Project description
Investigating submerged Paleolithic sites
Our understanding of human evolution has been skewed towards terrestrial data, overlooking crucial information preserved in submerged sites. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the PUMA project will investigate submerged Palaeolithic sites to understand the preservation of microarchaeological materials. Using innovative techniques such as quantification of micro-remains (e.g. phytoliths, ash pseudomorphs), carrying out mineralogical and elemental analyses on thin sections, and drawing on knowledge from experimental archaeology, the project will merge micro-geoarchaeology and experimentation to generate highly relevant findings. Ultimately, the project will establish a new methodological framework for studying submerged Palaeolithic sites, thereby offering new avenues for the scientific community while safeguarding our cultural heritage against the threats posed by rising sea levels and seabed exploitation.
Objective
Our current knowledge about human evolution is biased toward terrestrial data whereas some crucial information is stored in sites
that are now submerged since the terminal Pleistocene. In dry-land archaeology, the combination of micro-evidences (through
paleobotanical, geoarchaeological, and experimental data) has revealed new information. My project aims to explore the applicability
of these approaches for the investigation of submerged Paleolithic sites by tackling two main questions:1) What kind of microarchaeological materials are preserved in submerged Paleolithic sites? 2) Why do anthropogenic micro-remains (e.g. phytoliths, ash
pseudomorphs) preserve in submerged sites? With the new set of techniques (phytolith morphotype and taphonomy, mineralogical
and elemental analysis on thin sections) and knowledge (experimental archaeology, Paleolithic period) to be learned as a Global
Fellow at Rutgers University (USA) and in the Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behaviour at the
University of Algarve (Portugal), I will provide a new methodological background needed to investigate submerged Paleolithic sites.
The combination of micro-geoarchaeology to detect submerged Paleolithic sites and experimentation to explain their preservation
will yield highly relevant results. The exploitation of new evidence off the continental shelf will open unique ways for the scientific
community while providing the base to protect our cultural heritage from sea-level rising and the exploitation of the seabed. This
project will turn me into a unique transdisciplinary and versatile underwater archaeologist at the forefront of archaeological science
advances, with a breadth of expertise. I will share practices with marine scientists, paleobotanists, geoarchaeologists, and underwater
archaeologists in multiple periods and regions, hence preparing for my employment in tenure positions in the fields of archaeology
and marine science.
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.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
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Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-GF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global FellowshipsCoordinator
8005 139 Faro
Portugal