Zenobia JACOBS

Research Interests

• Development of optically stimulated luminescence dating techniques for individual sand grains
• Extending the age range of luminescence dating of quartz
• Timing of the anatomical and behavioural origins of Homo sapiens in Africa and their dispersal ‘Out of Africa’
• Quaternary environmental change and its impact on the evolution and dispersal of Homo sapiens

Representative Publications

Jacobs, Z., Roberts, R.G., Galbraith, R.F., Deacon, H.J., Grün, R., Mackay, A., Mitchell, P., Vogelsang, R., Wadley, L. (2008). Ages for the Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa: Implications for Human Behaviour and Dispersal. Science 322, 733-735. (PDF reprint of this paper, abstract or full text)

Jacobs, Z., Roberts, R.G. (2008). Testing times: old and new chronologies for the Howieson’s Poort and Still Bay industries in environmental context. South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series 10, 8-33.

Jacobs, Z. (2008). Luminescence chronologies for coastal and marine sediments. Boreas 37, 508-535.

Turney, C.S.M., Flannery, T.F., Roberts, R.G., Reid, C., Fifield, L.K., Higham, T.F.G., Jacobs, Z., Kemp, N., Colhoun, E.A., Kalin, R.M., Ogle, N. (2008). Late-surviving megafauna in Tasmania, Australia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 105, 12150-12153.

Jacobs, Z., Wintle, A.G., Duller, G.A.T., Roberts, R.G., Wadley, L. (2008). New ages for the post-Howiesons Poort, late and final Middle Stone Age at Sibudu, South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science 35, 1790-1807.

Jacobs, Z., Wintle, A.G., Roberts, R.G., Duller, G.A.T. (2008). Equivalent dose distributions from single grains of quartz at Sibudu, South Africa: context, causes and consequences for optical dating of archaeological deposits. Journal of Archaeological Science 35, 1808-1820.

Marean, C.W., Bar-Matthews, M., Bernatchez, J., Fisher, E., Goldberg, P., Herries, A.I.R., Jacobs, Z., Herardino, A., Karkanas, P., Minichillo, T., Nilssen, P.J., Thompson, E., Watts, I., Williams, H. (2007). Early human use of marine resources and pigment in South Africa during the Middle Pleistocene. Nature 449, 905-908.

Jacobs, Z., Roberts, R.G. (2007). Advances in optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of individual grains of quartz from archaeological deposits. Evolutionary Anthropology 16, 210-223.

Turney, C. S., Roberts, R. G. & Jacobs, Z. (2006). Progress and pitfalls in radiocarbon dating. Nature, 443 E3.

Henshilwood, C. S., d'Errico, F., Vanhaeren, M., Van Niekerk, K. & Jacobs, Z. (2004). Middle Stone Age shell beads from South Africa. Science 304 404.

Henshilwood, C. S., d'Errico, F., Yates, R., Jacobs, Z., Tribolo, C., Duller, G. A., Mercier, N., Sealy, J. C., Valladas, H., Watts, I. & Wintle, A. G. (2002). Emergence of modern human behavior: Middle Stone Age engravings from South Africa. Science 295 1278-1280.

Searchable Publication List

Current Students

Luke Gliganic: PhD - The Stone Age Archaeological record of Africa: Geochronology and Environmental Change

Siti Aishah Ar. Azmi: PhD – Luminescence Investigations of Malaysian Archaeological Sites

Christina Neudorf: PhD – Monsoons and Migrations: Quaternary Climates, Landscapes and Human Prehistory of the Indian Subcontinent

Abbreviated CV

2006-present: Research Fellow, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong

2005: Senior Researcher, Council for Science and Industrial Research, Pretoria, South Africa

2004: Researcher, Council for Science and Industrial Research, South Africa

2004: University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Dyfed, United Kingdom, PhD in Geography

2000: Research Assistant, Department of Archaeology, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

1999: University of Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa, B.A. (Honours) in Archaeology

1998: University of Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa, B.A. in Archaeology and Geography and Environmental Sciences