Research & Communication

Peer-reviewed publications

Milks, A. Carr, D, Godhania, K., Mahoney, P., Parfitt, S., Russo, G., Pope, M. 2025, A reanalysis of the ‘perforated’ scapula from the Boxgrove Horse Butchery Site, Quaternary International, Volume 749, 109995, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2025.109995 (Open Access)

Leder, D., Milks, A. In Search of the Origins of Distance Hunting—The Use and Misuse of Tip Cross-sectional Geometry of Wooden Spears. J Paleo Arch 8, 9 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41982-024-00206-x (Open Access)

Milks, A. (2024). Hunting lessons: Ethnography, archaeology and ‘raising the curtain’ to reveal how forager kids learn(ed) to hunt. Hunter Gatherer Research, 1–30. https://doi.org/10.3828/hgr.2024.32

Milks, A. (2025). Not just symbolism: Technologies may also have a less than direct connection with cognition. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 48, e14. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X24000852

Leder, D., Milks, A., Lehmann, J., Koddenberg, T., Sietz, M., Vogel, M. Böhner, U., Terberger, T. 2024. Beyond spears and sticks. The wooden artefacts from Schöningen’s Spear Horizon and their place in human evolution. PNAS, 121(15) . https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2320484121 (Open Access)

Milks, A., Lehmann, J., Leder, D., Koddenberg, T., Sietz, M. Böhner, U., Wachtendorf, V. & Terberger, T. 2023. A double-pointed wooden throwing stick from Schöningen, Germany: results and new insights from a multianalytical study. PLOS ONE. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0287719 (Open Access)

Russo, G., Milks, A., Leder, D., Koddenberg, T., Starkovich, B., Duval, M., Zhao, J-x., Darga, R., Rosendahl, W., Terberger, T. 2023. First direct evidence of lion hunting and the early use of a lion pelt by Neanderthals. Scientific Reports. DOI:10.1038/s41598-023-42764-0 (Open Access)

Milks, A., Lehmann, J., Böhner, U., Leder, D., Koddenberg, T., Sietz, M. Vogel, M., & Terberger, T. 2022. Wood technology: a Glossary and Code for analysis of archaeological wood from stone-tool cultures. OSF Preprints, x8m4j, ver. 7 peer- reviewed and recommended by Peer community in Archaeology. https://doi.org/1 0.31219/osf.io/x8m4j (Open Access)

Lew-Levy, S., D Bombjaková, A Milks, F Kiabiya Ntamboudila, MA Kline, 2022. Costly teaching contributes to the acquisition of spear hunting skill among BaYaka forager adolescents. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 289 (1974), 20220164. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0164 (Open Access)

Milks, A.G. 2021. Yew wood, would you? An exploration of the selection of wood for Pleistocene spears. In Berihuete Azorin, M., Martin Seijo, M. López-Bultó, O., and Piqué, R. (Eds.) The Missing Woodland Resources. Advances in Archaeobotony, 6.

Milks, A., Lew-Levy, S., Lavi, N., Friesem, D. E., & Reckin, R. (2021). Hunter-gatherer children in the past: An archaeological review. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 64, 101369. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2021.101369

Lew-Levy, S., Milks, A., Kiyabiya, F., Broesch, T., Kline, M.A. (2021). BaYaka adolescents from the Republic of Congo nominate accessible adults as preferred spear hunting models. Current Anthropology, 62(5), pp.631-640. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/716853

Milks, A. 2020. A Review of Ethnographic Use of Wooden Spears and Implications for Pleistocene Hominin Hunting. Open Quaternary, 6: 12, pp. 1–20. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/oq.85

Lew-Levy, S., Milks, A., Lavi, N., Pope, S., Friesem, D. 2020. Where innovations flourish: an ethnographic and archaeological overview of hunter-gatherer learning contexts. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 2:1-23. DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2020.35

Milks, A. 2020. Book Review: Valentina Borgia and Emanuela Cristiani, eds. Palaeolithic Italy Advanced studies on early human adaptations in the Apennine Peninsula (Leiden: Sidestone Press,2018, 428 pp., pbk, ISBN 978-90-8890-583-4. In Archäologische Informationen.

Milks, A. 2019. Skills Shortage: A Critical Evaluation of the Use of Human Participants in Early Spear Experiments. EXARC, 2019/2.

Milks, A., Parker, D., Pope, M. 2019. External ballistics of Pleistocene hand-thrown spears: experimental performance data and implications for human evolution. Scientific Reports, 9:820.

Milks, A. 2018. Making an Impact. Nature: Ecology and Evolution, 2, 1057-1058.

Milks, A., Champion, S., Cowper, E., Pope, M., Carr, D. 2016. Early spears as thrusting weapons Isolating force and impact velocities in human performance trials. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 10, 191-203.

Raw datasets (above paper) available here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X16305910?via%3Dihub

Milks, A., Dinnis, R., Pope, M. (2016) Morpho-metric Variability Of Early Gravettian Tanged “Font-Robert” Points, And Functional Implications. In Iovita, R., & Katsuhiro, S. (Eds.) Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Stone Age Weaponry. New York: Springer. Chapter 9, 135-146. http://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7602-8_9