Description du projet
L’évolution de l’Homo sapiens en Europe du Sud-Est
La protohistoire de l’Homo sapiens reste largement méconnue. De plus en plus, elle est considérée comme un processus dynamique d’expansion de la population et de contact entre les lignées humaines, se produisant de concert avec les oscillations climatiques du Pléistocène, qui ont influencé la probabilité de survie humaine ainsi que la disponibilité de ponts terrestres permettant les expansions. En tant que tels, les dispersions et les contacts avec la population peuvent avoir joué un rôle central dans l’évolution humaine. L’Europe du Sud-Est apparaît comme une zone de contacts soutenus et successifs. Dans ce contexte, le projet FIRSTSTEPS, financé par le CER, appliquera une enquête interdisciplinaire pionnière pour récupérer de nouvelles preuves et connecter les preuves existantes à travers les sites, les régions et les périodes. Les résultats feront passer la recherche paléoanthropologique en Europe du Sud-Est à un niveau supérieur.
Objectif
Despite recent discoveries in human evolution, the origin of our species, Homo sapiens, and the process through which it expanded and became established around the globe remain murky. Increasingly, it is viewed as a dynamic process of population expansions and contact among human lineages, occurring in concert with the Pleistocene climatic oscillations, which influence the probability of human survival as well as the availability of land bridges enabling expansions. Dispersals and population contact, therefore, may have been the norm in human evolution and may have played a greater role in shaping our species than previously recognised. In such a model, South-East Europe emerges as a likely area of sustained and / or repeated contact, making this region critical for testing hypotheses about European deep prehistory. Despite this crucial role, however, paleoanthropological research there remains in its infancy, with little existing data and no overarching interpretive framework. FIRSTSTEPS aims to fill this research gap by applying inter-disciplinary cutting edge investigation to recover new and connect existing evidence across sites, periods and regions. Key sites / finds from South-East Europe (Greece, Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Croatia, Romania) and Italy — whose better documented record has yet to be connected to its counterparts to the East and will provide a crucial comparative perspective — will be included. In-depth analysis of important fossil / cultural assemblages from specific chrono-cultural periods ca. 200-30 ka, will be conducted to identify patterns of biological and cultural variation. In parallel, regional and supra-regional perspectives will be constructed beyond individual sites /countries. By addressing this crucial research gap FIRSTSTEPS will take paleoanthropological research in this important region to the next level and squarely place it on the paleolithic map of Europe.
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ERC-ADG - Advanced GrantInstitution d’accueil
72074 Tuebingen
Allemagne