Sonia Harmand

Sonia Harmand (born in 1974 ) is a French archaeologist who studies Early Stone Age archaeology and the evolution of stone tool making. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Paris where she was associated with the "Prehistory and Technology" research unit, which was well known in the field of stone tool analysis. Harmand earned a PhD from Paris Nanterre University, and is a research associate at CNRS, which is the largest French governmental research organization, and Europe's largest fundamental science agency. She worked as a Research Scientist at CNRS for four years before joining Stony Brook University in New York as an associate professor.

Early stone age archaeology

Lomekwi 3 stone tools In 2011, Harmand discovered the Lomekwi 3 stone tools in the Turkana Basin of Kenya near the town of Lomekwi. This discovery was made while Harmand was leading the West Turkana Archaeological Project team along with Jason Lewis. They were both working with Stony Brook University's Turkana Basin Institute at the time.

At the Lomekwi 3 site, between 2011 and 2012, there were 149 stone artifacts recovered in total. These artifacts were found at the Lomekwi 3 site which sits above the Toroto Tuff, dated at about 3.32 Ma. The 149 artifacts range from small broken flakes weighing less than 1 kg to anvils and passive elements weighing about 12 kg. All of these tools are evidence of knapped stone tools. Stone tool knapping was previously associated with the genus Homo. Acheulean tools are thought to be connected to Homo Erectus because there were H. erectus fossils found in the same area which are dated at a similar age.

Honors and publications Harmand has received many awards for her work with Early Stone Age archaeology. In 2015, Harmand won both the Stone Age Institute Award for Outstanding Research into Human Origins, and the Field Discovery Award from the Shanghai Archaeology Forum(世界考古论坛·上海) for her work with the Lomekwi 3 tools. The following year, in 2016, she earned the Prix La Recherche archaeology award in Paris, France. In 2017, the Tübingen research prize for Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology was awarded to Harmand from the University of Tübingen, Germany.