Insects as Silent Witnesses to Prehistoric Warfare: Forensic Archaeoentomology as a Novel Approach to the Study of Conflict

Project Information

WARFLY

Grant agreement ID: 703322

DOI 10.3030/703322

Project terminated on 31 December 2017

EC signature date 1 March 2016

Start date 1 November 2016

End date 31 October 2018

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost € 185 076,00

EU contribution € 185 076,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITE DE BORDEAUX
France

Objective

WARFLY is a ‘proof of concept’ study that aims to develop and test an innovative approach to investigating past conflict. This novel study will combine well-established methods from archaeology and Quaternary entomology with the philosophical traditions of forensic sciences to advance an approach capable of producing high-resolution reconstructions of conflict episodes in human history based on material evidence. Insect remains preserved in an archaeological site from southwestern Alaska (Nunalleq), which was the scene of violent actions, will be used as ‘silent witnesses’ to the events that preceded, characterised and followed conflict. Fly, beetle, lice and flea remains will be extracted from sediment samples collected from floor layers, burials and deposits formed or altered as a direct result of conflict, to be identified to the highest taxonomic precision achievable. The results will then form the basis of species distribution maps that will be used to model a series of scenarios for pre-conflict lifeways, the attack on the site and the disposal of victims’ corpses. The plausibility of these scenarios will then be scrutinised in relation to other artefactual and biological evidence available at Nunalleq. This approach, which we have termed ‘forensic archaeoentomology’, will not only produce a holistic narrative of a prehistoric warfare episode founded on material evidence, but will also pave the way for an entirely new field of research in conflict archaeology.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.

• humanities › history and archaeology › archaeology
• natural sciences › biological sciences › zoology › entomology
• medical and health sciences › other medical sciences › forensic sciences

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Keywords

• Conflict archaeology
• Quaternary entomology
• Forensic entomology

Programme(s)

• H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Main Programme
• H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility

Topic(s)

• MSCA-IF-2015-EF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF-EF)

Call for proposal

H2020-MSCA-IF-2015

Funding Scheme

MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

Coordinator

UNIVERSITE DE BORDEAUX

• Net EU contribution: € 185 076,00
• Address: PLACE PEY BERLAND 35 ; 33000 Bordeaux ; France
• Region: Nouvelle-Aquitaine › Aquitaine › Gironde
• Activity type: Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
• Total cost: € 185 076,00