Femke Reidsma is a postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Archaeology.

More information about Femke Reidsma

Office days

Monday, Wednesday, Thursday

Research

My research explores the role of fire in human evolution and lies at the intersection of archaeology, material science, and geochemistry. I use analytical chemistry and controlled experimental work to improve our knowledge of the formation and preservation of Pleistocene fire proxies, and reconstruct how our ancestors used fire at different stages of their evolution. Being able to translate fire-related behaviour into archaeological signatures is essential for tracing its origins and testing different hypotheses.

More broadly I am interested in the relationship between early humans, (natural) fire, and the environment, and how this may have shaped different aspects of human evolution (e.g., diet, biological traits, adaptive strategies, technology, cognition, social behaviour, niche construction). I approach this topic from an interdisciplinary perspective, drawing on data, concepts, and methods from various fields.

For my analytical work, I collaborate with different specialists and laboratories, including the Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency and the GeoLab (Utrecht University).

I strive to make my research open and accessible and advocate for this to become standard practice within Archaeology.

Curriculum Vitae

In 2025 I obtained my doctorate from Leiden University, as part of the Human Origins Group. For my PhD I conducted fundamental research and developed an analytical toolkit and reference data for the study of heated bone, applicable to material from any context and time period. Alongside my doctoral research I have been part of several international collaborative projects and fieldwork at sites in Europe and South Africa.

I also dedicate time to other academic activities on themes that are important to me. I am part of the Open Science Community Leiden and actively support and advocate for early career researchers. I was editor in chief of INTER-SECTION (open access, peer-reviewed student journal), and have served on the PhD Committee and the Faculty Research Committee. In addition, I engage in outreach in various formats to make science accessible to the public and increase the visibility of women in academia.

Currently, I am a postdoc with the Department of Archaeological Sciences, where I conduct research and co-coordinate the Leiden Human Evolution Collective, a university-wide interdisciplinary network of scholars working on topics related to human evolution. With support from a KIEM grant, we organised an interdisciplinary symposium on fire in human evolution held in June of 2024, which brought together diverse scholars from Europe and the US.

Publications

Activities