(openPR) Neuwied. The „Human Roots Award“ will be presented in November by the MONREPOS Archaeological Research Centre and Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution in Neuwied. The first honour will be given to Professor Richard Dawkins for his influential research on the understanding of the evolution of human behaviour. The world-renowned ethologist and evolutionary biologist is author of countless scientific publications and books.
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The prize is endowed with 10,000 Euros, donated by a private sponsor, and honours archaeologists and scientists of associated disciplines for achievements which have had an extraordinary influence on the understanding of our evolution. The “Human Roots Award” will be presented for the first time on the 10th. November and will take place annually in future. The patron of the “Human Roots Award” is Professor Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt – a pupil of the Nobel Prize winner Konrad Lorenz and the founder of human ethology.
The prize aims to promote interdisciplinary scientific dialogue and to create public awareness of the relevance of the results of research on becoming human for the future of mankind. Accordingly, the prize-giving will be accompanied by a workshop on the theme “human universals”, attended by renowned scientists.
A “small Nobel Prize” of archaeology
“The “Human Roots Award” is like a small Nobel Prize for the archaeology of the Old and Middle Stone Age, the longest and formative period of human history, and in this respect is comparable to the Fields-Medal in mathematics”, says Olaf Jöris, one of the co-ordinaters, about the importance of the prize.
The laureate will be a guest in Neuwied for over a week, when he will discuss with the scientists in MONREPOS and promote interdisciplinary dialogue. “In MONREPOS, top-rate archaeological research, its mediation and social-political discourse are inseparably interwoven” explained the director of the research centre, Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser and added, “With the “Human Roots Award” we intend to span a bridge between humans today, the archaeological perspective of “Becoming Human” and a humanistic agenda of “Staying Human” for the future. Then only so is our future sustainable.”
MONREPOS Archaeological Research Centre and Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution
MONREPOS is museum and research. Research has been carried out in Schloss Monrepos for over 30 years as a subsidiary office of the Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz and a member of the Leibniz Community. The research centre is closely associated with the Institute of Pre and Proto History of the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz.
We carry in us a heritage worth millions: over 2.5 million years of evolutionary history. The longest and most formative period of our development took place during the earliest epoch of human history. This is the reason why research in MONREPOS focuses on the Old and Middle Stone Age. This research thrives from questions, impulses, discussions. Not least from criticism and tolerance. It needs curious, creative and spirited people – regardless of whether they are scientists, volunteers, press or visitor. MONREPOS is a platform for all people who wish to understand the development of our behaviour and early human history.
Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum (RGZM) | Leibniz-Research Institute for Archaeology
The RGZM is a globally active research facility for archaeology with its headquarters in Mainz and subsidiary offices in Mayen and Neuwied. It was founded in 1852 by the organisation of the German History and Antiquary Societies, is a public foundation since 1870 and, from 2002, a member of the Leibniz Community.
The Römisch-Germanische Zentralmuseum (RGZM) is currently re-directing its research. The contribution of its archaeological research with its far back-reaching view on the work and mastery of the problems of human beings today will, in the future, be even more in the focus of the RGZM’s scientific work and mediation. The competence of the RGZM lies in its combination of restauration, archaeometry, experimental and antiquarian archaeology. Research takes place in an international and interdisciplinary network. The results are disseminated in exhibitions in several museums and a through a wide range of publications published in our own house.
Event
Note: Please register in advance for coverage of the event
Human Roots Award
Friday, 10th. November 2017, 7:00 pm., Schloss Monrepos, Neuwied
„Breakfast debate“ | Theme: „Human Universals“
Saturday , 11th. November 2017, 10:00 am., Schloss Monrepos, Neuwied
Quelle: idw
