Wynn completed his doctorate in
anthropology in 1977 at the
University of Illinois, Urbana under the supervision of anthropologist Charles M. Keller. The project used Piagetian psychological theory to document cognitive evolution as represented in the change in form of
stone tools; the work was ultimately published as a book, The Evolution of Spatial Competence, in 1989.[4]
Research
In the 1970s and 1980s, Wynn worked on archaeological projects in Europe and Africa, directing the first systematic archaeological field work in the Mbeya Region of Tanzania in 1976 and 1980.[3] To date, he has published over 150 articles, chapters, and books in Palaeolithic studies, with a particular emphasis on cognitive evolution.[3]
In 2011, Wynn and his colleague, psychologist
Frederick L. Coolidge, established the Center for Cognitive Archaeology at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.[3] In 2013, Wynn began working with LA artist
Tony Berlant on an exhibition of Acheulean handaxes that celebrated their importance in the evolution of aesthetic sensibility.[13][14] Entitled "First Sculpture", the exhibit was mounted at the Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, in 2018 and published as a volume the same year.[15][16][17][18][19] Wynn and Berlant continued to collaborate on
Mimbres painting, with an exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and associated publication in 2018.[20]
Honors
In 2008, Wynn was awarded funding to organize the 139th Numbered Wenner-Gren Symposium, which was co-chaired by psychologist Frederick L. Coolidge. Entitled "Working Memory: Beyond Language and Symbolism," the proceedings were published as a special issue of Current Anthropology.[21]
In 2014, Wynn was appointed University of Colorado
Distinguished Professor in recognition of his contributions to cognitive archaeology.[3][22]
Selected works
Authored books
Wynn, Thomas (1989). The Evolution of Spatial Competence. University of Illinois Press.
ISBN9780252060304.
Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L. (2012). How to Think like a Neandertal. Oxford University Press.
ISBN9780199742820.
Berlant, Tony; Wynn, Thomas (2018). First Sculpture: Handaxe to Figure Stone. Nasher Sculpture Center.
ISBN9780991233878.
Coolidge, Frederick L.; Wynn, Thomas (2018). The Rise of Homo sapiens: The Evolution of Modern Thinking (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.
ISBN9780190680916.
Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L. (2022). An Introduction to Evolutionary Cognitive Archaeology. Routledge.
ISBN9780367856953.
Edited volumes
De Beaune, Sophie A.; Coolidge, Frederick L.; Wynn, Thomas, eds. (2009). Cognitive Archaeology and Human Evolution. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN9780521769778.
Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L., eds. (2017). Cognitive Models in Palaeolithic Archaeology. Oxford University Press.
ISBN9780190204112.
Wynn, Thomas; Overmann, Karenleigh A.; Coolidge, Frederick L., eds. (2024). The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Archaeology. Oxford University Press.
ISBN9780192895950.
Special journal issues
Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L., eds. (2010). "Working Memory: Beyond Symbolism and Language". Current Anthropology. Wenner-Gren Symposium Series. 51 (S1). University of Chicago Press.
Wynn, Thomas; Overmann, Karenleigh A.;
Malafouris, Lambros, eds. (2021). "4E Cognition in the Lower Palaeolithic". Adaptive Behavior. 29 (2).
Articles
Wynn, Thomas (1979). "The Intelligence of Later Acheulean Hominids". Man. 14 (3): 371–391.
doi:
10.2307/2801865.
JSTOR2801865.
Wynn, Thomas (1981). "The Intelligence of Oldowan Hominids". Journal of Human Evolution. 10 (7): 529–541.
doi:
10.1016/S0047-2484(81)80046-2.
Wynn, Thomas; McGrew, William C. (1989). "An Ape's View of the Oldowan". Man. 24 (3): 383–398.
doi:
10.2307/2802697.
JSTOR2802697.
Wynn, Thomas (1993). "Two Developments in the Mind of Early Homo". Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. 12 (3): 299–322.
doi:
10.1006/jaar.1993.1009.
Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L. (2003). "The Role of Working Memory in the Evolution of Managed Foraging". Before Farming. 2 (1): 1–16.
doi:
10.3828/bfarm.2003.2.1.
Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L. (2010). "Beyond Symbolism and Language: An Introduction to Supplement 1, Working Memory". Current Anthropology. 51 (S1): 5–16.
doi:
10.1086/650526.
S2CID142942270.
Wynn, Thomas; Hernandez-Aguilar, R. Adriana; Marchant, Linda F.; McGrew, William C. (2011). "'An Ape's View of the Oldowan' Revisited". Evolutionary Anthropology. 20 (5): 181–197.
doi:
10.1002/evan.20323.
PMID22034236.
S2CID23910905.
Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L. (2016). "Archaeological Insights into Hominin Cognitive Evolution". Evolutionary Anthropology. 25 (4): 200–213.
doi:
10.1002/evan.21496.
PMID27519459.
S2CID12334658.
Wynn, Thomas (2004). "Evolutionary Developments in the Cognition of Symmetry". In Washburn, Dorothy Koster (ed.). Embedded Symmetries, Natural and Cultural. University of New Mexico Press.
ISBN9780826331526.
Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L. (2007). "Did a Small but Significant Enhancement in Working Memory Capacity Power the Evolution of Modern Thinking?". In
Paul, Mellars; Boyle, Katie;
Ofer, Bar-Yosef;
Christopher B, Stringer (eds.). Rethinking the Human Revolution: New Behavioural and Biological Perspectives on the Origin and Dispersal of Modern Humans. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
ISBN9781902937465.
Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L. (2009). "Implications of a Strict Standard for Recognizing Modern Cognition in Prehistory". In De Beaune, Sophie A.; Coolidge, Frederick L.; Wynn, Thomas (eds.). Cognitive Archaeology and Human Evolution. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN9780521769778.
Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L. (2010). "How Levallois Reduction Is Similar to, and Not Similar to, Playing Chess". In Nowell, April; Davidson, Iain (eds.). Stone Tools and the Evolution of Human Cognition. University of Colorado Press.
ISBN9781607321354.
Wynn, Thomas; Haidle, Miriam Noël; Lombard, Marlize; Coolidge, Frederick L. (2017). "The Expert Cognition Model in Human Evolutionary Studies". In Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L. (eds.). Cognitive Models in Palaeolithic Archaeology. Oxford University Press.
ISBN9780190204112.
Wynn, Thomas (2019). "Epilogue: Situating the Cognitive in Cognitive Archaeology". In Overmann, Karenleigh A.; Coolidge, Frederick L. (eds.). Squeezing Minds from Stones: Cognitive Archaeology and the Evolution of the Human Mind. Oxford University Press.
ISBN9780190854614.
^Overmann, Karenleigh A; Coolidge, Frederick L (2019). "Cognitive Archaeology at the Crossroads". In Overmann, Karenleigh A; Coolidge, Frederick L (eds.). Squeezing Minds from Stones: Cognitive Archaeology and the Evolution of the Human Mind. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 1–12.
ISBN9780190854614.
^Wynn, Thomas (1989). The Evolution of Spatial Competence. Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press.
ISBN9780252060304.
^Coolidge, Frederick L; Wynn, Thomas (2001). "Executive Functions of the Frontal Lobes and the Evolutionary Ascendancy of Homo sapiens". Cambridge Archaeological Journal. 11 (3): 255–260.
doi:
10.1017/S0959774301000142.
^Wynn, Thomas; Overmann, Karenleigh A; Coolidge, Frederick L (2016). "The false dichotomy: A refutation of the Neandertal indistinguishability claim". Journal of Anthropological Sciences. 94 (94): 201–221.
doi:
10.4436/jass.94022.
PMID26708102.
^Coolidge, Frederick L.; Wynn, Thomas; Overmann, Karenleigh A. (2024). "The Expert Neandertal Mind and Brain, Revisited". In Wynn, Thomas; Overmann, Karenleigh A.; Coolidge, Frederick L. (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Archaeology. Oxford University Press.
ISBN9780192895950.
^Berlant, Tony; Maurer, Evan; Burtenshaw, Julia; Wynn, Thomas (2018). Decoding Mimbres Painting. Los Angeles: LA County Museum of Art.
ISBN9783791357430.
^Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L (2010). "Working Memory: Beyond Symbolism and Language". Current Anthropology. 51 (S1).
doi:
10.1086/650526.
S2CID142942270.
