Student Information
Graduate Student
Anthropology
The College of Lib Arts & Sci
Long Bio
John Murray is a graduate student interested in paleoanthropology, hominin behavioral variability, lithic technology, experimental archaeology, human-environment interaction, and the extended evolutionary synthesis.
John has conducted field work on the Azraq Marshes Archaeological and Paleoecological Project (AMAPP) at the late Lower Paleolithic site Shishan Marsh - 1 in al-Azraq, Jordan. Further, he has worked at the Upper Paleolithic cave site Mughr el-Hamamah in the Jordan Valley. Currently, John is working at the Later Stone Age site, Knysna in South Africa. His dissertation research will investigate the role of pyrotechnology in human adaptations during the late Middle and Later Stone Age of South Africa.
John's hobbies include PC gaming, skateboarding, and flintknapping.
Education
2017 - MA in Anthropology, University of Victoria
2017 - Graduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, University of Victoria
2015 - Graduate Certificate in GIS, Johns Hopkins University
2014 - B.A., Anthropology, Stony Brook University
Publications
2022. Murray, John K., Simen Oestmo, and Andrew M. Zipkin. Portable, non-destructive colorimetry and visible reflectance spectroscopy paired with machine learning can classify experimentally heat-treated silcrete from three South African sources. PLOS One.
2022. Gravel-Miguel, Claudine, Jan De Vynck, Colin D. Wren, John K. Murray, and Curtis W. Marean. Were prehistoric coastal sites more intensively occupied? Using an agent-based model to understand the intensity of prehistoric coastal occupation and what it means for the evolution of coastal adaptation. Quaternary International.
2021. Claudine Gravel-Miguel, John K. Murray, Benjamin Schoville, Colin Wren, and Curtis W. Marean. Exploring variability in lithic armature discard in the archaeological record. Journal of Human Evolution.
2021. Murray, John K., Robert Acio Benitez, and Michael J. O’Brien. The extended evolutionary synthesis and human origins: Archaeological perspectives. Evolutionary Anthropology. 1-4.
2020. Murray, John K., Jacob A. Harris, Simen Oestmo, Miles Martin, and Curtis W. Marean. A new approach to identify heat treated silcrete near Pinnacle Point, South Africa using 3D microscopy and Bayesian modeling. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. 34, 102622.
