It is now almost 20 years since the discovery here in Portugal, in December 1998, of the Lapedo child skeleton (LV1). This finding was extremely important for human phylogeny history and triggered a series of debates in the scientific community. In fact, some of the features of the skeleton suggested that the LV1 fossil resulted from interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern human populations. An international team with several US researchers from different scientific domains and organizations participated in the study of this 4 year old skeleton, which was carefully buried 29.000 years ago in the Lagar Velho rock-shelter (Leiria, Portugal).

The Lapedo Child: twenty years afterwards is a celebratory conference to mark this important date.

Dr. Eric Trinkaus, Mary Tileston Hemenway Professor in Arts & Sciences, Professor of Biological Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, is considered to be one of the world’s most important researchers of Neanderthal biology and evolution, focusing his investigations on the paleoanthropology of late archaic and early modern humans. He was a key element of the Lapedo child research team and the one who launched one of the most heated debates concerning the origin of modern humans.

For these reasons, we have invited Dr. Eric Trinkaus to address this celebratory event scheduled for the 15th and 16th December 2018.

We ask for your help. Is the AIA able to finance Dr. Trinkaus’ journey between St. Louis, Missouri and Portugal?

For additionally information on Dr. Eric Trinkaus please visit the following website

https://anthropology.artsci.wustl.edu/trinkaus_erik

The website for the conference is still being designed, but will be soon available at both DGPC (Portuguese Cultural Heritage Directorate) and Leiria Museum and Municipality websites

http://www.patrimoniocultural.gov.pt/en/

https://www.cm-leiria.pt/pages/849