Wei Chu
Researcher and assistant professor
- Name
- Dr. W. Chu Ph.D.
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 2727
- w.chu@arch.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0002-4595-388X
Wei Chu is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Archaeology and PI of the HOME project.
More information about Wei Chu
News
-
Ice age architecture: how mammoth bones reveal human ingenuity -
Looking for the earliest European home with an ERC Consolidator Grant -
Wei Chu receives SNMAP funding for dating earliest dwelling structures in Ukraine
-
Archaeologist Wei Chu explores Carpathian caves with Gerda Henkel grant -
Archaeological excavations in Romania show life of earliest modern humans in Europe
Leiden Archaeology Blog
PhD candidates
Office days
Monday to Friday
Research
I am a geoarchaeologist specialising in the relationship between material culture, site formation processes, and past environments. My work focuses on lithic taphonomy, sedimentary context, and the environmental factors that shape archaeological assemblages. By integrating field observation, geoarchaeological sampling, experimental archaeology, and laboratory analysis, I investigate how artifacts and habitation features are altered, preserved, and ultimately recovered in the archaeological record. Since my habilitation, my recent regional focus has been on the Late Pleistocene of East-Central Europe, where I examine how humans organized spaces during periods of climatic and cultural transition.
Since 2024, I have been Principal Investigator of the ERC Consolidator Grant project HOME, which aims to identify and analyze Late Pleistocene Palaeolithic shelters through systematic survey, excavation, and high-resolution stratigraphic and spatial approaches. The project develops comparative datasets for understanding habitation structures in open-air contexts. My long-term objective is to strengthen our analytical capacity in geoarchaeology and lithic taphonomy, advancing research on Palaeolithic landscapes and contributing to interdisciplinary work on human behavior in changing environments.
Curriculum vitae
Education
2021 Habilitation, Prehistory; University of Cologne, DE
2013 Ph.D., Experimental Archaeology; University of Reading, UK
Previous professional appointments
2021-2023 Researcher, Leiden University, NL
Researcher and assistant professor
- Faculty of Archaeology
- World Archaeology
- Human Origins
- Chu Wei Shydlovskyi Pavlo Maier Andreas (2025), A revised radiocarbon chronology for the mammoth bone structures and associated features at Mezhyrich, Ukraine, Open Research Europe 5(198): 198.
- Dusseldorp G.L., Chu W., Bakels C.C. & Soressi M.A. (Eds.) (2025), Intent on the Paleolithic: Papers in honour of Prof. Dr. Wil Roebroeks. Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia no. 55. Leiden: Sidestone Press.
- Dusseldorp G.L., Chu W., Bakels C.C. & Soressi M.A. (2025), Editorial. In: Dusseldorp G.L., Chu W., Bakels C.C. & Soressi M.A. (Eds.), Intent on the Palaeolithic: Papers in honour of Prof. Dr. Wil Roebroeks. Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia no. 55. Leiden: Sidestone Press. 7-8.
- Chu W., Doboș A. & Soressi M.A. (2024), Interactions in bones but not stone: anomalous cultural transmission gaps in Romania's Middle to Upper Paleolithic Transition, Quaternary Science Reviews 329: 108546.
- Chu W. (2024), What connects us? Riparian landscape use and mobility in Late Pleistocene East-Central Europe. In: Uthmeier T. & Maier A. (Eds.), Stone Age. Studying Technologies of Non-analogous Environments and Glacial Ecosystems: Papers in Honor of Jürgen Richter. Universitätsforschungen zur prähistorischen Archäologie no. 396. Bonn: Habelt. 299-317.
- Kaminská Ľ., Chu W. & Verpoorte A. (2024), Výsledky rádiokarbónového datovania uhlíkov zo starých výskumov v Košiciach-Barci I a Košiciach-Barci II, Študijné zvesti Archeologického ústavu Slovenskej akadémie vied 71(1): 1-15 (0560-2793).
- Chu W., McLin S., Wöstehoff L., Ciornei A., Gennai J., Marreiros J. & Doboș A. (2022), Aurignacian dynamics in Southeastern Europe based on spatial analysis, sediment geochemistry, raw materials, lithic analysis, and use-wear from Românești-Dumbrăvița, Scientific Reports 12: 14152.
- Nett Janina J. Chu Wei Fischer Peter Hambach Ulrich Klasen Nicole Zeeden Christian Obreht Igor Obrocki Lea Pötter Stephan Gavrilov Milivoj B. Vött Andreas Mihailović Dušan Marković Slobodan B. Lehmkuhl Frank (2021), The Early Upper Paleolithic Site Crvenka-At, Serbia–The First Aurignacian Lowland Occupation Site in the Southern Carpathian Basin, Frontiers in Earth Science 9: .
- Zeeden Christian Hambach Ulrich Klasen Nicole Fischer Peter Schulte Philipp Nett Janina J. Veres Daniel Obreht Igor Chu Wei Papadopoulou Maria Viehberg Finn SchÄBitz Frank Gavrilov Milivoj B. MarkoviĆ Slobodan B. VÖTT Andreas Lehmkuhl Frank (2021), Sedimentology of a Late Quaternary lacustrine record from the south‐eastern Carpathian Basin, Journal of Quaternary Science 36: 1414-1425.
- Pascual-Garrido Alejandra Almeida-Warren Katarina (2021), Archaeology of the Perishable: Ecological Constraints and Cultural Variants in Chimpanzee Termite Fishing, Current Anthropology 62: 333-362.
