In the years that followed, Roksandic studied archeology and anthropology at the University of Belgrade, the University of Bordeaux and Simon Fraser University. In 2004, she took a position as an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Toronto before accepting a similar position at the University of Winnipeg in 2007.

Now, a professor of anthropology and coordinator of the bioanthropology program at the University of Winnipeg, Roksandic, spends much of her time studying and researching the evolution of hominins (humans and their ancestors).

“We (bioanthropologists) look at human remains to try to figure out how human society worked in the past,” Roksandic says. “The questions are social science questions. But the methods are biological science,”.

To that end, Roksandic is currently leading three projects all focused on movement and interaction among different human groups in the past.

One focuses on the hominin evolution and Paleolithic archaeology in the Eastern Mediterranean (Balkans and Anatolia) during the Pleistocene epoch (2.5 million years to 12,000 years ago); another examines hominin evolution during the Middle Pleistocene (780,000 to 124,000 years ago) in east Africa (Tanzania); and the third looks at mortuary practices and rituals in Nicaragua and Cuba among hunter-gatherers at the much later time.

The first two projects have shed light on the shared history of humans and their ancestors at a time when hominins were starting to develop the traits of modern humans, including a larger and more complex brain, smaller teeth, and smaller gut, and more complex social organization.

The Caribbean project, now led by Dr. Yadira Chinique de Armas, Roksandic’s colleague at the University of Winnipeg, has produced remarkable results in understanding the earliest peopling of the Caribbean islands and the connection between Cuba, Puerto Rico and Jamaica and the continental coastal areas of Central and South America during mid-Holocene (the current geological epoch that started about 12,000 years ago). However, it is the project in the Balkans that has the higher profile, in part because the work carried out by Roksandic, and her colleagues has raised some interesting questions about the human evolutionary timeline in that part of the world.

The project itself can be traced back to the early 1990s when Roksandic and fellow student Dušan Mihailović were attending the University of Belgrade. At the time, the two would often talk about teaming up one day to carry out a large dig in the Balkans – a mountainous region in southeastern Europe that takes in several countries, including Serbia, Bosnia and Macedonia.

Eventually, they would head off in different directions – Roksandic pursued her career in Canada, while Mihailović would eventually become a professor in the Department of Archeology at the University of Belgrade. But the dream of working together on a major dig in the Balkans never faded, largely because despite being a major migratory corridor for early humans – the Balkans link Western and eastern Europe with Africa and Asia – the region has never been fully explored. Read the full article.