Chris Clarkson's archaeological research is mainly directed at understanding past human behaviour through the study of stone artefacts. He has research projects in Australia, India, Africa and France that all seek to further develop our understanding of Palaeolithic human behaviour, settlement and subsistence via the study of lithic technology.
He completed his undergraduate and Honours degrees in archaeology in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology (now the School of Social Science) at the University of Queensland in 1995.
In 2004, Chris received his PhD in the School of Anthropology and Archaeology at the Australian National University on the topic of long-term technological change in Wardaman Country, Northern Territory.
Chris undertook a postdoctoral fellowship in the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies at the University of Cambridge. In 2005 he returned to the School of Social Science to begin a second Postdoctoral Fellowship looking at Palaeolithic core technologies between Africa and Australia.
He also began work with Dr Peter Hiscock on an ARC Discovery grant to investigate the technological and cognitive capabilities of Neanderthals in SW France. Chris has since worked on ARC and British funded projects investigating the effects of the Toba Super Erruption on hominin populations in India, and the dispersal of modern humans from Africa to Australia.
Chris is now an ARC Future Fellow and Professor in the School of Social Science and teach lithic technology, ancient technologies, and Australian archaeology.
