CHRISTIAN
TRYON
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Dr.
Tryon in the National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi |
Position: Assistant
Professor of Anthropology
Education: B.A.
1996, University of Connecticut
M.A.
2000,
University of Connecticut
Ph.D.
2003, University of Connecticut
E-mail: christian.tryon@nyu.edu
Phone: 212-992-7475
Research
Sites: Kapthurin
Formation, Kenya;
Kapedo
Tuffs, Kenya;
Olorgesailie
Formation, Kenya;
Wasiriya Beds, Kenya;
Kaletepe
Deresi 3, Turkey
Courses Taught: Undergraduate—Archaeology: Early Societies and Culture; Paleolithic
Archaeology
Graduate—The Archaeology of Modern Human Origins; Lithic Technology
Research Focus: I
employ archaeological and geological methods to explore
the behavioral evolution of Middle and Later Pleistocene hominins
and the origin of Homo sapiens. As a Paleolithic archaeologist,
I am a specialist in the analysis of stone tools, and am particularly
interested in the origins and diversification of Levallois technology,
associated with early populations of Homo sapiens in Africa
and with Neanderthals in Eurasia. Interpreting the behavior of
extinct hominin populations often requires a geological perspective.
I focus on reconstructing site formation processes, stone raw material
source attribution by petrographic or geochemical means, and using
volcanic ashes as stratigraphic markers on the basis of their geochemical ‘fingerprint.’ This
compositional signature is determined by micro-scale quantitative
analyses of volcanic ash (composed of fragments of rapidly quenched
magma, or glass) using an electron microprobe.
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Dr.
Tryon and Matthew Eregae Macharawas (co-discoverer of
the first fossil chimpanzee),
Kapedo Tuffs, Kenya |
My
field research has focused on the survey and excavation of ~700,000
to 100,000 year old sites in the Rift Valley of Kenya, and as
a collaborator in a project in the Central Anatolian
Volcanic Province of Turkey. In both areas, Acheulian and Middle
Stone Age/Middle Paleolithic artifacts and volcanic ashes are
locally abundant. In Kenya, this research has been important
in establishing the mode and tempo of behavioral evolution
during and immediately preceding the appearance of Homo
sapiens; in Turkey
it has provided further age estimates for the only excavated
Acheulian site in Anatolia. In addition to the Paleolithic
of Eurasia and Africa, my research interests include the African
Holocene archaeological record and the late prehistory and
history of New England.
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More
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Downloadable
CV
Recent
and Selected Publications:
- Watson, J., Tryon, C., Vicéns, M., in press. Faster and more accurate processing of samples for microtephrochronology. Proceedings of the 37th International Symposium on Archaeometry, Siena, Italy.
- Tryon, C.A., in press. How the geological record affects our reconstructions of Middle Stone Age settlement patterns: The case of alluvial fans in Baringo, Kenya. In (N. Conard & A. Delagnes, eds.) Settlement Dynamics of the Middle Paleolithic & Middle Stone Age, Volume III. Tübingen: Kerns Verlag.
- Tryon, C.A. & Potts, R., in press. Approaches for understanding flake production in the African Acheulean. In (G. Tostevin, ed.) Reduction Sequence, Chaîne Opératoire, and Other Methods: The Epistemologies of Different Approaches to Lithic Analysis. New York: Springer.
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Tryon, C.A., Logan, M.A.V., Mouralis, D., Kuhn, S.L., Slimak, L., Balkan-Atli, N., 2009. Building a tephrostratigraphic framework for the Paleolithic of Central Anatolia, Turkey. Journal of Archaeological Science 36:637-652.
- Tryon,
C.A.,
Roach, N.T., Logan, M.A.V., 2008. The Middle Stone Age of
the northern Kenyan Rift: Age and context of new archaeological
sites from the Kapedo Tuffs. Journal of Human Evolution 55:652-664.
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Tryon, C.A., 2006. ‘Early’ Middle Stone Age lithic technology of the Kapthurin Formation (Kenya). Current Anthropology 47:367-375.
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Tryon, C.A. & McBrearty, S., 2006. Tephrostratigraphy of the Bedded Tuff Member
(Kapthurin Formation, Kenya) and the nature of archaeological change in the later Middle Pleistocene. Quaternary Research 65:492-507.
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McBrearty, S. & Tryon, C.A., 2006. From Acheulian to Middle Stone Age in the Kapthurin Formation, Kenya. In (E. Hovers & S. Kuhn, eds) Transitions before the Transition. New York: Springer, pp. 257-277.
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Tryon, C.A., 2006. Investigating the destructive potential of earthworms for the
archaeobotanical record. Journal of Field Archaeology 31:199-202.
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Tryon, C.A., 2006. Le concept Levallois en Afrique. Annales Fyssen 20:132-145.
- Tryon,
C.A., McBrearty, S. & Texier, P.-J., 2005. Levallois lithic technology
from the Kapthurin Formation, Kenya: Acheulian origin and Middle Stone
Age diversity. African Archaeological Review 22:199-229.
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Thorson, R.M. & Tryon, C.A., 2003. Bluff-top sand sheets in northeastern archaeology: A physical transport model and application to the Neville Site, Amoskeag Falls, New Hampshire. In (D.L. Cremeens & J. Hart, eds) Geoarchaeology of Landscapes in the Glaciated Northeast. Albany:NY State Museum Bulletin 497, pp.61-73.
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Tryon, C.A. & McBrearty, S., 2002. Tephrostratigraphy and the Acheulian to Middle Stone Age transition in the Kapthurin Formation, Kenya. Journal of Human Evolution 42:211-235.
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Tryon, C.A. & Philpotts, A.R., 1997. Possible sources of mylonite and hornfels debitage from the Cooper Site, Lyme, Connecticut. Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of Connecticut 60:3-12.
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