ASU School of Human Evolution and Social Change

What can we learn about human resilience from ancient campfires? Aylar Abdolahzadeh, postdoctoral research scholar in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, recently wrote about her experience collecting, analyzing and studying ancient fire traces from sites across Europe and Southwest Asia to better understand how our ancestors used, made and maintained fire as a skill or catalyst.

What she found was unexpected: despite our ancestors' adaptability across time and space, fire use depended on where people lived and what that environment offered in terms of climate and fuel. She says this suggests humans used a flexible set of strategies to survive, opposed to relying on a single skill or technology.

Read more on how Abdolahzadeh says that lesson still matters today:

Tracing the Legacy of Human Resilience in the Debris of Ancient Campfires | Platypus Tracing the Legacy of Human Resilience in the Debris of Ancient Campfires  Aylar Abdolahzadeh  June 8, 2026 این محتوا همچنین به زبان انگلیسی موجود است. Listen to a reading of this post.This browser does not support HTML5 audio In the summer of 2015, I w...

After 20 years of teaching and research breakthroughs, Michael Smith, professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, is retiring from ASU.

Smith’s contributions have left an indelible mark on our school, including his service as director of the Teotihuacan Research Laboratory for 10 years from 2015 to 2025. The Teo Lab saw numerous breakthroughs under his leadership resulting in a greater understanding of the ancient city.

We thank Smith for his service in teaching, research and mentorship to the SHESC community and wish him a happy retirement!

Read more about Smith’s lasting impact on ASU and the SHESC community here:

ASU professor, former research lab director retires after 20 years | ASU News When Michael Smith, professor at Arizona State University's School of Human Evolution and Social Change, read a book the summer after his freshman year of college at Brandeis University about the story of the lost city of Atlantis, he was intrigued.

Earlier this week, Eduardo Amorim, assistant professor in ASU’s School of Human Evolution and Social Change, joined host Ted Simons on “Arizona Horizons” to provide insight into new research that resulted in the largest genomic database on Indigenous peoples across the Americas.

Amorim, who is also a research scientist with the Institute of Human Origins, served as a co-author on the study alongside an international team led by the Institute of Evolutionary Biology with partners at the University of São Paulo.

In the interview, Amorim discusses the team’s research process, what they learned from their analysis, the importance of this new data and next steps for this research.

Watch the segment here:

ASU research studies genome of Indigenous Americans Research into the genome of Indigenous Americans identified more than 1 million genetic variants that had not been documented previously.

This month, the Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve and School of Human Evolution and Social Change wrapped up its first cohort of the P.A.S.T. Academy. P.A.S.T., which stands for Pathways in Archaeology, Science and Technology, is aimed at bringing together high school students from across the Valley who are interested in learning more about the science behind archaeology, as well as possible career paths in the field of anthropology.

Across four sessions, the students learned about archaeology, collections management and museum design from experts at SHESC, eventually putting their knowledge into practice. Students designed their own pottery, completed photogrammetry to create 3D renderings of their pottery and then smashed them to pieces to create their own mini museum exhibit to showcase the pottery and information they learned over the course of the camp.

With the first P.A.S.T. Academy successfully completed, the DVPP team is looking forward to the fall semester for their next offering, where they plan to expand the program from four to eight or nine sessions, allowing for richer topics and more time for hands-on exploration.

If you or someone you know might be interested in the P.A.S.T. Academy, visit the link below to learn more about the first cohort, as well as how to be contacted with updates on the upcoming session!

ASU’s Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve hosts first anthropology camp for high school students | ASU News It’s a bright, Saturday morning in north Phoenix as four high school students make their way into ASU’s Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve. But they weren’t there to walk the trail, visit the museum or learn about the thousands of petroglyphs left there by Indigenous ancestors over the last 5,000...

Please join us in congratulating Frida Espinosa on being awarded the 2026 Outstanding Graduate Doctoral Student by the ASU Faculty Women of Color Caucus!

Espinosa is graduating this month with her PhD in global health from the School of Human Evolution and Social Change.

Congrats, Frida!
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When John Murray saw his first flintknapping demonstration in his Introduction to Archaeology course at Stony Brook University, he was hooked. Today, he is a skilled flintknapper himself and demonstrates and teaches the skill to others.

Even more, he attributes this demonstration as one of the primary reasons he changed his major to anthropology at the time.

“I was a struggling undergrad who was kicked out of university for a semester due to a low GPA. After taking a couple of credits at my community college, I came back in search of a new major and John Shea's demonstration made me instantly say ‘that’s what I want to study.’ I would not be where I am today if I had not experienced that,” shared Murray.

Now, Murray, who is also an affiliated grad student with the Institute of Human Origins, is graduating with his PhD in anthropology from the School of Human Evolution and Social Change this month.

After graduating, he will be doing a postdoc at Purdue University where he will work with SHESC and IHO alum Ben Schoville, continuing his work in experiential archaeology and the analysis of stone tools from the Middle and Later Stone Age of South Africa.

Congrats, John!

Read more about John’s academic journey at the link in our bio.

Photo courtesy of the Arizona Museum of Natural History
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