Pithecan is an independent editorial archive devoted to paleoanthropology, fossil discovery, and the deep time that shaped our lineage. We document the field as it actually happens — in the lab, at the outcrop, and in the long argument that follows.
Pithecan started in 2003 as a small reference shelf maintained by a working physical anthropologist who was tired of seeing fossil discoveries reduced to a few lines of press copy. The earliest volumes of the archive were scanned field notebooks, donated reprints, and a hand-typed catalogue of hominin specimens — entries written the night they were published, before the press releases could flatten them.
Twenty years later, the archive is digital, but the discipline has not changed. Every entry is still vetted by someone who has either excavated, prepared, or argued about the material in question. We do not summarize press kits. We read the original paper, look at the figures, and ask the awkward follow-up questions: where exactly was the find plotted, how was the age determined, what is the comparative sample, and what does the taphonomy actually say?
Three commitments shape every entry in the archive. They are the answer to the question we hear most often: how do you decide what gets in?
We work from the published paper, the field report, the museum catalogue, and the original measurements. Secondary coverage is treated as commentary, not evidence. Where a claim cannot be traced to a primary document, we say so.
Human evolution is not a ladder and not a sprint. We present fossils and sites within their stratigraphic, ecological, and chronological context, so a single molar is read against the fauna, the sediment, and the million-year neighbourhood it came from.
Paleoanthropology is a small field with loud arguments. We name the disagreements, attribute the positions, and avoid the false synthesis of "scientists believe." If a debate is unresolved, the archive says unresolved.
Pithecan is run by a small editorial collective of people who teach, dig, prepare, and argue about human evolution for a living.
Physical anthropologist trained in Verona and Cape Town. Specializes in Plio-Pleistocene hominin dentition and has co-directed excavations in the Levant since 2009.
Geoarchaeologist with two decades of survey work across East African rift systems. Writes most of our fieldwork dispatches and oversees the site report section.
Museum-based palaeontologist who has catalogued hominin and faunal material for three national collections. Maintains the archive's specimen index and taphonomy notes.
Geochronologist focused on argon-argon and ESR dating of Pleistocene deposits. Edits the Deep Time section and is responsible for our chronometric reference tables.
Pithecan is independent, but it is not solitary. The work below would not exist without the institutions, foundations, and individuals who have shared material, time, and correction.
"The archive is the argument. Anyone can publish a press release. Keeping the receipts — the section, the figure, the age, the dissent — is the actual labour of paleoanthropology."
— from the Pithecan editorial charter, revised 2019