Nicholas is an archaeologist and a postdoctoral researcher. Since completing his PhD in 2010 at the University of Liverpool, UK, he has held research positions at the University of Western Australia (2012-2013), the Laboratoire de Préhistoire et Technologie (UMR 7055) of the CNRS in Paris, France (2014-2015), and Stone Brook University, USA (2016-2018). He has conducted fieldwork and specialist lithic analysis in Zambia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Australia, and Kenya. Nicholas became a member of the WTAP in 2014.
Nicholas’s primary research interest is in understanding the manufacture of stone tools in the African Early and Middle Stone Ages. As well as his expertise in analysing the technology of how stone tools were made, he examines how they were used. This kind of work is a significant challenge in Turkana because the types of rocks typically available to Pliocene and Pleistocene hominin toolmakers in the Turkana Basin (phonolites, basalts, trachytes) are typically coarse grained, and do not easily develop traces of use. Since 2020, he has been leading WTAPs research and excavations at the 750,000 year old site of Nadung’a 13.
In his own words
What do you like about being in the field in Turkana?
“The adventure; the remoteness. The feeling you get standing on a high outcrop, seeing nobody for miles around, and hearing only the wind. It’s a privilege.”What do you miss when you are in the field?
“Smooth tarmac and ice cream. In that order.”How would you describe your role in the WTAP team?
“The humour.”
For more information about Nicholas’s research or to contact him directly, please visit his page on Researchgate.
West Turkana Archaeological Project 