Christian A. Tryon

Department Head

Professor

Department of Anthropology

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Education

• Ph.D. (with distinction), Anthropology, U. of Connecticut, Storrs, 2003
• M.A., Anthropology, U. of Connecticut, Storrs, 2000
• B.A. (Honors), Anthropology and English, cum laude, U. of Connecticut, Storrs, 1996

Research Interests

The archaeological, evolutionary, and geological context of early Homo sapiens, biogeography, human dispersals across and out of Africa, the Paleolithic/Stone Age archaeology of East Africa (Kenya/Tanzania) and the Mediterranean basin (France, Turkey, Israel, Lebanon, and Itlay), stone tool technology and raw material provenance analysis, geochronology, geochemical analysis and correlation of volcanic ash deposits using an electron microprobe, natural and cultural formation processes of the archeological record, and the use of archives to understand the past.

Publications

(2020) Niespolo, E.; Sharp, W.; Tryon, C.A.; Faith, J.T.; Lewis, J.; Ranhorn, K.; Mambelli, S.; Miller, M.; Dawson, T.E. Carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen isotopes of ostrich eggshells provide site-scale Pleistocene-Holocene paleoenvironmental records for eastern African archaeological sites. Quaternary Science Reviews 230:106142.

(2020) Beverley, E.J.; White, J.D.; Peppe, D.J.; Faith, J.T.; Blegen, N.; Tryon, C.A. Rapid Pleistocene desiccation and the future of Africa’s Lake Victoria. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 530: 115883.

(2019) Tryon, C.A.  The Middle/Later Stone Age transition and cultural dynamics of Late Pleistocene East Africa. Evolutionary Anthropology 28: 267-282.

(2019) Tryon, C.A.; Metz, L. Archaeological evidence for human dispersals around the Mediterranean basin? Evolutionary Anthropology 28: 233-235.

(2019) Sharp, W.D.; Tryon, C.A.; Niespolo, E.M.; Fylstra, N.D.; Tripathy-Lang, A.; Faith, J.T. ²³⁰U/Th burial dating of ostrich eggshell. Quaternary Science Reviews 219:263-276.

(2019) Will, M.; Tryon, C.A.; Shaw, M.; Scerri, E.; Ranhorn, K.; Pargeter, J.; McNeil, J.; Mackay, A.; Leplongeon, A.; Groucutt, H.; Douze, K.; Brooks, A. Comparative analysis of Middle Stone Age artefacts in Africa. Evolutionary Anthropology 28:57-59.

(2019) Ekshtain, R.; Tryon, C.A. Lithic raw material acquisition and use by early Homo sapiens at Skhul, Israel. Journal of Human Evolution 127: 149-170.

(2019) Ranhorn, K.; Tryon, C.A. New Pleistocene radiocarbon dates from Nasera rockshelter, Tanzania. Journal of African Archaeology 16:211-222.

(2018) Tryon, C.A.; Lewis, J.E.; Ranhorn, K.; Kwekason, A.; Eckhardt, C.; Laird, M.; Marean, C.W.; Nivens, J.; Mabulla, A. Middle and Later Stone Age chronology of Kisese II rockshelter, Kondoa Rock-Art UNESCO World Heritage Center, Tanzania.  PLOS One 13(2):e0192029.

(2018) Potts, R.; Behrensmeyer, A.K.; Faith, J.T.; Tryon, C.A.; Brooks, A.S.; Yellen, J.; Deino, A.; Kinyanjui, R.; Clark, J.; Haradon, C.; Levin, N.E.; Meijer, H.J.M.; Veatch, E.G.; Owen, R.B.; Renaut, R. Environmental dynamics during the onset of the Middle Stone Age in eastern Africa. Science 360: 86-90.

(2018) Frahm, E.; Tryon, C.A. Later Stone Age toolstone acquisition in the Central Rift Valley of Kenya: Portable XRF of Eburran obsidian artifacts from Leakey’s excavations at Gamble’s Cave II. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 18:475-486.

(2017) Blegen, N.; Faith, J.T.; Mant-Melville, A.; Peppe, D.J.; Tryon, C.A. The Middle Stone Age after 50,000 years ago: New evidence from the Late Pleistocene sediments of the Eastern Lake Victoria Basin, Western Kenya. Paleoanthropology 2017:139-169.

(2017) Lowe, D.J.; Pearce, N.J.G.; Kuehn, S.C.; Tryon, C.A.; Hayward, C. Correlating tephras and cryptotephras using compositional analyses and numerical and statistical methods: Review and evaluation. Quaternary Science Reviews 175:1-44.