About

Justin Pargeter is a faculty member associated with the African Paleosciences Laboratory at NYU. His research focuses on studying the behavioral, cognitive, and biological bases of toolmaking to understand human evolutionary history and behavioral variability. The laboratory's work primarily concentrates on southern African Pleistocene technologies, utilizing lithic analysis of archaeological specimens, experimental production of stone tools, and measurements of motor action and social learning related to toolmaking. Justin Pargeter oversees projects that involve fieldwork such as the P5 Pondoland Project and the Cango Valley Archaeology and Paleoscape Project (CAPP). He is also involved in facilitating research activities, providing access to laboratory equipment, and supporting graduate and undergraduate students interested in paleoanthropological and archaeological research.

Research topics

• Archaeology
• Geography
• Sociology
• Psychology
• Paleontology
• Biology
• Geology
• Demography
• Ecology

Selected publications

• Pargeter et al. response to Vaesen & Hussain (2026), American Antiquity

  OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) · 2026-03-18

  other1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• Earliest evidence for intentional cremation of human remains in Africa

  Science Advances · 2026-01-01 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  Human cremation on an open pyre demands intensive labor, communal resources, and sensory exposures. We report the earliest evidence for intentional cremation in Africa, the oldest in situ adult pyre in the world, and one of only a few associated with hunter-gatherers. A large cremation feature at Hora 1 in Malawi dates to ~9500 years ago and contains the remains of a small, gracile adult with evidence for perimortem defleshing and postcremation manipulation. Subsequent revisiting of the site to build fires in the same place provided additional pyrotechnological spectacles. High-resolution, multiproxy reconstruction of the ritual associated with cremation and its subsequent deposition demonstrates complex mortuary practices among ancient African foraging groups with substantial social investment and use of natural landscape features as persistent mortuary monuments.

  PublisherDOI

• Signaling Shifts and Economic Defensibility at Boomplaas Cave, South Africa

  Archaeometry · 2025-12-30

  article1st author

  ABSTRACT This study tests predictions of the Economic Defensibility Model (EDM) regarding the relationship between resource density and distribution, as well as signaling behavior among Late Pleistocene foragers. The EDM proposes that territorial signaling intensifies when resources are dense and predictable, as the benefits of broadcasting group membership and maintaining alliances outweigh signaling costs. We evaluate this model using data from Boomplaas Cave, South Africa, with deposits spanning the Last Glacial Maximum (29–19 ka) to the early Last Glacial–Interglacial Transition (19–14 ka). We examine proxies of signaling—ochre procurement and ostrich eggshell beads—relative to measures of resource density and predictability inferred from the site's faunal data. Results reveal a strong positive correlation between non‐local ochre use and ostrich eggshell bead production, while ostrich eggshell bead densities are negatively correlated with gregarious grazer abundance. Contrary to EDM predictions, explicit signaling and cultural material social mediation behaviors expand when dense, predictable prey decline. These findings suggest that signaling technologies at Boomplaas were not mechanisms of territorial defense over defensible resources but strategies for maintaining social networks and mitigating subsistence risk under reduced ecological productivity. The intensification of bead production and the use of non‐local ochre reflect social boundary defense and alliance‐building strategies during periods of resource unpredictability. By integrating behavioral ecology with costly signaling theory, this study highlights the adaptive role of material signaling in buffering risk and sustaining social cohesion during climatic and environmental transitions in Late Pleistocene southern Africa.

  PublisherDOI

• What can lithics tell us about hominin technology's ‘primordial soup’? An origin of stone knapping via the emulation of Mother Nature

  Archaeometry · 2025-03-15 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract The use of stone hammers to produce sharp stone flakes—knapping—is thought to represent a significant stage in hominin technological evolution because it facilitated the exploitation of novel resources, including meat obtained from medium‐to‐large‐sized vertebrates. The invention of knapping may have occurred via an additive (i.e., cumulative) process that combined several innovative stages. Here, we propose that one of these stages was the hominin use of ‘naturaliths,’ which we define as naturally produced sharp stone fragments that could be used as cutting tools. Based on a review of the literature and our own research, we first suggest that the ‘typical’ view, namely that sharp‐edged stones are seldom produced by nonprimate processes, is likely incorrect. Instead, naturaliths can be, and are being, endlessly produced in a wide range of settings and thus may occur on the landscape in far greater numbers than archaeologists currently understand or acknowledge. We then explore the potential role this ‘naturalith prevalence’ may have played in the origin of hominin stone knapping. Our hypothesis suggests that the origin of knapping was not a ‘Eureka!’ moment whereby hominins first made a sharp flake by intention or by accident and then sought something to cut, but instead was an emulative process by hominins aiming to reproduce the sharp tools furnished by mother nature and already in demand. We conclude with a discussion of several corollaries our proposal prompts, and several avenues of future research that can support or question our proposal.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Lithic analysis in African archaeology: Advances and key themes

