Dr. Yonatan Sahle is an archaeologist. He specializes in Middle Stone Age cultures, and examines these mainly in the Rift Valley of Ethiopia. This period, and geography, is important in understanding the origin and dispersal of our species.
Dr. Sahle is currently involved in the study of Late Pleistocene adaptive behavior in the Middle Awash research area (Afar Rift, Ethiopia) where he collaborates in testing hypotheses about the role of culture in shaping critical events, such as the modern human Out-of-Africa dispersal. He is a research group leader at the center.
| Educational Background | |
| 2013 – 2015 | Postdoc, Human Evolution Research Center, University of California, Berkeley |
| 2009 – 2013 | Ph.D. in Archaeology, University of Cape Town |
| 2006 – 2008 | M.A. in Archaeology, Addis Ababa University |
| 2000 – 2004 | B.Ed. in History, Alemaya University, Ethiopia |
| Field Research Experience | |
| 2010 – present | Middle Awash Research Project, Afar Rift, Ethiopia |
| 2010 – 2013 | Gademotta Formation, Main Ethiopian Rift |
| 2012 – 2013 | Ledi‑Geraru Research Project, Afar Rift, Ethiopia |
| 2010 | Koobi Fora Field School, East Turkana, Kenya |
| 2010 | Elandsfontein, Western Cape, South Africa |
| 2007 | Mochena Borago Rockshelter, southwestern Ethiopia |
| Research Grants | |
| 2015 - 2016 | Leakey Foundation (post-Ph.D. research grant) |
| 2014 | Wenner-Gren Foundation (post-Ph.D. research grant) |
| 2013 | Paleontological Scientific Trust (publication grant) |
| 2012 – 2013 | Wenner-Gren Foundation (dissertation write-up grant) |
| 2010 - 2012 | Paleontological Scientific Trust (fieldwork grants) |
| 2009 – 2012 | Wenner-Gren Foundation (Wadsworth doctoral fellowship grant) |
| Professional Membership | |
| Society of Africanist Archaeologists Society for American Archaeology East African Association of Paleontology & Paleoanthropology |
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| Academic Reviewer | |
| Quaternary International Journal Paleoanthropology Journal American Antiquity The Leakey Foundation The National Science Foundation of the USA |
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| Papers in Peer-Reviewed Journals | |
| 2018 | Sahle Y, Reyes-Centeno H, Bentz C. Modern human origins and dispersal: current state of knowledge and future directions. Evolutionary Anthropology 27: 64-67. |
| Sahle Y. Eastern African Stone Age. Oxford Encyclopedia of Anthropology. | |
| 2017 | Sahle Y, S El Zaatari, TW White Hominid butchers and biting crocodiles in the African Plio–Pleistocene. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/10/31/1716317114.full |
| Sahle Y, A Beyin . Archaeological reconnaissance of the Late Pleistocene Red Sea coast in the Danakil (Afar, Ethiopia). Antiquity 91, 1-6. | |
| Sahle Y, DR Braun . A reply to Douze and Delagnes's 'The pattern of emergence of a Middle Stone Age tradition at Gademotta and Kulluletti (Ethiopia) through convergent tool and point technologies'. Journal of Human Evolution (2016) 91, 93-121. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2016.10.005 | |
| Shackley M, Y Sahle Geochemical characterization of four Quaternary obsidian sources and provenance of obsidian artifacts from the Middle Stone Age of Gademotta, Main Ethiopian Rift. Geoarchaeology: An International Journal 32, 302-310. | |
| 2016 | Sahle Y, A Negash. An ethnographic experiment of endscraper curation rate among Hadiya hideworkers, Ethiopia. Lithic Technology 41, 154-163 DOI:10.1179/2051618515Y.0000000022 |
| 2014 | Sahle Y, LE Morgan, DR Braun, B Atnafu, WK Hutchings. Chronological and behavioral contexts of the earliest Middle Stone Age in the Gademotta Formation, Main Ethiopian Rift. Quaternary International 331: 6-19. |
| 2013 | Sahle Y, WK Hutchings, DR Braun, JC Sealy, LE Morgan, A Negash, B Atnafu. Earliest stone-tipped projectiles from the Ethiopian Rift date to >279,000 years ago. PLoS One. 8(11) e78092. News National Geographic Sciencenews.org |
| 2012 | Sahle Y, A Negash, DR Braun. Variability in ethnographic hidescraper use among the Hadiya of Ethiopia: Implications for reduction analysis. African Archaeological Review 29 (4): 383-397. |
| Gossa T, Y Sahle, A Negash. A reassessment of the Middle and Later Stone Age lithic assemblages from Aladi Springs, Southern Afar Rift, Ethiopia. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 47 (2): 210-222. | |
| 2011 | González-Ruibal A, Y Sahle, XA Villa. A Social Archaeology of colonial war in Ethiopia. World Archaeology 43 (1): 40-56. |
| Published Abstracts, Talks, Documentaries |
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| 2016 | Netflix Original. Into the Inferno. By Werner Herzog. Y Sahle as himself Netflix |
| The Science of Human Evolution in Africa. American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) symposium. Washington, DC. | |
| SA Brandt, Y Sahle, H Groucutt (2016). Parting the Red Sea: Late Pleistocene lithic variability and human dispersals in the Horn of Africa and Arabia. The SAA 81st Annual Meeting | |
| Sahle Y, Y Beyene, Late Pleistocene Behaviors: Perspectives from the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. Abstracts of the SAA 81st Annual Meeting | |
| 2015 | Sahle Y Assessment of projectile use at Aduma (Middle Awash, Ethiopia). Abstracts of the SAA 80th Annual Meeting, sp. 860. |
| 2014 | BBC Two. Human Universe: Apeman–Spaceman (BBC TWO). By Brian Cox. Y Sahle as himself. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0276pc3 |
| Sahle Y, DR Braun, JC Sealy Technological Behavior in the Middle Stone Age of the Gademotta Fm., Ethiopia: Insights from the Levallois method. Abstracts of the SAA 79th Annual Meeting, Austin, TX, p. 659. |
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| M Kay, Sahle Y, J Kappelman, L Todd Ethiopian MSA production chains early and late: Gademotta, Aduma, and Shinfa. Abstracts of the SAA 79th Annual Meeting, Austin, TX, p. 386. | |
| 2011 | Sahle Y, DR Braun The context of early Middle Stone Age occupations in the Main Ethiopian Rift: Renewed excavations at Gademotta. Paleoanthropology Society Meeting Abstracts, Minneapolis, MN. p. A33. |