Thomas F. G. Higham is an archaeological scientist and radiocarbon dating specialist. He has worked as Professor of Archaeological Science at the University of Oxford, UK, where he was the Director of the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU) in the Research Lab for Archaeology and the History of Art. He is best known for his work in dating the Neanderthal extinction and the arrival of modern humans in Europe.[2] He is Professor in the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Vienna.[3]
Thomas Higham | |
|---|---|
| Citizenship | New Zealand |
| Spouse | Katerina Douka[1] |
| Parent | Charles Higham |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | University of Otago University of Waikato |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Archaeology |
| Sub-discipline | |
| Institutions |
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Early life and education
editHigham grew up in Dunedin, New Zealand, the eldest of four children of Polly and Charles Higham; his father is an archaeologist specialising in the prehistory of southeast Asia. After completing his secondary education at Otago Boys' High School, he studied Archaeology at the University of Otago, receiving a BA Honours degree in 1988 and a master's degree in 1990.[4] Higham became interested in radiocarbon dating and moved to the University of Waikato where, in 1993, he obtained a DPhil degree at the Department of Chemistry.[5][additional citation(s) needed]
Career and research
editHigham worked as the Deputy Director of the radiocarbon dating laboratory at Waikato, before joining the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, at the University of Oxford in 2001. He became the Director of the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU) in 2018 and was a Fellow by Special Election at Keble College.[6]
Higham's work focuses on the development and reliable application of radiocarbon dating in archaeology. His main interests lie in the refinement of the protocols used for the purification of ancient samples prior to radiocarbon dating. His early work focused on the peopling of New Zealand.[7][8] Upon arrival in Oxford, Higham became involved in testing and improving the ultrafiltration method for dating archaeological bones.[9]
In 2001, Higham met British archaeologist Roger Jacobi and the two worked closely together on the dating of several key Palaeolithic sites from the British Isles,[10][11] until Jacobi's death in 2009. The most notable result of this work was the redating of the Red Lady of Paviland,[12] an iconic early modern human from Britain. Later, Higham reported an age estimate for the Kents Cavern maxilla from Devon, England, the earliest modern human fossil in northwestern Europe.[13]
Since 2006, Higham and his team at Oxford have worked on defining the timing of Neanderthal replacement by anatomically modern humans in western Eurasia and quantifying the overlap between the two human groups. In 2014, results of this work reported in Nature placed Neanderthal extinction at around 41000–39000 years ago, and suggested a Neanderthal-modern human overlap of 3000–5000 years in Europe.[14] In 2013, funded by the European Research Council, Higham launched the "PalaeoChron" Project that focuses on the dating of late Neanderthals, early modern humans and Denisovans at hundreds of sites across northern Eurasia.[15][16]
Higham has featured in CNN's series Finding Jesus.[17]
In 2018, Higham was elected an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand.[18] He was awarded a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Waikato in 2018.
References
edit- ^ Higham, Tom (2021). The World Before Us. Penguin Random House UK. p. 100. ISBN 9780241989050.
- ^ Callaway, Ewen (2012). "Date with history". Nature. 485 (7396): 27–29. doi:10.1038/485027a. PMID 22552075.
- ^ "Uni Vienna: Archaeological Science as Game-Changer: What ancient genes tell us about who we are". LISAvienna Life Science Vienna. Austria Wirtschaftsservice/Vienna Business Agency. 2 June 2022. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
- ^ "Latest News » Otago Boys' High School". obhs.school.nz. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
- ^ Higham, Thomas (1993). Radiocarbon dating the prehistory of New Zealand (Unpublished PhD thesis). University of Waikato.
- ^ "Professor Tom Higham". Keble College. Retrieved 25 February 2018.
- ^ Wilmshurst, JM; Anderson, AJ; Higham, TFG; Worthy, TH (2008). "Dating the late prehistoric dispersal of Polynesians to New Zealand using the commensal Pacific rat". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 105 (22): 7676–7680. Bibcode:2008PNAS..105.7676W. doi:10.1073/pnas.0801507105. PMC 2409139. PMID 18523023.
- ^ Hogg, AG; Higham, TFG; Lowe, DJ; Palmer, JG; Reimer, PJ; Newnham, RM (2003). "A wiggle-match date for Polynesian settlement of New Zealand". Antiquity. 27 (295): 116–125. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00061408. hdl:10289/5248. S2CID 55072957.
- ^ Bronk Ramsey, Christopher; Higham, Thomas; Bowles, Angela; Hedges, Robert (2004). "Improvements to the pretreatment of bone at Oxford". Radiocarbon. 46 (1): 155–163. doi:10.1017/S0033822200039473.
- ^ Jacobi, RM; Higham, TFG; Bronk Ramsey, C (2006). "AMS radiocarbon dating of Middle and Upper Palaeolithic bone in the British Isles: improved reliability using ultrafiltration". Journal of Quaternary Science. 21 (5): 557–573. Bibcode:2006JQS....21..557J. doi:10.1002/jqs.1037. S2CID 128613381.
- ^ Higham, TFG; Jacobi, RM; Bronk Ramsey, C (2006). "AMS Radiocarbon Dating of Ancient Bone Using Ultrafiltration". Radiocarbon. 48 (2): 179–195. doi:10.1017/S0033822200066388.
- ^ Jacobi, RM; Higham, TFG (2008). "The 'Red Lady' ages gracefully: new ultrafiltration AMS determinations from Paviland". Journal of Human Evolution. 55 (5): 898–907. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2008.08.007. PMID 18929395.
- ^ Higham, T; et al. (2011). "The earliest evidence for anatomically modern humans in northwestern Europe". Nature. 479 (7374): 521–4. Bibcode:2011Natur.479..521H. doi:10.1038/nature10484. PMID 22048314. S2CID 4374023.
- ^ Higham, TFG; et al. (2014). "The timing and spatiotemporal patterning of Neanderthal disappearance". Nature. 512 (7514): 306–309. Bibcode:2014Natur.512..306H. doi:10.1038/nature13621. hdl:1885/75138. PMID 25143113. S2CID 205239973.
- ^ "PalaeoChron Project". PalaeoChron Project.
- ^ Henriques, Martha (6 September 2017). "Vindija Cave wasn't where humans and Neanderthals had their fling after all". International Business Times UK. Retrieved 25 February 2018.
- ^ Silva-Velazquez, Yuri (26 April 2017). "Relics researchers feature in new CNN series". Keble College. Archived from the original on 26 February 2018. Retrieved 25 February 2018.
- ^ "Centenary cohort of Fellows announced". Royal Society of New Zealand. 1 November 2018. Retrieved 21 November 2018.