Marie Soressi is Professor of Hominin Diversity archaeology and head of the Human Origins research unit at the Faculty of Archaeology. She is fascinated by the fact that we are the only human species on the planet; meanwhile our genus was flourishing for approximately 99% of our evolutionary timeframe.

More information about Marie Soressi

Marie Soressi combines her long-term experience as a field and lab archaeologist with that of paleogeneticists, geologists and chemists, to design and lead interdisciplinary projects aiming at reconstructing the diversity of human behavior and the evolution of human biology during the late Pleistocene, with a focus on the 50-35,000 years’ time window when Neandertal population vanished.

Office days

Tuesday and Friday. Meetings on appointment only.

Research

What factors contributed to the growth of the anatomically modern Human population 40,000 years ago? Could it be that building upon local knowledge and local adaptations from humans who have now physically disappeared contributed to the development of our ancestor population? Reconstructing our evolutionary trajectory is key for rethinking who we are, and how we are connected to each other.

The reconstruction of cultural interactions between Neandertals and modern humans has proven to be fecund with the publication of: (1) the first potential evidence of modern humans acquiring Neandertal expertise (Soressi et al. 2013), (2) a first test case discussing the degree of social intimacy between late Neandertals and early modern humans (Roussel et al. 2016). In developing these past projects, two exciting challenges emerged:

• To fully utilize the potential of sedimentary DNA, it is essential that researchers assess the in-situ character of particles containing aDNA.
• Studying interactions requires:
  • a new theoretical framework
  • high-resolution analysis of the in-situ character of artefacts
  • tailored empirical studies

Building on her interdisciplinary background, her knowledge of available archaeological sites and collections, and her international network, M. Soressi designed the Neandertal Legacy project to contribute improving the reconstruction of the demise of Neandertals and the formation of the Homo sapiens only population. The project was granted a NWO VICI grant (1.5 million euros) in 2020. For this project she produced the documentary Neandertal Legacy.

She also received a Westerdijk award (50,000 euros) in 2018 as well as regular smaller excavation grants from the French Ministry of Culture.

Curriculum vitae

M. Soressi combines experience at world-class research institute like the Max Planck EVA in Leipzig where she was a junior researcher from 2004 to 2008 with experience in a leading position in commercial archaeology where she led projects with up to 30 collaborators. Since 2013, she went back to the academic sector and embraced innovative teaching and the management of academic education and research.

In 2018, she became the first non-native speaker female professor at the Faculty of Archaeology in Leiden and she was appointed Director of the Graduate School of the Faculty of Archaeology. She is currently leading the Human origins research unit and the Neandertal Legacy research group (>20 researchers) at the Faculty of Archaeology in Leiden. In 2020, she received a VICI talent schema award (1.5 million euros); in 2018 a Westerdijk award (50,000 euros), and in 2044 the Tübingen Prize for young researchers in Early Prehistory Quaternary Ecology.

In 2020, she was elected Vice President of the European Society for Human Evolution (ESHE), which currently has approximately 450 members, after serving as elected secretary from 2012 to 2020 and contributing to the society's founding in 2011. Since 2018, she is a member of the scientific committee of the Fyssen foundation with a circa 1 million euros yearly budget. She serves as panel members for the reviewing committee of DFG collaborative research centers and for the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities with budget >20 million euros. She is an associate editor for the Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology (Springer) and she is a member of the editorial board of the international peer-reviewed Open Access journal Human Population Genetics and Genomics and of the scientific committee for the international peer-reviewed open-access journal Paleoantropology. She regularly serves as reviewer for Nature and several other interdisciplinary and disciplinary journals including Nature Human behaviour, Scientific reports, Journal of Human Evolution or Quaternary Sciences Review.

Publication output

Her publications have been cited in total more 6690 times according to google scholar (as per 12.08.2024). She has contributed more than 140 publications including more than 80 peer-reviewed articles, and two peer-reviewed edited volumes. She also contributed more than 80 excavation reports. One of her first-authored publication (Soressi et al. 2013 in PNAS) has been cited more than 290 times, and six other publications she co-authored were cited more than 200 times including the D’errico et al. 2003 paper that was cited 899 times (as per 12.08.2024; H index = 41).

• Full bibliography
• Citation list

Milestones

• 2023 Produced documentary Neanderthal Legacy 
• 2023 NWO PhD in the Humanities award for V. Niochet
• 2021 Elected vice-president of the ESHE society
• 2021 Head Human Origins research unit, Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden
• 2020- Quinçay excavation project
• 2020-2026 NWO VICI award for the project Neandertal Legacy (1.5 million euros)
• 2018-2021 Director of the Leiden Graduate School of Archaeology
• 2018 Member of the scientific committee of the Fyssen foundation, Paris
• 2018 Full Professor and chair of Hominin Diversity Archaeology, Leiden
• 2018 Westerdijk talent award Dutch Research Council in 2018 (50 k€)
• 2013 Assistant Professor, Leiden University, Faculty of Archaeology
• 2012-2021 Elected secretary and board member of the ESHE society
• 2011 Founding member of the ESHE, European society for the study of Human Evolution
• 2006-2022 Les Cottés project (465 k€)
• 2008 Large scale project manager at INRAP, France
• 2004 Tubingen Prize for innovative research in Early Prehistory, Quaternary Ecology and Human Evolution
• 2004 Junior researcher at the Max Planck Institute EVA, Leipzig, Germany
• 2003 Post-doctoral researcher at the ARI, Cape Town, South-Africa
• 2003 Post-doctoral award Wenner-Gren foundation (New-York) (20 k€)
• 2003 Post-doctoral award Fyssen foundation (Paris) (20 k€)
• 2003 Doctorat Université Bordeaux Le Moustérien de tradition acheuléenne du sud-ouest de la France (178 citations registered by google scholar in March 2022)
• 2002-2007 Chez-Pinaud excavation project
• 1998-2005 Pech-de-l’Azé I excavation project (18 k€)
• 1998 Individual national doctoral grant (70 k€)

Past PhD students

• Dr. Shumon Hussain (graduated in 2019), researcher, Human and Earth System Coupled Research, University of Cologne, Germany
• Dr. Samanta Porter (graduated in 2019), Manager of the Advanced Imaging Service for Objects and Shape and research associate, University of Minnesota, USA
• Dr. Naomi Martisius (graduated in 2019), Senior Archaeologist Far Western Anthropological Research Group Inc., USA
• Dr. Paul Kozowyk (graduated in 2020), post-doctoral researcher at Delft Technical University, The Netherlands

Past Postdocs

• Dr. Wei Chu was a postdoctoral senior researcher in in M. Soressi 's Neanderthal Legacy research project from 2021 until 2023, and is now assistant professor at the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, The Netherlands. 
• Dr. Mickael Baillet was a guest postdoctoral researcher in M. Soressi 's Neanderthal Legacy research project from 2020 until 2023. He is now a researcher at Zhejiang University, School of Art and Archaeology, China.
• Dr. Leonardo Carmignani was a postdoctoral researcher in M. Soressi 's Neanderthal Legacy research project from 2020 until 2024. 

Publications

Activities