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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0PLOS One

roadDB: An R package for exploring early human prehistory and environments with the ROCEEH Out of Africa Database

  • Christian Sommer1
  • Jesper Borre Pedersen2
  • Zara Kanaeva3
  • Timo P. Streicher
  • Andrew W. Kandel
  • Nicholas J. Conard
  • Volker Hochschild
  1. 1The Role of Culture in Early Expansions of Humans, Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Tübingen, Germany
  2. 2Department of Geosciences, Institute of Geography, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
  3. 3Department of Geosciences, Working Group Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
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Abstract

Macroscale and interdisciplinary approaches are emerging as central paradigms in the study of human evolution, as demonstrated by a growing body of large-scale, data-driven research. This development is paralleled by an expanding ecosystem of R packages that provide access to paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic reconstructions, as well as advanced tools for spatial and temporal analysis and modeling. However, within this computational framework, direct programmatic access to comprehensive archaeological and anthropological data remains limited. We present roadDB, an R package that enables streamlined access to the ROCEEH Out of Africa Database (ROAD), a major repository of archaeological, paleoanthropological, paleoenvironmental, geographical and chronological data relevant to human evolution. roadDB bridges the gap between the existing R ecosystem and the ROAD archaeological dataset that covers most of the last 3 million years of human evolution across Africa and Eurasia and thereby represents the only openly available archaeological dataset with such an extensive temporal and geographic coverage. In short, roadDB offers the research community unrestricted, transparent access to a richly curated collection of site-level and assemblage-level information, opening new possibilities for large-scale quantitative research. The package strengthens the integration of archaeological and paleoenvironmental evidence in macroscale analyses and supports robust, transparent and interdisciplinary research on the spatio-temporal dynamics of human evolution.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{sommer2026roaddb,
  title = {{roadDB: An R package for exploring early human prehistory and environments with the ROCEEH Out of Africa Database}},
  author = {Christian Sommer and Jesper Borre Pedersen and Zara Kanaeva and Timo P. Streicher and Andrew W. Kandel and Nicholas J. Conard and Volker Hochschild},
  journal = {PLOS One},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0359952},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0359952},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - roadDB: An R package for exploring early human prehistory and environments with the ROCEEH Out of Africa Database
AU  - Christian Sommer
AU  - Jesper Borre Pedersen
AU  - Zara Kanaeva
AU  - Timo P. Streicher
AU  - Andrew W. Kandel
AU  - Nicholas J. Conard
AU  - Volker Hochschild
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/07
JO  - PLOS One
DO  - 10.1371/journal.pone.0359952
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0359952
AB  - Macroscale and interdisciplinary approaches are emerging as central paradigms in the study of human evolution, as demonstrated by a growing body of large-scale, data-driven research. This development is paralleled by an expanding ecosystem of R packages that provide access to paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic reconstructions, as well as advanced tools for spatial and temporal analysis and modeling. However, within this computational framework, direct programmatic access to comprehensive archaeological and anthropological data remains limited. We present roadDB, an R package that enables streamlined access to the ROCEEH Out of Africa Database (ROAD), a major repository of archaeological, paleoanthropological, paleoenvironmental, geographical and chronological data relevant to human evolution. roadDB bridges the gap between the existing R ecosystem and the ROAD archaeological dataset that covers most of the last 3 million years of human evolution across Africa and Eurasia and thereby represents the only openly available archaeological dataset with such an extensive temporal and geographic coverage. In short, roadDB offers the research community unrestricted, transparent access to a richly curated collection of site-level and assemblage-level information, opening new possibilities for large-scale quantitative research. The package strengthens the integration of archaeological and paleoenvironmental evidence in macroscale analyses and supports robust, transparent and interdisciplinary research on the spatio-temporal dynamics of human evolution.
SN  - 1932-6203
ER  -