Wynn completed his doctorate in
anthropology in 1977 at the
University of Illinois, Urbana under the supervision of anthropologist Charles M. Keller. The project used Piagetian psychological theory to document cognitive evolution as represented in the change in form of
stone tools; the work was ultimately published as a book, The Evolution of Spatial Competence, in 1989.[4]
Research
In the 1970s and 1980s, Wynn worked on archaeological projects in Europe and Africa, directing the first systematic archaeological field work in the Mbeya Region of Tanzania in 1976 and 1980.[3] To date, he has published over 150 articles, chapters, and books in Palaeolithic studies, with a particular emphasis on cognitive evolution.[3]
In 2011, Wynn and his colleague, psychologist
Frederick L. Coolidge, established the Center for Cognitive Archaeology at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.[3] In 2013, Wynn began working with LA artist
Tony Berlant on an exhibition of Acheulean handaxes that celebrated their importance in the evolution of aesthetic sensibility.[13][14] Entitled "First Sculpture", the exhibit was mounted at the Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, in 2018 and published as a volume the same year.[15][16][17][18][19] Wynn and Berlant continued to collaborate on
Mimbres painting, with an exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and associated publication in 2018.[20]
Honors
In 2008, Wynn was awarded funding to organize the 139th Numbered Wenner-Gren Symposium, which was co-chaired by psychologist Frederick L. Coolidge. Entitled "Working Memory: Beyond Language and Symbolism," the proceedings were published as a special issue of Current Anthropology.[21]
In 2014, Wynn was appointed University of Colorado
Distinguished Professor in recognition of his contributions to cognitive archaeology.[3][22]
Selected works
Authored books
Wynn, Thomas (1989). The Evolution of Spatial Competence. University of Illinois Press.
ISBN9780252060304.
Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L. (2012). How to Think like a Neandertal. Oxford University Press.
ISBN9780199742820.
Berlant, Tony; Wynn, Thomas (2018). First Sculpture: Handaxe to Figure Stone. Nasher Sculpture Center.
ISBN9780991233878.
Coolidge, Frederick L.; Wynn, Thomas (2018). The Rise of Homo sapiens: The Evolution of Modern Thinking (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.
ISBN9780190680916.
Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L. (2022). An Introduction to Evolutionary Cognitive Archaeology. Routledge.
ISBN9780367856953.
Edited volumes
De Beaune, Sophie A.; Coolidge, Frederick L.; Wynn, Thomas, eds. (2009). Cognitive Archaeology and Human Evolution. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN9780521769778.
Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L., eds. (2017). Cognitive Models in Palaeolithic Archaeology. Oxford University Press.
ISBN9780190204112.
Wynn, Thomas; Overmann, Karenleigh A.; Coolidge, Frederick L., eds. (2024). The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Archaeology. Oxford University Press.
ISBN9780192895950.
Special journal issues
Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L., eds. (2010). "Working Memory: Beyond Symbolism and Language". Current Anthropology. Wenner-Gren Symposium Series. 51 (S1). University of Chicago Press.
Wynn, Thomas; Overmann, Karenleigh A.;
Malafouris, Lambros, eds. (2021). "4E Cognition in the Lower Palaeolithic". Adaptive Behavior. 29 (2).
Articles
Wynn, Thomas (1979). "The Intelligence of Later Acheulean Hominids". Man. 14 (3): 371–391.
doi:
10.2307/2801865.
JSTOR2801865.
Wynn, Thomas (1981). "The Intelligence of Oldowan Hominids". Journal of Human Evolution. 10 (7): 529–541.
doi:
10.1016/S0047-2484(81)80046-2.
Wynn, Thomas; McGrew, William C. (1989). "An Ape's View of the Oldowan". Man. 24 (3): 383–398.
doi:
10.2307/2802697.
JSTOR2802697.
Wynn, Thomas (1993). "Two Developments in the Mind of Early Homo". Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. 12 (3): 299–322.
doi:
10.1006/jaar.1993.1009.
Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L. (2003). "The Role of Working Memory in the Evolution of Managed Foraging". Before Farming. 2 (1): 1–16.
doi:
10.3828/bfarm.2003.2.1.
Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L. (2010). "Beyond Symbolism and Language: An Introduction to Supplement 1, Working Memory". Current Anthropology. 51 (S1): 5–16.
doi:
10.1086/650526.
