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Spectroscopy and Geochemistry of chert. Reconstructing human mobility in the Pyrenees from the first Modern Humans to the last Pleistocene hunter-gatherers

Descripción del proyecto

Las primeras adaptaciones de los seres humanos a unas condiciones difíciles

¿Qué sabemos de la movilidad de los grupos de cazadores-recolectores que vivieron hace 11 000-35 000 años en Europa occidental? ¿Cómo interactuaron con las zonas montañosas durante las última glaciación? Para responder a estas preguntas, el equipo del proyecto SPEGEOCHERT, financiado por el Consejo Europeo de Investigación, se centrará en la cordillera de los Pirineos. Mediante el estudio de las herramientas líticas y de las fabricadas con chert, se desvelarán las estrategias económicas y adaptativas del «Homo sapiens» del Paleolítico superior. El objetivo es determinar si la movilidad entre las dos partes de los Pirineos se realizaba únicamente a través de los extremos de la cordillera o si implicaba rutas secundarias. Los resultados ampliarán nuestro conocimiento de las adaptaciones de los seres humanos a las condiciones difíciles y cambiarán el planteamiento arqueológico del análisis de las materias primas líticas.

Objetivo

In Palaeolithic archaeology, steep mountain ranges have been perceived as geographical barriers, impeding human mobility from the territories that flank them on both sides. This is the case of the Pyrenean mountain chain, a key area for studying mobility and territoriality of prehistoric hunter-gatherers, especially during the last glaciation (c. 120.000 11.000 BP), due to its geographic location and harsh environmental conditions. The Pyrenees were until recently considered by archaeologists as a complete hindrance to human mobility and the only possibility, it was thought, was through the less abrupt extremes. However, in my earlier work I was able to suggest that humans may have crossed over the mountains by several alternative itineraries, proposing that the classic view is most probably wrong. These works were based on a new approach to the analysis of prehistoric chert tools using geochemical methods and it is in this context that the SPEGEOCHERT project aims to investigate.
The project will innovatively employ an array of interdisciplinary methods to explore the possible routeways humans followed through the Pyrenees to overcome the rough milieu. This pioneering approach will be based on portable, low-cost, non-destructive, fast and accurate techniques consisting on the use of reflectance spectroscopy combined with geochemistry and the application of multi-variate statistics and GIS to develop predictive modelling. Through the analysis of large series of materials directly at the museums, the SPEGEOCHERT project will create a novel data corpus with accurate information related to the geological chert sources exploited by Palaeolithic groups. The results obtained in this project will not only significantly broaden our knowledge on human adaptations to harsh ecological conditions and the understanding of mobility through mountains, but will also radically change the archaeological approach to the analysis of lithic raw materials.

Ámbito científico (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS clasifica los proyectos con EuroSciVoc, una taxonomía plurilingüe de ámbitos científicos, mediante un proceso semiautomático basado en técnicas de procesamiento del lenguaje natural.

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Régimen de financiación

HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

Institución de acogida

UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA
Aportación neta de la UEn
€ 1 500 000,00
Dirección
GRAN VIA DE LES CORTS CATALANES 585
08007 Barcelona
España

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Región
Este Cataluña Barcelona
Tipo de actividad
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Enlaces
Coste total
€ 1 500 000,00

Beneficiarios (1)