Drs. Yannick Raczynski-Henk

Yannick Raczynski-Henk (1972) studied Prehistoric archaeology at Leiden University with a special focus on Middle Palaeolithic open air sites in the loess area of Limburg (Netherlands) and the adjoining areas. Since 2003 he works as a geoarchaeologist in the Netherlands, predominantly in the littoral zone of the Dutch Holocene landscapes. Although he very much enjoys working there and has published on anything from Iron Age sites to Roman canals and Medieval farmsteads, he has never forgotten his true passion; the Middle Palaeolithic.

In 2009 Yannick was invited to join a team of international researchers organised in the Hrazdan Gorge Palaeolithic Project focussing on Middle Palaeolithic sites in the central area of Armenia. The project is ongoing but several surveys and excavations have yielded spectaculair results, published in Science. The Hrazdan Gorge Palaeolithic Project also spawned a side project in 2014, the Barozh-12 Palaeolithic Project in which Yannick is also involved.

In the Netherlands Yannick was one of the main initiators of the Middle Palaeolithic investigations in Sint-Geertruid in 2011 which led to the discovery of Middle Palaeolithic artefacts and served as an important incubator for his later research on the Middle Palaeolithic site of Amstenrade-Allée, the first of its kind to be fully excavated in the Netherlands since the Belvédère Quarry excavations.

Long ago Yannick briefly aspired to become an artist and although the art world is probably better off without him he has given his passion for drawing a new purpose in his current career as an archaeologist through drawing lithic artefacts and other archaeological objects.

Yannick is currently associated with Leiden University as a PhD-candidate. His project ‘Scatters Matter. New Approaches to Investigating Neanderthal Open Air Sites in the Loess Area of Limburg (Netherlands)’ aims to develop new methods to trace and investigate Middle Palaeolithic open air sites.