  Archaeometry · 2025-01-15

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Stone artifacts (lithics) preserve for extended periods; thus they are key evidence for probing the evolution of human technological behaviors. Africa boasts the oldest record of stone artifacts, spanning 3.3 Ma, rare instances of ethnographic stone tool‐making, and stone tool archives from diverse ecological settings, making it an anchor for research on the long‐term temporal and spatial trends in human evolution. This paper reviews the application of scientific methods for studying African stone artifacts and highlights several popular research themes on the continent, including the origins of flaked stone technology, hunter‐gatherer mobility and landscape use, technological variability, function, biocultural evolution, and ancient human cognition. We conclude by outlining some key challenges to future lithic research in Africa.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Dental Microwear Texture Analysis of Extinct Pleistocene Caprin From South Africa Challenges Dietary Inferences and Paleoenvironmental Assumptions

  Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America · 2025-01-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Determining rainfall seasonality from high-resolution carbon isotope profiles in evergreen wood and charcoal

  Research Square · 2025-08-08

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Stone toolmaking energy expenditure differs between novice and expert toolmakers

  American Journal of Biological Anthropology · 2024-09-17 · 6 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  OBJECTIVES: This study investigates the energetic costs associated with Oldowan-style flake production and how skill differences influence these costs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Nine adult participants, including novice and expert toolmakers, underwent a 2-h experimental session where we measured energy expenditure and flaking outcomes. We measured body mass (kg), percent body fat, and fat-free mass (kg) and used open-circuit indirect calorimetry to quantify energy expenditure. The lithic analysis used standard linear and mass measurements on the resulting cores and flakes. Qualitative observations from the video recordings provide insight into the subject's body positions and hand grips. RESULTS: Results reveal significant differences in energy expenditure between novice and expert toolmakers, with experts demonstrating lower overall energy expenditure. Additionally, experts produced more flakes, reduced greater core mass per unit of energy expenditure, and exhibited distinct body positions, hand grips, and core/flake morphologies compared with novices. DISCUSSION: The study provides novel insights into the bio-cultural impacts of stone toolmaking skill acquisition, suggesting that skilled performance reduces the metabolic costs of stone tool production. These findings contribute to debates surrounding the origins of human cultural capacities and highlight the importance of including energy expenditure measures in knapping experiments. Moreover, the results suggest that the presence or absence of expertise in the Paleolithic would have fundamentally altered selective pressures and the reliability of skill reproduction. This study enhances our understanding of differences in stone toolmaking skill and their implications for human energy allocation strategies during early technological evolution.

  PublisherDOI

• Revisiting the current phyto-scape of Boomplaas Cave (South Africa) and the possible implications of this for past day-range foraging

  Azania Archaeological Research in Africa · 2024-06-05 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Boomplaas Cave in the Western Cape Province of South Africa is one of only a few African sites with inland archaeological deposits spanning Marine Isotope Stages 4–1. Work conducted half a century ago predicted Boomplaas to be a meagre plant-food location. We reassess this interpretation here by presenting updated lists of the current vegetation and foodplants growing within roughly a day's foraging distance from the cave. By doing so, we increase the known foodplant species potentially available to Stone Age foragers by 356% and show that almost all the plant species/genera in the Boomplaas archaeobotanical assemblage still grow within a day's range of the site. We present nutritional values for some of the plant foods, highlighting those richest in moisture, ash, protein, fat, fibre, carbohydrates and energy and suggesting that such foods may have been important staples in the dietary ecology of the Stone Age foragers who used the site. Lastly, we demonstrate that the Boomplaas Cave foodplant fitness landscape is relatively rich and varied compared to similar data from other Cape sites such as Klasies River Main Cave, Diepkloof Rock Shelter and Hollow Rock Shelter.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Late Pleistocene and Holocene fauna from Waterfall Bluff Rock Shelter, Mpondoland, South Africa

  South African Journal of Science · 2024-12-03

  articleOpen access

  Archaeological deposits from Waterfall Bluff Rock Shelter (Eastern Cape) span from Marine Isotope Stage 3 (~39–29 ka) to the mid-Holocene (~8 ka), showing persistent human occupations. The site’s consistent proximity to the shoreline and stable coastline over millennia makes it key for exploring human settlement patterns. This study reports on preliminary results of identifiable fauna from Marine Isotope Stage 3 to the Early Holocene layers at Waterfall Bluff. The identified species may suggest a mosaic environment, although caution is warranted given the small sample size. Furthermore, leopard seal remains were recovered in layers dating to the Last Glacial Maximum. This is the first direct evidence of a leopard seal recovered from Pleistocene and Holocene archaeo-faunal assemblages along the South African coast.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Functional Analysis of Lithic Artifacts

  NSF · $19k · 2021–2026

Frequent coauthors

• Erich C. Fisher

  University of Algarve

  46 shared

• Irene Esteban

  Nelson Mandela University

  35 shared

• Metin I. Eren

  Kent State University

  30 shared

• Hayley C. Cawthra

  Nelson Mandela University

  29 shared

• Peter Mitchell

  University of Oxford

  28 shared

• Huw S. Groucutt

  University of Malta

  20 shared

• Alex Mackay

  19 shared

• Alice Leplongeon

  KU Leuven

  16 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Anthropology

  Stony Brook University

  2017

• MA, Anthropology

  Stony Brook University

  2014

• M.Sc, Archaeology

  University of the Witwatersrand

  2009

• BSc. (Hons.), Archaeology

  University of the Witwatersrand

  2007

• BA, Archaeology

  University of the Witwatersrand

  2006