European Commission logo
français français
CORDIS - Résultats de la recherche de l’UE
CORDIS

Life between houses: A multiscalar interdisciplinary investigation into the creation and use of settlement open spaces by the first sedentary communities

Description du projet

Espaces ouverts durant la transition néolithique

Le développement de l’architecture en briques crues est associé à l’essor des établissements humains il y a quelque 13 000 ans. Il est aussi marqué par la domestication des plantes et des animaux. Cependant, si les espaces bâtis sont largement étudiés, les espaces ouverts le sont beaucoup moins. Le projet PATIOS, financé par l’UE, examinera la création d’espaces ouverts pour étudier comment les premières communautés sédentaires ont fonctionné au niveau supra-ménage. En se concentrant sur les communautés de l’Holocène précoce au Proche-Orient, le projet développera une méthode multiscalaire et interdisciplinaire pour améliorer l’identification des résidus organiques microscopiques et moléculaires dans des séquences ouvertes. PATIOS qualifiera la diversité des formes et des processus taphonomiques influençant les espaces ouverts et apportera un éclairage complémentaire sur leurs concepts et leurs transformations.

Objectif

The emergence of sedentary life ca. 13,000 years ago marked the development of mudbrick architecture and the transition to new forms of human ecology based on plant and animal domestication. In this context, settlement open areas played a vital socio-economic role as the loci of discard practices, outdoor activities, and human-animal-environment interactions. However, while built environments are a recurrent research theme for this period, open spaces remain less studied. This oversight is partly due to the methodological and interpretative problems posed by open areas, often displaying complex stratigraphies consisting of superimposed microlayers and excavated in arbitrary units that do not represent units of deposition. The aim of PATIOS is to explore the constitution of open spaces to investigate how the earliest sedentarising and sustained sedentary communities operated at supra-household levels. The specific project goals are: 1) to develop a new multiscalar and interdisciplinary methodology for an improved identification of microscopic and molecular residues of organic nature in open sequences; 2) to characterise the variety of formation and taphonomic processes affecting open areas; and 3) to provide a wide diachronic and geographical understanding of the concepts and transformations of open spaces and the socio-cultural aspects related to their use. PATIOS will focus on early Holocene semi-mobile and sedentary communities in the Near East, one of the core areas of the Neolithic Transition. Through a multi-proxy methodological approach that combines spatial analyses, geoarchaeology, plant science, biochemistry and ethnoarchaeology, this project will explore the heterogeneity of the earliest settlement open areas, opening up a much-needed comparative path for the examination of local trajectories in their creation, transformation and use. Thus, PATIOS will contribute new insights into the rise and evolution of anthropogenic landscapes and ecologies.

Coordinateur

AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS
Contribution nette de l'UE
€ 241 398,72
Adresse
CALLE SERRANO 117
28006 Madrid
Espagne

Voir sur la carte

Région
Comunidad de Madrid Comunidad de Madrid Madrid
Type d’activité
Research Organisations
Liens
Coût total
€ 241 398,72