Project description
Ancient aqueducts reveal environmental past
Natural archives are crucial for understanding past environmental alterations and predicting future changes and their effects. Yet these archives are not connected with evidence for human settlement, which prevents research on the impacts of extreme natural events on urbanisation, society and economy. New archives near ancient urban centres in the Mediterranean threatened by drought and desertification will enrich our knowledge of past environmental changes and their effect on local society and economy. The EU-funded AQUEA project will focus on the Roman period, pioneering the use of calcium carbonate deposits from Roman aqueducts as a new high-resolution archive that delivers environmental and archaeological data for the area. This geoarchaeological study will focus on three aqueduct sites in southern France to investigate palaeoenvironmental changes in local water management, urbanisation and economy through infrastructure, texts, and archaeological databases.
Objective
Natural archives such as travertine, speleothems and tree-rings are used to understand past environmental changes and to predict effects of future changes. However, such archives lack a direct link with civilization centres where changes in socio-economy and urbanization, particularly in respond to extreme natural events, can be investigated. New archives are needed near ancient urban centres, especially for the Mediterranean with the threat of droughts and desertification. AQUEA presents calcium carbonate deposits from Roman aqueducts as a new high-resolution archive to obtain both environmental and archaeological data for the Mediterranean in the Roman period. AQUEA will be hosted at Oxford University at two departments: the School of Archaeology and Earth Sciences. AQUEA will use samples of carbonate from three aqueduct sites in Southern France; Nîmes, Arles and Bellegarde, to study palaeoenvironmental changes besides local water management, urbanization and economy during the Imperial Roman period: this requires interdisciplinary collaboration of archaeologists and natural scientists. Therefore, the ER will be supervised by specialists in Roman archaeology, particularly on water management and Roman economy, and in palaeoenvironmental proxy analysis. Archaeological investigations include: interpretation of water structures and their context; use of textual sources on ancient environment, economy and water management; the use of archaeological databases, notably on Roman economy; and the relation of carbonate formation to various structural elements. Research in aqueduct carbonates will apply existing techniques and novel approaches such as Calcium isotopes and use of the CaveCalc numerical forward-modelling program, to better interpret analytical results in terms of ancient environment and Roman land use. AQUEA will address questions on a local scale on changing Roman climate, its implications on Roman economy, urban development and societal changes.
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.
- natural sciences chemical sciences inorganic chemistry inorganic compounds
- natural sciences chemical sciences inorganic chemistry alkaline earth metals
- humanities history and archaeology archaeology
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences geology geomorphology speleology
- engineering and technology environmental engineering natural resources management water management
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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)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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.
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.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2019
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
OX1 2JD Oxford
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.