Karen Ruebens is a Research Fellow in Archaeological Proteomics at the University of Reading. Her research interests are focused on unravelling Neanderthal behaviour through wider-scale comparative lithic and faunal analyses, including large-scale applications of Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS). From 2024-2029 she is Principal Investigator on the ERC/UKRI Starting Grant COEXIST. The project investigates the coexistence of Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens in central and southeast Europe by applying state-of-the-art methods from archaeological science, proteomics and genetics to large quantities of bone fragments.
From 2022-2024 Karen ran the ZooMS lab at the Chaire de Paleoanthropologie at the Collège de France (Paris) where she analysed bone fragments from key late Middle and early Upper Palaeolithic sites in Western Europe, including Ranis and Schmaehingen (Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician), Cassenade, Le Moustier, Saint-Césaire, Ormesson and Châtelperron (Châtelperronian).
Karen received her PhD from the University of Southampton (UK) in 2013 and has also worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Germany, first at the MONREPOS Archaeological Research Centre for Human Behavioural Evolution (Neuwied, funded by the DAAD) and then at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Leipzig, funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Career Restart scheme).
Karen is one of the editors of gold open access journal PaleoAnthropology, which is jointly run by the PaleoAnthropology Society and the European Society for the Study of Human Evolution (ESHE).
OUTREACH/MEDIA
- Interview about Ranis for Belgian EOS magazine (2024, in Flemish).
- Interview for the Fondation College de France (2024, in French)
- Early humans reached northwest Europe 45,000 years ago, new research shows, The Conversation, 2024.
- Using fragmented bone to reconstruct the lifeways of Homo sapiens in northwest Europe more than 45,000 years ago. Behind the Paper, Springer Nature Research Communities, 2024.
- Activity pack for 3-6 year olds about Neanderthal hunting in collaboration with illustrator Dr Anna Goldfield.
- YouTube channel with videos of the talks of the online seminar series on Multidisciplinary approaches to Neanderthal hunting, including my own presentation on “Neanderthal hunting strategies: a review of lithic and faunal lines of evidence” (2021).
PUBLICATIONS
In press Ruebens, K., Discamps, E., Smith, G.M., Hublin, J-J., Integrating ZooMS and zooarchaeology to assess the Châtelperronian and Carnivore Occupations at Cassenade (Dordogne, France). PaleoAnthropology.
In press Discamps, E., Smith, G.M., Hublin, J-J., Ruebens, K. Can ZooMS help assess species abundance in highly fragmented bone assemblages? Integrating morphological and proteomic identifications for the calculation of an adjusted ZooMS-eNISP? PaleoAnthropology.
In press Raymond, P., Ruebens, K., Bray, F., Castel, J-C., Morin, E., le Brun-Ricalens, F., Rolando, C., Bordes, J-G., Hublin, J-J. Investigating species composition in the Early Aurignacian of Le Piage (France) through collagen fingerprinting (ZooMS) of screen-recovered small bone fragments. PaleoAnthropology.
In press Angevin, R., Herkert, K., Lejay, M., Würschem, H., Soulier, M-C., Vernet, G., Baillet, M., Dérobert, X., Devie, T., Devièse, T., Floss, H., Heikkila, R., Hublin, J-J., Lacoste, E., Palma-Lopes, S., Picq, P., Ruebens, K., Tartar, E. Châtelperron: a new research program on a key-site of the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic Transition in Central France. In: Floss, H. and Roussel, M. (Eds.) Entre les lignes – Perspectives diachroniques et paléogéographiques sur le début du Paléolithique supérieur (Châtelperronien et Aurignacien) en Europe occidentale et centrale.
2024 Le Meillour, L., Sinet-Mathiot, V., Ásmundsdóttir, R.D., Hansen, J., Mylopotamitaki, D., Troché, G., Xia, H., Herrera Bethencourt, J., Ruebens, K., Smith, G.M., Fagernäs, Z., Welker, F. Increasing sustainability in palaeoproteomics by optimizing digestion times for large-scale archaeological bone analyses. iScience. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2024.109432.
2024 Mylopotamitaki, D., Fewlass, H., Zavala, E.I., Rougier, H., Sümer, A., Hajdinjak, M., Smith, G.M., Ruebens, K., Sinet-Mathiot, V., Xia, H., Hansen, J., Harking, F., Olsen, J.V., Kirchner, A., Lauer, T., Stahlschmidt, M., Talamo, S., Meller, H., Dietl, H., Orschiedt, J., McPherron, S., Krause, J,, Meyer, M., Welker, F., Schüler, T., Weiss, M., Hublin, J-J. Homo sapiens reached the higher latitudes of Europe by 45,000 years ago. Nature.
2024 Smith, G.M., Ruebens, K., Zavala, E.I., Sinet-Mathiot, V., Fewlass, H., Pederzani, S., Jaouen, K., Mylopotamitaki, D., Britton, K., Rougier, H., Stahlschmidt, M., Meyer, M., Meller, H., Orschiedt, J., Dietl., Krause, J., Schüler, T., McPherron, S., Weiss, M., Hublin, J-J., Welker, F., The ecology, subsistence and diet of ~45,000-year-old Homo Sapiens at Ilsenhohle in Ranis, Germany. Nature Ecology Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02303-6.
