Project description
Palaeoenvironmental proxies to understand the Neanderthal environment and their responses
Biochemical, ecomorphological, dental wear or pollen analyses; there are many methods used to reconstitute Pleistocene palaeoenvironments. They are rarely combined, although their complementarity could improve knowledge of the local and regional palaeoenvironment. The EU-funded ToothClues project will compare and combine, for the first time, herbivore paleodiet, ecomorphometry and palaeobotanical data to gain a clear view of the Neanderthals' environment and interactions with their biotope. The project will focus on the Northwestern Mediterranean basin during the MIS 4 and 3 assess Neanderthal adaptations to climatic instability at the verge or their extinction. ToothClues aims to obtain an accurate image of Neanderthal biotopes on two geographical scales and three time scales.
Objective
Several methods are used in Pleistocene paleoenvironmental reconstitution, such as, biochemical, eco-morphologicals, dental wear or pollen analyses. The rigorous comparison and inclusion of several paleoenvironmental proxies in a single study is still in its early stages. Yet, these methods are complementary and their inclusion could bring greater precisions to the knowledge of local and regional paleoenvironmental. Toothclues is a multi-disciplinary and innovative project which aims, for the first time, to compare and combine herbivore paleodiet, eco-morphometry and paleobotanical data, obtaining a clear picture of the environment where Neanderthal groups lived and precise interactions between them and their biotope in three temporal scales. This study will focus on the North-western part of the Mediterranean basin (France and Spain) during the MIS 4 and 3 in order to evaluate Neanderthal adaptations to the climatic instability. We selected three archaeological sites in which both faunal and botanical elements were available in situ and well preserved. This study requests several areas of expertise and tools to be conducted. First, the diet of the ungulates will be determined using dental wear analysis. Then, post-cranial bones of ungulates will be studied through morphological and metric analyses using Geometric Morphometrics. Next, pollen data from the same localities will be compiled with the help of specialists and combined with the faunal proxies through statistical analysis. The development of a new method to combine three proxies which refer to various geographical (local/regional) and time (decades/years/season) scales will bring new information about paleoenvironmental features for the North-western part of the Mediterranean basin during MIS 4 and 3 with a great precision. Ultimately, ToothClues aim to understand the interaction between environment, preys and humans in order to evaluate the adaptability and resilience of Neanderthal societies.
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. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- humanities history and archaeology archaeology ethnoarchaeology
- medical and health sciences health sciences nutrition
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
43007 Tarragona
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.