S2CID142942270.
Wynn, Thomas; Hernandez-Aguilar, R. Adriana; Marchant, Linda F.; McGrew, William C. (2011). "'An Ape's View of the Oldowan' Revisited". Evolutionary Anthropology. 20 (5): 181–197.
doi:
10.1002/evan.20323.
PMID22034236.
S2CID23910905.
Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L. (2016). "Archaeological Insights into Hominin Cognitive Evolution". Evolutionary Anthropology. 25 (4): 200–213.
doi:
10.1002/evan.21496.
PMID27519459.
S2CID12334658.
Wynn, Thomas (2004). "Evolutionary Developments in the Cognition of Symmetry". In Washburn, Dorothy Koster (ed.). Embedded Symmetries, Natural and Cultural. University of New Mexico Press.
ISBN9780826331526.
Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L. (2007). "Did a Small but Significant Enhancement in Working Memory Capacity Power the Evolution of Modern Thinking?". In
Paul, Mellars; Boyle, Katie;
Ofer, Bar-Yosef;
Christopher B, Stringer (eds.). Rethinking the Human Revolution: New Behavioural and Biological Perspectives on the Origin and Dispersal of Modern Humans. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
ISBN9781902937465.
Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L. (2009). "Implications of a Strict Standard for Recognizing Modern Cognition in Prehistory". In De Beaune, Sophie A.; Coolidge, Frederick L.; Wynn, Thomas (eds.). Cognitive Archaeology and Human Evolution. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN9780521769778.
Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L. (2010). "How Levallois Reduction Is Similar to, and Not Similar to, Playing Chess". In Nowell, April; Davidson, Iain (eds.). Stone Tools and the Evolution of Human Cognition. University of Colorado Press.
ISBN9781607321354.
Wynn, Thomas; Haidle, Miriam Noël; Lombard, Marlize; Coolidge, Frederick L. (2017). "The Expert Cognition Model in Human Evolutionary Studies". In Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L. (eds.). Cognitive Models in Palaeolithic Archaeology. Oxford University Press.
ISBN9780190204112.
Wynn, Thomas (2019). "Epilogue: Situating the Cognitive in Cognitive Archaeology". In Overmann, Karenleigh A.; Coolidge, Frederick L. (eds.). Squeezing Minds from Stones: Cognitive Archaeology and the Evolution of the Human Mind. Oxford University Press.
ISBN9780190854614.
^Overmann, Karenleigh A; Coolidge, Frederick L (2019). "Cognitive Archaeology at the Crossroads". In Overmann, Karenleigh A; Coolidge, Frederick L (eds.). Squeezing Minds from Stones: Cognitive Archaeology and the Evolution of the Human Mind. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 1–12.
ISBN9780190854614.
^Wynn, Thomas (1989). The Evolution of Spatial Competence. Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press.
ISBN9780252060304.
^Coolidge, Frederick L; Wynn, Thomas (2001). "Executive Functions of the Frontal Lobes and the Evolutionary Ascendancy of Homo sapiens". Cambridge Archaeological Journal. 11 (3): 255–260.
doi:
10.1017/S0959774301000142.
^Wynn, Thomas; Overmann, Karenleigh A; Coolidge, Frederick L (2016). "The false dichotomy: A refutation of the Neandertal indistinguishability claim". Journal of Anthropological Sciences. 94 (94): 201–221.
doi:
10.4436/jass.94022.
PMID26708102.
^Coolidge, Frederick L.; Wynn, Thomas; Overmann, Karenleigh A. (2024). "The Expert Neandertal Mind and Brain, Revisited". In Wynn, Thomas; Overmann, Karenleigh A.; Coolidge, Frederick L. (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Archaeology. Oxford University Press.
ISBN9780192895950.
^Berlant, Tony; Maurer, Evan; Burtenshaw, Julia; Wynn, Thomas (2018). Decoding Mimbres Painting. Los Angeles: LA County Museum of Art.
ISBN9783791357430.
^Wynn, Thomas; Coolidge, Frederick L (2010). "Working Memory: Beyond Symbolism and Language". Current Anthropology. 51 (S1).
doi:
10.1086/650526.
S2CID142942270.