2024 Pederzani, S., Britton, K., Trost, M., Fewlass, H., Bourgon, N., McCormack, J., Jaouen, K., Dietl, H., Döhle, H-J., Kirchner, A., Lauer, T., Le Corre, M., McPherron, S.P., Meller, H., Mylopotamitaki, D., Orschiedt, J., Rougier, H., Ruebens, K., Schüler, T., Sinet-Mathiot, V., Smith, G.M. Talamo, S., Tütken, T., Welker, F., Zavala, E., Weiss, M., Hublin, J-J. Early Homo sapiens dispersed into cold steppes in central Europe. Nature Ecology Evolution.
2023 Ruebens, K., Smith, G.M., Fewlass, H., Sinet-Mathiot, V., Hublin, J-J., Welker. F. Neanderthal subsistence, taphonomy and chronology at Salzgitter-Lebenstedt (Germany): a multifaceted analysis of morphologically unidentifiable bone. Journal of Quaternary Science 38. DOI: 10.1002/jqs.3499.
2022 Ruebens, K., Sinet-Mathiot, V., Talamo, S., Smith, G.M., Welker, F., Hublin, J-J., McPherron, S.P. The late Middle Palaeolithic occupation of Abri du Maras (layer 1, Neronian, southeast France): integrating lithic analyses, ZooMS and radiocarbon dating to reconstruct Neanderthal hunting behaviour. Journal of Palaeolithic Archaeology 5, 4.
2021 Smith, G.M., Spasov, R., Martisius, N.L., Sinet-Mathiot, V., Rezek, Z., Aldeias, V., Ruebens, K., Pederzani, S., McPherron, S., Sirakova, S., Sirakov, N., Tsanova, T., Hublin, J-J., Subsistence behaviour during the Initial Upper Palaeolithic in Europe: site use, dietary practice and carnivore exploitation at Bacho Kiro Cave (Bulgaria). Journal of Human Evolution 161, 103074.
2020 Smith, G.M., Noack, E, S., Behrens, N, M., Ruebens, K., Street, M., Iovita, R., Gaudzinski-Windheuser, S., When lithics hit bones: evaluating the potential of a multifaceted experimental protocol to illuminate Middle Palaeolithic weapon technology. Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology, 3(2): 126-156
2020 Ruebens, K., Smith, G.M., Dogandžić, T., Steele. T.E., Connecting Middle Palaeolithic datasets: the interplay of zooarchaeological and lithic data for unravelling Neanderthal behaviour. Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology, 3(2): 97-107.
2019 Smith, G.M., Ruebens, K., Gaudzinski-Windheuser, S., Steele, T.E. Subsistence strategies throughout the African Middle Pleistocene: Faunal evidence for behavioral change and continuity across the Earlier to Middle Stone Age transition. Journal of Human Evolution, 127, pp.1-20.
2016 Ruebens, K., Wragg Sykes, R.M. 2016. Spatio-temporal variation in Late Middle Palaeolithic Neanderthal behaviour: British bout coupé handaxes as a case study. Quaternary International 411A, 305-326.
2015 Ruebens, K., McPherron, S.P., Hublin, J-J., 2015. On the local Mousterian origin of the Châtelperronian: integrating typo-technological, chronostratigraphic and contextual data. Journal of Human Evolution 86, 55-91.
2014 Ruebens, K. 2014. Late Middle Palaeolithic bifacial technologies across northwest Europe: typo-technological variability and trends. Quaternary International 350, 130-146.
2013 Ruebens, K. 2013. Regional behaviour among late Neanderthal groups in Western Europe: a comparative study of Late Middle Palaeolithic bifacial tools. Journal of Human Evolution 6 (4), 341-362.
2012 Pope, M., Bates, M., Cole, J., Conneller, C., Ruebens, K., Scott, B., Shaw, A., Smith, G.M., Underhill, D., Wragg-Sykes, R. Quaternary Environments and Archaeology of Jersey: A new multidisciplinary project looking at the early prehistoric occupation of the English Channel Region. In: Ruebens, K., Romanowska, I., Bynoe, R. (Eds.) Unravelling the Palaeolithic, BAR International Series 24000, pp.27-38.
2011 Ruebens, K. and Van Peer, P. 2011. A Middle Palaeolithic site with small bifaces at Oosthoven – Heiende (Northern Belgium). In: Toussaint, M., Di Modica, K., and Pirson, S. (Eds.) Le Paléolithique moyen en Belgique. Mélanges Marguerite Ulrix-Closset. ERAUL 128, pp. 353-359.
2011 Ruebens, K. and Di Modica, K. 2011. Les Productions bifaciales du Paléolithique moyen sur le territoire belge: présentation d’industries entre deux mondes. In: Toussaint, M., Di Modica, K., and Pirson, S. (Eds.) Le Paléolithique moyen en Belgique. Mélanges Marguerite Ulrix-Closset. ERAUL 128, Bulletin des Chercheurs de la Wallonie Hors-série No 4, pp. 239-260.
2007 Ruebens, K. 2007. Bifacial Elements in Continental Northwestern Europe during the Last Glacial Cycle (MIS5d-3): The Relationship between Mousterian, Micoquian and ‘Mixed’ Assemblages. Papers from the Institute of Archaeology 18, 84-100.
2007 Ruebens, K. 2007. A Typological Dilemma: Micoquian Elements in Continental Northwestern Europe during the Last Glacial Cycle (MIS5d-3). Journal of the Lithics Studies Society 27, 58-73.
2006 Ruebens, K. 2006. The Middle Palaeolithic Assemblage of Oosthoven (Belgium): A Techno- Typological and Comparative Analysis. Terra Incognita 2, 187-199.