Stanley H. Ambrose

About

Stanley H. Ambrose is a professor in the Department of Anthropology at Illinois College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. His research interests encompass Africa archaeology, modern human origins, lithic technology, stable isotope ecology and paleoecology, evolution of human diet, and evolution of cooperation. He has contributed to investigating the chronology of the Middle Stone Age in East Africa through dating volcanic ashes in archaeological sites in the Kenya Rift Valley, collaborating with multiple institutions and researchers. His work also explores the impact of climate change on late Pleistocene human population history, including bottlenecks caused by the supereruption of Toba, and the evolution of social cooperation in response to environmental stresses. Ambrose's research extends to obsidian source surveys in Kenya, studying macro-regional exchange networks, and reconstructing early Ethiopian hominid environments using stable isotopes. He investigates the impact of glacial climate changes on human population refugia in Ethiopia and the relationship between the appearance of grasslands and human evolution. His laboratory is equipped for isotopic analysis of bones, teeth, soils, and other materials, supporting studies on pastoral management, subsistence strategies, and trade patterns across various regions. Ambrose's work is characterized by a multidisciplinary approach, integrating archaeological, geological, and paleoecological data to understand human origins and…

Research topics

• Geography
• Biology
• Ecology
• Archaeology
• Sociology
• Geochemistry
• Paleontology
• Geology
• Earth science
• Demography

Selected publications

• Ancient DNA and deep population structure in sub-Saharan African foragers

  Nature · 2022 · 159 citations

  . Here we present genome-wide ancient DNA data for six individuals from eastern and south-central Africa spanning the past approximately 18,000 years (doubling the time depth of sub-Saharan African ancient DNA), increase the data quality for 15 previously published ancient individuals and analyse these alongside data from 13 other published ancient individuals. The ancestry of the individuals in our study area can be modelled as a geographically structured mixture of three highly divergent sourc…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Spatial variation in bioavailable strontium isotope ratios (87Sr/86Sr) in Kenya and northern Tanzania: Implications for ecology, paleoanthropology, and archaeology

  Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology · 2020 · 39 citations

  PublisherDOI

• Early pastoral mobility and seasonality in Kenya assessed through stable isotope analysis

  Journal of Archaeological Science · 2020 · 31 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  DOI

• Social and environmental factors influencing dietary choices among Dawenkou culture sites, Late Neolithic China

  The Holocene · 2020 · 23 citations

  Archaeological cultures are commonly defined by typologies established from ceramic assemblages at sites dated to a relatively restricted timeframe and located in specific geographic regions. It is often assumed that cultural traditions, social organizations, and other aspects of lifeways were similar throughout the established cultural areas. However, variations in pottery assemblages, burial practices, house construction techniques, and subsistence strategies are observed among late Neolithic…

  PublisherDOI

• Strontium isoscapes for provenance, mobility and migration: the way forward

  Royal Society Open Science · 2025-06-01 · 16 citations

  reviewOpen access

  Strontium isotopes ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr) are increasingly used as a provenance tool in multiple disciplines. Application to biological materials requires knowledge of the variation in bioavailable 87 Sr/ 86 Sr across the landscape, potentially in the form of an isoscape (a quantitative model of spatial isotopic variability). This paper summarizes and provides advice on our current understanding of the main concerns in creating and interpreting isoscapes of bioavailable 87 Sr/ 86 Sr. Isoscape creation…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Chronology of the Middle and Later Stone Age in East Africa

  NSF · $238k · 2001–2006

Frequent coauthors

• Marie Balasse

  Archéozoologie et Archéobotanique

  22 shared

• Tim D. White

  16 shared

• Hong Wang

  15 shared

• F. D. Gnanam

  Anna University, Chennai

  14 shared

• P. Ramasamy

  Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering

  13 shared

• Andrew M. Zipkin

  Arizona State University

  12 shared

• Paul R. Renne

  Berkeley Geochronology Center

  11 shared

• Kristin M. Hedman

  Illinois Archaeological Survey

  11 shared

Similar researchers at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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• Rebecca M. Stumpfh-41
• Jessica R. Greenbergh-34