Mary Stiner

Mary C. Stiner is the Regents' Professor of Anthropology (emerita) in the School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson and Curator of Zooarchaeology (emerita) at the Arizona State Museum.[1] She is known for her research on the economy and social behavior of ancient humans[2], as well as her analysis of burial rituals of early hominids.[3] She was elected a Member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2025.[4]

Education

Professional Biography


Stiner was born in Newark, Delaware. She attended the University of Delaware as an undergraduate, where she earned a BA degree in Anthropology and a BFA in Fine Arts. She obtained her Ph.D. in 1990 from the University of New Mexico, where she worked with Lewis R. Binford. Other important influences were Lawrence G. Straus, Erik Trinkhaus, Diane Gifford-Gonzalez, and Henry Harpending.

Her first academic position was at Loyola University of Chicago (1993-1994). In 1994, she moved to the Department (later School) of Anthropology at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where she taught until her retirement in May 2025.

Research


Stiner's research focuses on the evolution of humans' ecological niche and diet over the past half-million years. Her work is rooted in principles of ecological and evolutionary theory.  She investigates the economies, social lives and symbolic practices of Paleolithic and early Neolithic humans, mainly through the study of animal remains from archaeological sites (zooarchaeology). In addition to generating complete accounts of faunal assemblages from archaeological sites, her approach emphasizes time series and inter-regional comparisons of high-resolution datasets. She often engages in interdisciplinary collaborations with geoarchaeologists and other scientists.[2]

Stiner has conducted research on Paleolithic hunter gatherers and early Neolithic farming communities across the Mediterranean Basin—Italy, Israel, Türkiye, Greece, Serbia, and Portugal—in collaboration with local scholars and students.[2] Stiner's research contributions include:

  • Identification of dietary expansion stimulated in part by demographic pressure, during the Upper Paleolithic period. This process began much earlier than previously recognized and is most evident from the ways in which small prey animals were exploited [6][7][8] ;
  • Studies of changes in the predatory econiche of humans and human ancestors over the past 500,000 years based on prey mortality patterns, prey species composition, bone modification, and other faunal evidence. Her work tracks shifts in early humans' position in Pleistocene food webs and in large predator guilds[9][10][11], early marine foraging[9][12], resource intensification, and innovations in tool-assisted food processing methods including fire[13][14][15];
  • Theoretical and empirical exploration of symbolic expression by Neanderthals in the form of burial practices[16] and uses of body ornaments as proxies for expanding scales of social interaction[17][18][19];
  • Confirmation of an early (and largely independent) center of sheep and goat domestication at Aşıklı Höyük in central Anatolia, supporting a multi-regional model of how animal domestication arose, and elucidating the mechanisms and stages of in-situ sheep and goat domestication at this site [20][21][22];
  • Examining evolving social relations in early humans over the course of the Pleistocene geological epoch, particularly in connection with the development of residential camp sites[14][23][24][25].

Stiner has also been instrumental in developing widely emulated methods for the study of age structures in the prey populations of human hunters [9], the investigation of fire technology in early contexts[26][27], and inter-disciplinary work on early animal management practices[20][22][21].

Honors and Awards


1986  Fulbright Fellow - Institute for International Education

1989-90  American Fellow, American Association of University Women Foundation

1995-2000  National Science Foundation CAREER grant recipient

1996  Society for American Archaeology Book Award for Honor Among Thieves (Princeton)[28]

2010  Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professorship, University College London, UK

