Angela A. Bruch
The Role of Culture in Early Expansions of Humans
Senckenberg Research Institute
25 Senckenberganlage
60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Curriculum Vitae
- Climate and Vegetation History
- Quantification of vegetation parameters and terrestrial paleoclimate
- The Regional Impact of Global Paleoclimatic Changes
- The Influence of Environmental Changes on Early Human Expansion
- Plant food resources and their availability in different landscapes
Since February 2008, research scientist at Academy of Sciences and Humanities Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities the research project “The Role of Culture in the Early Expansion of Humans”
2011 Habilitation (Paleontology), Faculty of Science, University of Tübingen
2006–2008: Research assistant at the Senckenberg Research Institute, Department of Paleontology and Historical Geology, Climate and Environment Research Group
2005–2006: Research assistant at the Institute of Geosciences, University of Frankfurt
1999–2005: Research assistant at the Institute of Geosciences, University of Tübingen
1998 Doctoral dissertation in paleontology (Dr. rer. nat.), University of Tübingen
1991: Diploma in Geology and Paleontology, University of Kiel
Selected Publications
Bruch, A.A., Kern, A.K., Stebich, M., Weitzel, N., Bolus, M., 2025. Large-scale vegetation shifts during substantial warming — proxy-based biome reconstructions of MIS 6 and MIS 5e in Europe. Quaternary Science Reviews 356, 109308. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109308
Casas-Gallego, M., Postigo-Mijarra, J.M., Sánchez-de Dios, R., Barrón, E., Bruch, A.A., Hahn, K., Sainz-Ollero, H., 2025. Changes in the distribution of Iberian vegetation since the Last Glacial Maximum: A model-based approach. Quaternary Science Reviews 351, 109162. DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.109162.
Jarl, J., Gasparyan, B., Kandel, A.W., Smith, A., Bruch, A.A., 2025. A high-resolution paleoenvironmental record based on phytoliths from the Armenian Highlands: The Upper Paleolithic of Aghitu-3 Cave. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 64, 105148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2025.105148
Puspaningrum, M.R., Anwar, I.P., Hertler, C., Hölzchen, E., Krüger, S., Hascaryo, A.T., Reschke, J.-O., & Bruch, A.A. (2024): Living in Sangiran: A Spatial Reconstruction of the Hominin Environment in Java at 1 Ma. Earth History and Biodiversity, 2024, 100001, ISSN 2950-4759: DOI 10.1016/j.hisbio.2024.100001 (open access)
Utescher, T., Bruch, A.A., Mosbrugger, V., 2024. The Palaeoflora Database - Documentation and Data (Version 2024) [Data set]. Zenodo. 10.5281/zenodo.10881069.
Beridze, B., Sekiewicz, K., Walas, L., Thomas, P.A., Danelia, I., Kvartskhava, G., Fazaliyev, V., Bruch, A.A., Dering, M., 2023. Evolutionary history of Castanea sativa in the Caucasus driven by Middle and Late Pleistocene paleoenvironmental changes. AoB PLANT 15, 1–15. DOI 10.1093/aobpla/plad059 (open access)
Casas-Gallego, M., Hahn, K., Neumann, K., Demissew, S., Schmidt, M., Bodin, S.C., Bruch, A.A., 2023. Cooling-induced expansions of Afromontane forests in the Horn of Africa since the Last Glacial Maximum. Scientific Reports 13, 10323. DOI 10.1038/s41598-023-37135-8 (open access)
Hayrapetyan, N., Hakobyan, E., Kvavadze, E., Martinetto, E., Gabrielyan, I., Bruch, A.A., 2023. Middle-to-late Holocene lake level changes in Lake Sevan (Armenia)—Evidence from macro- and micro-plant remains in the Tsovinar-1 peat section. Quaternary International 661, 34–48. DOI 10.1016/j.quaint.2023.03.013
Jarl, J., Bruch, A.A., 2023. Modern phytolith assemblages as indicators of vegetation in the southern Caucasus. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 32, 561–581. DOI 10.1007/s00334-023-00921-5
Kandel, A.W., Sommer, C., Kanaeva, Z., Bolus, M., Bruch, A.A., Groth, C., Haidle, M.N., Hertler, C., Heß, J., Malina, M., Märker, M., Hochschild, V., Nicholas J. Conard, N.J., 2023. The ROCEEH Out of Africa Database (ROAD): A large-scale research database serves as an indispensable tool for human evolutionary studies. PLoS ONE 18(8), e0289513. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0289513 (open access)
ter Schure, A.T.M., Bruch, A.A., Kandel, A.W., Gasparyan, B., Bussmann, R.W., Brysting, A.K., de Boer, H.J., Boessenkool, S., 2022. Sedimentary ancient DNA metabarcoding as a tool for assessing prehistoric plant use at the Upper Paleolithic cave site Aghitu-3, Armenia. Journal of Human Evolution 172. DOI 10.1016/j.jhevol.2022.103258 (open access)
Bruch, A.A., Hahn, K., 2022. Raw or roasted? How fire changed what’s on the menu. In: Giemsch, L., Haidle, M.N. (eds.), Being human. The beginnings of our culture. Oppenheim a. Rhein: Nünnerich-Asmus, 74–80. ISBN 978-3-96176-193-7
Mahler, S., Shatilova, I., & Bruch, A.A. (2022): Neogene long-term trends in climate of the Colchic vegetation refuge in Western Georgia—Uplift versus global cooling. Review of Palbotany and Palynology 296, 104546. DOI: 10.1016/j.revbalbo.2021.104546.
Altolaguirre, Y., Schulz, M., Gibert, L., & Bruch, A.A. (2021): Mapping Early Pleistocene environments and the availability of plant food as a potential driver of early Homo presence in the Guadix-Baza Basin (Spain). Journal of Human Evolution 155, 102986. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2021.102986.
Current Projects
in cooperation with Karen Hahn, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main
The PlantBITES database is a tool for considering the full range of dominant plant species in different vegetation units, their seasonal availability, and their potential uses. The database serves to assess the amount and variety of obtainable food (and other) resources that were available to early humans. It also examines the techniques necessary for exploiting and using plant resources. Such data make a crucial contribution to answering questions about how early humans with different technological abilities could have used plants in different environments.
Ph.D. project by Lisa Schiersch; principal investigators Angela A. Bruch and Miriam N. Haidl, in collaboration with Dr. Ivan Gabrielyan (Botanical Institute, Yerevan, Armenia)
The landscape of the Southern Caucasus has provided ideal living conditions for humans for nearly two million years, as evidenced by the numerous Paleolithic sites in the region that is now Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. However, as the climate changed and cultural capabilities evolved, different groups of people undoubtedly developed entirely different ways of interacting with their environment. Focusing on plant resources, this project aims to study useful wild plants of the Southern Caucasus, their natural availability in various Pleistocene landscapes, and the cultural skills required for their exploitation.
The main objectives are to quantify the plant resources available to different human groups in Armenia from the Lower to the Upper Paleolithic, taking into account, on the one hand, the predominant vegetation that covered the landscape at specific times in the past, and, on the other hand, comparing the respective technological skills required to exploit these landscapes.
Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – 558487406 (BR 2332/16-1)