Short Biography
Ron Pinhasi has a primary degree in archaeology from Simon Fraser University, Canada, followed by masters training in Eastern Mediterranean archaeology at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. In 2003 he was awarded a PhD. in biological anthropology, from the University of Cambridge, UK. Prior to his appointment to UCC in 2007, he lectured for three years in School of Human & Life Sciences, University of Roehampton, London.
His research interests include the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition in the Transcaucasus, the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in Europe, and the evolution and dispersal of early Holocene populations. He also works on variability in human growth and development in past populations in relation to nutritional and infectious disease, as well as epidemiological, biomolecular, and morphological analysis of the origin and spread of leprosy and tuberculosis
Current Research
Current projects include research on the demise of the Neanderthals and the appearance of modern Homo sapiens sapiens in the Transcaucasus. He is director of the Hovk Prehistoric Project, an international project which focuses on excavations and surveys that shed more light on the timing and nature of the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition in the Transcaucasus in the broader context of Neanderthal extinction and modern human dispersals in Eurasia.
The project involves surveys, test excavations and excavation of several caves and open-air sites in the Tavush region, southeast Armenia and Vayots Dzor region, southern Armenia. He is also working on the construction of a chronometric archaeological sequence for Late Pleistocene hominin occupation in the Caucasus. The principal objective of the project is to develop chronometrically dated regional archaeological sequences Middle and early Upper Palaeolithic of the Caucasus (~125-30 ka) and to date all available hominin fossils that are associated with archaeological finds from this temporal phase. Other projects include an investigation of the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition, demic diffusion, and dispersals in the Near East and Europe. This includes research on the origins and spread of agriculture in the Near East and Europe, as well as a study of spatio-temporal dynamics and phylogenetic affinities of early Mesolithic European populations. He is also collaborating on a a cross-disciplinary investigation of the biocultural, functional and archaeogenetic aspects of the Neolithic process in human societies from the Levant and Danube Gorges regions. He has a specialist interest in human palaeopathology and is researching the antiquity of leprosy, as well as a study of the origin and spread of tuberculosis.