José-Miguel Tejero

Domaine de rechercheDomaine d'enseignementProgrammes de rechercheBibliographie sélective

Domaine de recherche

My principal research interest lies in the study of the Upper Palaeolithic (UP) hunter-gatherer societies in Eurasia through the analysis of osseous raw material exploitation. I especially emphasized the role of the osseous hunting weapons in the first anatomically modern humans (AMH) colonizing Eurasia at the UP’s onset. As such, I have developed two main research lines: 1) Techno-economic and palethnographic approach to the technical & conceptual behaviours in osseous raw material working (mainly bone/antler) during the Palaeolithic; 2) The role of the osseous hunting projectile weapons of the first AMH’s adaptive environmental strategies in colonising Eurasia after their dispersion from Africa.

This research has been facilitated by both fieldwork undertaken at various Palaeolithic sites in Spain, France, Italy, Israel, Armenia & Georgia, and a revision of faunal remains and osseous sets from old excavations. It has been funded through highly competitive grants and has allowed me to direct or co-direct several international research projects.

I am currently involved in various national and international projects (Spain, France, Austria, the UK, Israel & Georgia). I am developing new research lines combining archaeological and biomolecular cutting edge methods. My prime current project is based on the integration of archaeological approaches (technology, use-wear, experimentation); palaeogenetics (aDNA: ancient DNA); palaeoproteomics (ZooMS: Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry); and radiocarbon chronology (C14), evaluating critical aspects of the first AMH’s osseous hunting weapons. It will complement data from my past works in Western Europe allowing us to gain insight into different aspects of the first AMH in Eurasia adding data from several key sites from the Near East (e.g., Manot cave, Hayonim, Kebara, Ksar Akil), Central Europe (e.g., Willendorf II, Mladec) and the Caucasus (e.g., Satsurblia, Dzudzuana).

Further, my work concerns the last Levantine hunter-gatherers’ bone equipment beginning to practice the sedentarism (Natufian). I lead an international project to study and publish one of the keys Near East Natufian sites: Einan – Ain- Mallaha (northern Jordan Valley, Israel) funded by the Shelby White Foundation of Harvard University.

I am a member of the Interdisciplinary Network HEAS (Human Evolution and Archaeological Sciences) of the University of Vienna https://www.heas.at/about/partners/department-of-evolutionary-anthropology-dea/jose-miguel-tejero/

 

Domaine d'enseignement

In addition to my research activity, I have broad teaching experience in 5 Universities in 4 different countries:

Programmes de recherche

Project Direction (Selected list from the last 5 years):

  • 2021-2023  Assessing Anatomically Modern Human behaviour and social networks in Eurasia through Multidisciplinary Studies of Early Upper Palaeolithic Osseous Hunting Weapons. Funded by The Austrian Science Fund (FWF): https://www.oswehuman.net
  • 2020-2023   The Natufian site of Eynan – Ain Mallaha (Upper Jordan Valley, Israel). Study and publication of the materials of the excavations from 1996-2005. Funded by the Shelby-White and Leon Levy Foundation of Harvard University: https://whitelevy.fas.harvard.edu/people/josé-miguel-tejero
  • 2020-2021   The technical exploitation of the bone at Einan – Ain-Mallaha (Upper Galilee); Issues to assess by crossing data from the archaeozoology and osseous technology.  Funded by Irene Levi Sala CARE Archaeological Foundation.
  • 2017-2018  The Manot Cave’s (Lower Galilee) osseous raw material exploitation in the setting of the EUP emergence and diffusion. Funded by Irene Levi Sala CARE Archaeological Foundation

Bibliographie sélective