienCE PI (Francesco d'Errico) and his colleagues!

A new study challenges the idea that climate change drove early human innovation. Instead, researchers find that cultural developments arose under different environmental conditions, shaped by movement, interaction, and knowledge sharing.

02/02/2026

Congratulations to Dr Beth Velliky and all her collaborators on the new paper just published in 'Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences'! 👏👏👏

The use of mineral pigments is considered one of the trademarks of behavioural complexity during the Middle Stone Age in southern Africa. Though many sites report large mineral pigment assemblages during the Still Bay (ca. 71.9–71 ka BP) period, pigment behaviours during the Howieson’s Poort (HP...

15/12/2025

Congratulations to 's DR Karl Purcell on the successful defense of his PhD thesis today at the Institutt for geovitenskap! 🫡👏👏👏👏👨‍🎓

31/10/2025

Many thanks to Dr. Philipp Hoelzmann from Freie Universitaet Berlin for an excellent SapienCE lunchtime talk yesterday!

31/10/2025

Congratulations to Francesco d'Errico (a SapienCE PI) and his coauthors on a new publication in Science Advances titled "Evidence for symbolic use of ochre by Micoquian
Neanderthals in Crimea"! 👏👏👏

Technological and chemical analyses of Crimean ochres reveal modified pieces consistent with symbolic use by Neanderthals.