Vanier Scholar Profile

Name: Christopher J.H. Ames

School, department: McGill University, Department of Anthropology

Title of Research Project: Unearthing the origins of human behaviour: paleoenvironmental change and hominid/human occupation in the Azraq Druze Basin, Jordan

Researcher’s Vision:

“I hope to show how humans can respond to future climate change by understanding how we have done so in the past, helping Canada contribute to the resolution of an issue of global importance.”

Description of Research:

In the summer of 2008, excavations in Azraq (northern Jordan) identified an ancient lake as an important centre of human occupation for hundreds of thousands of years. During its long lifespan, the lake underwent dramatic fluctuations in water level, correlating to wider climate patterns of glacial advancement and retreat.

Christopher Ames is studying the long-term relationship between the populations that inhabited this region and  local environmental change. Using a combination of archaeological excavation and geological testing, Ames will reconstruct the environmental and cultural history of the Azraq Basin in a three-dimensional model that shows the changing landscape over the past 300,000 years.

By studying past scenarios where humans lived through climate change, Ames’s research better informs future policy-makers. 

Ames is pursuing doctoral studies in anthropology at McGill University.