Staff
Arroyo, Adrián
Researcher
E-mail: aarroyo@iphes.cat
Web: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5850-0847
Sponsor: Excelencia María de Maeztu (CEX2019-000945-M) - Agencia Estatal de Investigación
I am a broadly trained Palaeolithic archaeologist. During my pre-doctoral studies, I worked at different institutions. In 2011, I joined University College London (2011-2014) while concurrently completing my doctoral research at Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, working also as a Research Assistant at the CNRS (UMR 7055, 2014-2015). Then, after defending my PhD in 2015 I, was appointed at UCL as Research Associate (2016).
My fieldwork experience has been focused mainly in Spain (excavating at the Buendía´s rockshelter) and in East Africa, where I collaborated on projects in Ethiopia (Mieso), Tanzania (Olduvai Gorge) and Kenya (West Turkana).
My current research focuses on stone tool functional analysis, and particularly the study of Early Stone Age pounding tools and their comparison with tools used by extant primates (mainly chimpanzees) in order to define the role of percussive activities in human evolution and in the emergence of stone flaking. Besides, my upcoming research plans include the use of techniques to explore the cognitive underpinnings involved on the use of pounding tools.
Selected publications:
Arroyo, A. Torre, I. de la (2018). Pounding tools in HWK EE and EF-HR (Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania): percussive activities in the Oldowan-Acheulean transition. Journal of Human Evolution, 120: 402-421.
Benito-Calvo, A., Arroyo, A., Sánchez-Romero, L., Pante, M., Torre, I. de la (2018). Quantifying 3D micro-surface changes on experimental stones used to break bones and their implications to the analysis of Early Stone Age pounding tools. Archaeometry, 60 (3): 419-436 doi: 10.1111/arcm.12325.
Arroyo, A., Hirata, S., Matsuzawa, T., Torre, I. de la. (2016). Nut cracking tools used by captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and their comparison with Early Stone Age percussive artefacts from Olduvai Gorge. Plos One 11 (11): e0166788. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0166788.
Arroyo, A., Torre, I. de la (2016). Assessing the function of pounding tools in the Early Stone Age: A microscopic approach to the analysis of percussive artefacts from Beds I and II, Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania). Journal of Archaeological Science, 74: 23-34.
Harmand, S., Lewis, J. E., Feibel, C. S., Lepre, C. J., Prat, S., Lenoble, A., Boës, X., Quinn, R. L., Brenet, M., Arroyo, A., Taylor, N., Clement, S., Daver, G., Brugal, J.-P., Leakey, L., Kent, D. V., Mortlock, R. A., Wright, D., Roche, H. (2015). Before the Oldowan: 3.3Ma Stone tools from Lomekwi 3, West Turkana, Kenya. Nature, 521 (7552): 310-315.