Project description
How prehistoric humans adapted to environmental changes
The Late Glacial period was marked by dramatic climate shifts and the return of hunter-gatherer communities to western Europe. During the Younger Dryas (YD), a decline in archaeological sites raised questions about population decreases and adaptations to environmental stress. The ERC-funded FROST project aims to investigate climate fluctuations during the YD. Specifically, it will study how these fluctuations impacted human populations and ecosystems. Using data records from 30 key sites, including speleothems, pollen, sedaDNA, sediments and reindeer remains, in combination with high-resolution dating using methods like radiocarbon dating and tephrochronology, the research aims to reconstruct climate variability, assess ecosystem responses, track reindeer movements and clarify the timing of human occupation.
Objective
The Late Glacial period, at the end of the Pleistocene, is marked by dynamic climatic and environmental changes. During this time, hunter-gatherers gradually recolonized Western Europe after a retreat of several millennia, representing a pivotal phase in the region’s population history. However, during the final climatic cooling of the Late Glacial, known as the Younger Dryas (ca. 12,850 to 11,650 cal BP; YD), the number of archaeological sites drastically reduced, raising questions about population decline, migration, and adaptation to severe environmental stress. Despite its significance, the human responses to these climatic shifts remain poorly understood.
The FROST project aims to bridge this gap by investigating the impact of climate fluctuations within the YD on human populations, mobility, subsistence strategies, and the ecosystems they depended on. The project uses a multi-proxy approach, integrating palaeoclimate, palaeoecological, and archaeological data from 30 key sites across Western Europe. This includes high-resolution analysis of speleothems (isotopes, trace elements), pollen, sedaDNA, sediments (granulometry, MS, LOI, micromorphology), and reindeer remains (isotopes) from archaeological sites. These data will be anchored with high-resolution dating using 14C, OSL, U/Th and tephrochronology.
FROST tackles four core challenges: (1) reconstructing regional climate variability within the YD, (2) assessing ecosystem responses to these climate shifts, (3) tracking reindeer herd movements, and (4) refining the timing and spatial dynamics of human occupation patterns. By integrating these datasets into demographic and spatiotemporal models, FROST will explore how prehistoric populations adapted to environmental changes. This will not only significantly advance our understanding of human recolonization during a crucial phase in Western Europe, but also provide insights relevant to contemporary climate challenges.
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. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- humanities history and archaeology history
- humanities history and archaeology archaeology ethnoarchaeology
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences atmospheric sciences climatology climatic changes
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences geology geomorphology speleology
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) ERC-2025-STG
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9000 Gent
Belgium
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