NewsNext Previous

The director of IPHES-CERCA and professor at the URV comments on the work of three referents in African prehistory

In just a few months the fields of African Palaeoanthropology and Archaeology have lost three outstanding figures: Marcello Piperno, Richard Leakey and, last week, Yves Coppens. The three of them have extensively contributed to the great history of the East African research for hominin evolution. Either in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania they planned research, organised complex teams and trained several generations of researchers: a vast legacy! In the case of Richard Leakey, beyond the research at Olduvai with his parents or his own project at Koobi Fora where he made some of the major discoveries on human evolution, it is well known his commitment with the preservation of natural life, a devotion that made him a target for the animal dealers, making him an even more outstanding figure. I never met him!

On the contrary, I had the chance to meet Marcello many times in Paris, Rome, and specially, in Notarchirico. I was even honoured to be invited once at his home in Rome. Notarchirico is the Acheulean site to which he devoted large part of his work, in parallel to his research at Melka Kunture. The first is among the oldest Acheulean sites in Europe and points to a crucial shift in the human peopling of Europe while the latter is one of the more significant sites in East Africa to reconstruct the evolution of human technology.

Marcello Piperno, along with Marilena Leis, Giorgio Manzi and Robert Sala at Institut de Paléontologie Humaine in Paris on 2014. © Carlo Peretto

Yves Coppens was at IPHES three years ago, six months before the spread of the pandemic, which now seems to be a long time ago.

Yves Coppens at IPHES awarding Malebogo Mvimi along with Sarah Mothulatshipi, Anne-Marie Semah, Innocent Pikirayi, David Pleurdeau and Ethel Allué. © Élodie Brisset

Yves Coppens lecture at IPHES. © Deborah Barsky

He came to be a member of the PhD defence jury of Malebogo Mvimi and also agreed on giving us a lecture on his life-long research in Africa. He lectured on his project at Hadar, its outstanding results and how the comprehension on the hominin evolution has changed since his inception of the East Side Story up to the advances made in the recent years. It was a great opportunity for all of IPHES staff and for our Master and doctoral students.

Today, all of them have passed away, but their work and memory remain.