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Environmental TRANSFORmations in the context of the last hunter-gatherers and first agropastoral groups of the MEDiterranean Alps

Project description

From foragers to farmers: tracing how nature shaped human culture

As the last hunter-gatherers gave way to the first farming communities, humans began seeing the land not just as a source of survival but as something to shape and manage. This shift was deeply influenced by climate and geography. In the Mediterranean Alps, a crossroads between Central Europe and the Mediterranean coast, climate fluctuations played a powerful role in shaping human mobility and cultural change. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the TRANSFORMED project is exploring this moment, combining archaeology with high-resolution palaeoecological and climate data. By aligning environmental and cultural events, the team hopes to reveal how early societies adapted and what this can teach us about resilience in today’s world.

Objective

The transition period from the last hunter-gatherers to the first agropastoral groups marked a significant turning point in how humans understood the landscape and their relationship with environmental processes. In this context, the Mediterranean Alps played a key role as a natural corridor connecting the Mediterranean to Central Europe, making the region a hotspot for human mobility and cultural exchange. Notably, this area is highly sensitive to climate fluctuations, and some of these environmental changes may have influenced mobility and resource availability, shaping the cultural dynamics of the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition.
TRANSFORMED aims to deepen our understanding of human-environment relationships during this period through a high-resolution interdisciplinary approach. By integrating newly generated decadal-scale palaeoecological and hydroclimatic data with existing environmental and archaeological records into a common calibration model, we will precisely assess the timing of natural and cultural events and help bridge regional gaps in the archaeological record.
Comparing the timing of environmental and cultural transformations is essential for understanding how past and modern societies have responded to the challenges of climate change. By examining major cultural shifts within the dynamic landscapes of the past, TRANSFORMED will provide valuable long-term perspectives into human adaptations to environmental changes. Insights from this critical period when humans emerged as a powerful force of change within the Earth system are crucial for understanding and mitigating both the environmental and societal effects of climate change.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01

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Coordinator

CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS
Net EU contribution
€ 226 420,56
Address
RUE MICHEL ANGE 3
75794 Paris
France
Region
Ile-de-France Ile-de-France Paris
Activity type
Research Organisations
Links
Total cost
No data

Partners (1)