2014  Elected Regents Professor, University of Arizona, Tucson.[5]

2021  Fryxell Award for Interdisciplinary Studies, Society for American Archaeology[29]

2025  Elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences.[4]


References

  1. ↑ "About Mary C. Stiner". School of Anthropology, College of Social & Behavioral Science. University f Arizona. Archived from the original on 4 January 2022. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 "Mary C. Stiner – NAS". nasonline.org. Retrieved 2026-08-04.
  3. ↑ Bridget Alex (11 April 2020). "When Did Ancient Humans Begin to Understand Death?". Discover.
  4. 1 2 "National Academy of Sciences Elects Members and International Members". www.nasonline.org. April 29, 2025. Retrieved May 7, 2025.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "Mary C Stiner". UA Profiles. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  6. ↑ Stiner, Mary C.; Munro, Natalie D.; Surovell, Todd A.; Tchernov, Eitan; Bar-Yosef, Ofer (1999-01-08). "Paleolithic Population Growth Pulses Evidenced by Small Animal Exploitation". Science. 283 (5399): 190–194. doi:10.1126/science.283.5399.190. ISSN 0036-8075.
  7. ↑ Stiner, Mary C. (2001-06-19). "Thirty years on the "Broad Spectrum Revolution" and paleolithic demography". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 98 (13): 6993–6996. doi:10.1073/pnas.121176198. PMC 34611. PMID 11390968.
  8. ↑ Stiner, Mary C.; Munro, Natalie D.; Surovell, Todd A. (February 2000). "The Tortoise and the Hare Small‐Game Use, the Broad‐Spectrum Revolution, and Paleolithic Demography1". Current Anthropology. 41 (1): 39–79. doi:10.1086/300102.
  9. 1 2 3 Stiner, Mary C. (1994). Honor among thieves: a zooarchaeological study of Neandertal ecology. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0-691-03456-0.
  10. ↑ Stiner, Mary C. (July 1991). "Food procurement and transport by human and non-human predators". Journal of Archaeological Science. 18 (4): 455–482. doi:10.1016/0305-4403(91)90038-Q.
  11. ↑ Stiner, Mary C. (1990-12-01). "The use of mortality patterns in archaeological studies of hominid predatory adaptations". Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. 9 (4): 305–351. doi:10.1016/0278-4165(90)90010-B. ISSN 0278-4165.
  12. ↑ Stiner, Mary C. (December 2013). "An Unshakable Middle Paleolithic? Trends versus Conservatism in the Predatory Niche and Their Social Ramifications". Current Anthropology. 54 (S8): S288–S304. doi:10.1086/673285.
  13. ↑ Stiner, Mary C.; Munro, Natalie D. (May 2011). "On the evolution of diet and landscape during the Upper Paleolithic through Mesolithic at Franchthi Cave (Peloponnese, Greece)". Journal of Human Evolution. 60 (5): 618–636. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2010.12.005.
  14. 1 2 Stiner, Mary C.; Gopher, Avi; Barkai, Ran (2011-02-01). "Hearth-side socioeconomics, hunting and paleoecology during the late Lower Paleolithic at Qesem Cave, Israel". Journal of Human Evolution. 60 (2): 213–233. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2010.10.006. ISSN 0047-2484.
  15. ↑ Stiner, Mary C.; Bar-Yosef, Ofer (2005). The Faunas of Hayonim Cave, Israel: A 200,000-Year Record of Paleolithic Diet, Demography, and Society. Peabody Museum Press. ISBN 978-0-87365-552-1.
  16. ↑ Stiner, Mary C. (2017-12-01). "Love and Death in the Stone Age: What Constitutes First Evidence of Mortuary Treatment of the Human Body?". Biological Theory. 12 (4): 248–261. doi:10.1007/s13752-017-0275-5. ISSN 1555-5550.
  17. ↑ Kuhn, Steven L.; Stiner, Mary C. (May 2007). "Paleolithic Ornaments: Implications for Cognition, Demography and Identity". Diogenes. 54 (2): 40–48. doi:10.1177/0392192107076870. ISSN 0392-1921.
  18. ↑ Stiner, Mary C. (2014-03-01). "Finding a Common Bandwidth: Causes of Convergence and Diversity in Paleolithic Beads". Biological Theory. 9 (1): 51–64. doi:10.1007/s13752-013-0157-4. ISSN 1555-5550.
  19. ↑ Stiner, Mary C.; Kuhn, Steven L.; Güleç, Erksin (2013-05-01). "Early Upper Paleolithic shell beads at Üçağızlı Cave I (Turkey): Technology and the socioeconomic context of ornament life-histories". Journal of Human Evolution. 64 (5): 380–398. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.01.008. ISSN 0047-2484.
  20. 1 2 Stiner, Mary C.; Munro, Natalie D.; Buitenhuis, Hijlke; Duru, Güneş; Özbaşaran, Mihriban (2022-01-25). "An endemic pathway to sheep and goat domestication at Aşıklı Höyük (Central Anatolia, Turkey)". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 119 (4) e2110930119. doi:10.1073/pnas.2110930119. PMC 8795544. PMID 35042793.
  21. 1 2 Stiner, Mary C.; Özbaşaran, Mihriban; Duru, Güneş (December 2022). "Aşıklı Höyük: The Generative Evolution of a Central Anatolian PPN Settlement in Regional Context". Journal of Archaeological Research. 30 (4): 497–543. doi:10.1007/s10814-021-09167-z. ISSN 1059-0161.
  22. 1 2 Abell, J. T.; Quade, J.; Duru, G.; Mentzer, S. M.; Stiner, M. C.; Uzdurum, M.; Özbaşaran, M. (2019-04-05). "Urine salts elucidate Early Neolithic animal management at Aşıklı Höyük, Turkey". Science Advances. 5 (4). doi:10.1126/sciadv.aaw0038. ISSN 2375-2548. PMC 6469938. PMID 31001590.
  23. ↑ Kuhn, StevenL; Stiner, MaryC (December 2006). "What's a Mother to Do? The Division of Labor among Neandertals and Modern Humans in Eurasia". Current Anthropology. 47 (6): 953–981. doi:10.1086/507197.
  24. ↑ Kuhn, Steven L.; Stiner, Mary C. (September 2019). "Hearth and Home in the Middle Pleistocene". Journal of Anthropological Research. 75 (3): 305–327. doi:10.1086/704145.
  25. ↑ Stiner, Mary C. (2021). "The challenges of documenting coevolution and niche construction: The example of domestic spaces". Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews. 30 (1): 63–70. doi:10.1002/evan.21878. ISSN 1520-6505.
  26. ↑ Stiner, Mary C.; Kuhn, Steven L.; Weiner, Stephen; Bar-Yosef, Ofer (1995-03-01). "Differential Burning, Recrystallization, and Fragmentation of Archaeological Bone". Journal of Archaeological Science. 22 (2): 223–237. doi:10.1006/jasc.1995.0024. ISSN 0305-4403.
  27. ↑ Karkanas, Panagiotis; Shahack-Gross, Ruth; Ayalon, Avner; Bar-Matthews, Mira; Barkai, Ran; Frumkin, Amos; Gopher, Avi; Stiner, Mary C. (2007-08-01). "Evidence for habitual use of fire at the end of the Lower Paleolithic: Site-formation processes at Qesem Cave, Israel". Journal of Human Evolution. 53 (2): 197–212. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2007.04.002. ISSN 0047-2484.
  28. ↑ "Book Award (Scholarly and Popular)". Society for American Archaeology. 2026-10-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  29. ↑ "Fryxell Award for Interdisciplinary Research". Society for American Archaeology. 2026-10-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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