Descripción del proyecto
Cómo la interacción entre el ser humano y las plantas posibilitó la agricultura
Todavía no conocemos del todo cómo los cazadores-recolectores comenzaron a manejar las plantas. El equipo del proyecto PalaeOrigins, financiado por el Consejo Europeo de Investigación, utiliza principalmente restos de plantas encontrados en yacimientos arqueológicos para estudiar cómo los cazadores-recolectores del Epipaleolítico (hace unos 23 000-11 600 años) manejaban sus tierras y recursos vegetales. También investigará si el clima o la dinámica cultural propiciaron la producción de alimentos vegetales. El proyecto presentará un método integral y de alta resolución para examinar la subsistencia a base de plantas.
Objetivo
The transition from foraging to farming represents one of the most transcendental shifts in the history of humanity. Decades of research in southwest Asia have shown that this process culminated with the development of Neolithic agricultural systems c. 10 ka cal. BP. Yet, how it started, that is, how hunter-gatherers became, for the first time, engaged with the management of plants, continues to be largely undetermined. Palaeorigins aims to fill this major gap of knowledge. Benefiting from the exceptional Epipalaeolithic archaeobotanical materials that are now available (c. 23-11 ka cal. BP), it will ask: To what extent were Epipalaeolithic hunter-gatherers managing the land and the plant resources around them? Did climatic factors trigger plant resource intensification, or were cultural dynamics, like the need for specific foodstuffs, that first motivated plant-food production? To achieve such an ambitious aim PalaeOrigins will pioneer a holistic and high-resolution approach to study the plant-based subsistence. It will use a unique combination of traditional and most novel archaeobotanical materials, state-of-the-art stable isotope analyses, computational science, and theoretical models to: 1) Reconstruct the distribution and availability of plant resources during the environmental shifts of the late Pleistocene and the early Holocene; 2) Determine how plant procurement strategies, land uses and management activities articulated during the Epipalaeolithic period; and 3) Define hunter-gatherers' food culture, assessing their plant-food selection, processing and consumption practices. Taken together, PalaeOrigins will move beyond traditional Neolithic-centred paradigms to explain the origins of plant-food production. It will open up new research horizons, merging science and theory, to elucidate the nature of the human-environment interactions that paved the way to agriculture, and ultimately, changed the course of our history.
Ámbito científico
- humanitieshistory and archaeologyhistoryprehistory
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencescomputational science
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesnutrition
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencespalaeontologypaleoecology
- humanitieshistory and archaeologyarchaeologybioarchaeology
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Régimen de financiación
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsInstitución de acogida
48940 Leioa
España