Radu Iovita
· Associate Professor of Anthropology | Director, Anthrotopography Lab, NYU | Principal Investigator, PALAEOSILKROADNew York University · Anthropology
Active 2004–2026
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About
Radu Iovita is a faculty member associated with the Anthrotopography Laboratory at NYU. His research focuses on the material traces of human action at both microscopic and landscape scales. He investigates how ancient landscapes and environments influenced past human migrations and how prehistoric people employed simple technologies to adapt to diverse environments. His current landscape-scale projects utilize remote sensing and geoarchaeological methods to explore the role of Central Asian mountain foothills in connecting various parts of Asia during the Stone Age, exemplified by the PALAEOSILKROAD and Maibulak Projects. At the microscopic level, his work involves characterizing use-traces through controlled experiments to reconstruct the evolution of hominin gesture and motor control, as seen in the RoboCut Project. He is involved in projects such as RoboCut, PALEOSILKROAD, and Maibulak Excavations in Kazakhstan. His technical expertise includes microscopy, sample preparation, and software for photogrammetry and 3D topography analyses. Interested students are encouraged to contact him for access to equipment and collaboration.
Selected publications
A Synthesis of the Dibble et al. Controlled Experiments into the Mechanics of Lithic Production
Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory · 2022-11-01 · 36 citations
articleOpen accessAbstract Archaeologists have explored a wide range of topics regarding archaeological stone tools and their connection to past human lifeways through experimentation. Controlled experimentation systematically quantifies the empirical relationships among different flaking variables under a controlled and reproducible setting. This approach offers a platform to generate and test hypotheses about the technological decisions of past knappers from the perspective of basic flaking mechanics. Over the…
Science Advances · 2024-02-21 · 25 citations
articleOpen accessis known to have made compound adhesives from naturally sticky substances and ochre, a technical behavior proposed to mark the advent of elaborate cognitive processes in our species. Foragers of the European Middle Paleolithic also used glues, but evidence of ochre-based compound adhesives is unknown. Here, we present evidence of this kind. Bitumen was mixed with high loads of goethite ochre to make compound adhesives at the type-site of the Mousterian, Le Moustier (France). Ochre loads were so…
Operationalizing niche construction theory with stone tools
Evolutionary Anthropology Issues News and Reviews · 2021-01-01 · 21 citations
reviewOpen access1st authorCorrespondingOne of the greatest difficulties with evolutionary approaches in the study of stone tools (lithics) has been finding a mechanism for tying culture and biology in a way that preserves human agency and operates at scales that are visible in the archaeological record. The concept of niche construction, whereby organisms actively construct their environments and change the conditions for selection, could provide a solution to this problem. In this review, we evaluate the utility of niche constructio…
LUWA Dataset: Learning Lithic Use-Wear Analysis on Microscopic Images
2024-06-16 · 5 citations
articleLithic Use-Wear Analysis (LUWA) using microscopic images is an underexplored vision-for-science research area. It seeks to distinguish the worked material, which is critical for understanding archaeological artifacts, material interactions, tool functionalities, and dental records. However, this challenging task goes beyond the well-studied image classification problem for common objects. It is affected by many confounders owing to the complex wear mechanism and microscopic imaging, which makes…
LUWA Dataset: Learning Lithic Use-Wear Analysis on Microscopic Images
arXiv (Cornell University) · 2024-03-19 · 4 citations
preprintOpen accessLithic Use-Wear Analysis (LUWA) using microscopic images is an underexplored vision-for-science research area. It seeks to distinguish the worked material, which is critical for understanding archaeological artifacts, material interactions, tool functionalities, and dental records. However, this challenging task goes beyond the well-studied image classification problem for common objects. It is affected by many confounders owing to the complex wear mechanism and microscopic imaging, which makes…
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