- Chu W. Dobos A. McLin S. (2021), So many caves, so little time: a preliminary report from a western Romanian karst survey, . In: Lengyel G. Wilczyński J. Sánchez de la Torre M. Mangado X. Fullola J.M. (Ed.), Studies on the Palaeolithic of Western Eurasia. Oxford: Archaeopress.
- Chu W. & Nett Janina J. (2021), The past in dust: current trends and future directions in Pleistocene geoarcheology of European loess, Journal of Quaternary Science 36(8): 1279-1292.
- Chu W. & Gennai J. (2021), The Upper Paleolithic in the Carpathian Basin: the European heart of our way to Europe. In: Litt T., Richter J. & Schaebitz F. (Eds.), The journey of modern humans from Africa to Europe. Stuttgart: Schweizerbart Science Publishers.
- Chu Wei Hosfield Robert (2020), Lithic artifact assemblage transport and microwear modification in a fluvial setting: A radio frequency identification tag experiment, Geoarchaeology 35: 591-608.
- Chu W. Richter J. (2020), Aurignacian Cultural Unit. In: Smith C. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Cham: Springer.
- Ciornei A. Chu W. Maris I. Dobos A. (2020), Lithic raw material patterns at the Upper Palaeolithic site of Românești-Dumbrăvița (Southwestern Romania). , Dacia N.S. 64: 67–122.
- Chu W. (2020), Flüsse und Funde, Archäologie in Deutschland 2: 32–33.
- Chu Wei Kaminská Ľubomíra Klasen Nicole Zeeden Christian Lengyel György (2019), The Chronostratigraphy of the Aurignacian in the Northern Carpathian Basin Based on New Chronometric/Archeological Data from Seňa I (Eastern Slovakia), Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology 3: 77-96.
- Chu W. Pötter S. Doboș A. Albert T. Klasen N. Ciornei A. Bösken J.J. Schulte P. (2019), Geoarchaeology and geochronology of the Upper Palaeolithic site of Temerești Dealu Vinii, Banat, Romania: site formation processes and human activity of an open-air locality. , Quatär 66: 111–134.
- Doboş A. Chu W. (2019), Between the woods and the water: the early Upper Palaeolithic from the Romanian karst, Analele Banatului 26(26): 17–34.
- Chu Wei (2018), The Danube Corridor Hypothesis and the Carpathian Basin: Geological, Environmental and Archaeological Approaches to Characterizing Aurignacian Dynamics, Journal of World Prehistory 31: 117-178.
- Chu Wei Lengyel György Zeeden Christian Péntek Attila Kaminská Ľubomíra Mester Zsolt (2018), Early Upper Paleolithic surface collections from loess-like sediments in the northern Carpathian Basin, Quaternary International 485: 167-182.
- Marković Slobodan B. Sümegi Pál Stevens Thomas Schaetzl Randall J. Obreht Igor Chu Wei Buggle Björn Zech Michael Zech Roland Zeeden Christian Gavrilov Milivoj B. Perić Zoran Svirčev Zorica Lehmkuhl Frank (2018), The Crvenka loess-paleosol sequence: A record of continuous grassland domination in the southern Carpathian Basin during the Late Pleistocene, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 509: 33-46.
- Chu W. (2017), Review of: Harvati K. and M. Roksandic (2017), Paleoanthropology of the Balkans and Anatolia: human evolution and its context, : PaleoAnthropology. PaleoAnthropology : 102-103.
- Lengyel György Chu Wei (2016), Long thin blade production and Late Gravettian hunter-gatherer mobility in Eastern Central Europe, Quaternary International 406: 166-173.
- Chu W. Zeeden C. Petrescu S. (2016), The early Upper Paleolithic of the Banat and recent research at the Paleolithic site of Tincova, Banatica 26: 51–72.
- Hauck T. Rethemeyer J. Rentzel P. Schulte P. Fulop R. Heinze A. Ringer Á. Richter J. Chu W. Lehmkuhl F. Vogels O. (2016), Neandertals or early modern humans? a revised 14C chronology and geoarchaeological study of the Szeletian sequence in Szeleta Cave (Hungary). , Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 46: 271–290.
- ChuW. Mihailović D. Pantović I. Zeeden C. Hauck T. Lehmkuhl F. (2016), Archaeological excavations at the site of At (Vršac, Serbia): Antiquity 90(352). [poster].
- Chu W. Hauck T. Mihailović D. (2014), Crvenka-At– preliminary results from a lowland Aurignacian site in the middle Danube catchment. In: Mihailović D. (Ed.), Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Research in the Central Balkans. Belgrade: Serbian Archaeological Society. 69–75.
- Chu Wei (2014), DYNAMICS OF LEARNING IN NEANDERTHALS AND MODERN HUMANS, Lithic Technology 39: 190-192.
- Chu Wei Thompson Charlie Hosfield Rob (2013), Micro-abrasion of flint artifacts by mobile sediments: a taphonomic approach, Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 7: 3-11.
- De Reu Jeroen Bourgeois Jean Bats Machteld Zwertvaegher Ann Gelorini Vanessa De Smedt Philippe Chu Wei Antrop Marc De Maeyer Philippe Finke Peter Van Meirvenne Marc Verniers Jacques Crombé Philippe (2013), Application of the topographic position index to heterogeneous landscapes, Geomorphology 186: 39-49.
- Chu W. (2012) Pushing the envelope. experimental directions in the archaeology of stone tools. Review of: G. McCall, Pushing the envelope. experimental directions in the archaeology of stone tools. Lithic 32, : 74–76.
- Chu W. (2010), Experimental investigations into fluvial modification processes of the earlier Palaeolithic record, Lithic 31: 155-156.
- Chu Wei (2009), A functional approach to Paleolithic open-air habitation structures, World Archaeology 41: 348-362.