Project description
Revealing how ancient humans survived and expanded
Over the last decades, scientific discoveries have greatly enhanced our understanding regarding the origin and evolution of humans. However, it is not fully understood how ancient humans were able to expand while coping with increasing environmental diversity. The EU-funded TransCause project will investigate human population dynamics during the previous Ice Age by creating a comprehensive database of Palaeolithic occupations, combined with data on the evolution of mammals of the same period. This will help explain how humans were affected by climatic and environmental changes and how they adapted to the seasonal availability of resources. The goal is to reveal the mechanisms behind the flexibility that allowed humans to expand globally.
Objective
Over the past 25 years, knowledge of the origins, evolution and diversity of our species has increased dramatically. Yet, the behavioural mechanisms enabling their global expansion and ability to cope with ever-increasing ecological diversity are still not fully explored. Armenia, a little studied biodiversity hotspot of Eurasia, is an ideal natural laboratory for testing models of climatic impact on hominin settlement patterns and population dynamics due to its location at the crossroads of the Pleistocene hominin world. TransCause aims to expand the framework of population dynamics by building an intra-regional comparative database of Paleolithic occupations incorporating biological evolution of macro-and micro mammals using ancient DNA, as well as establishing refined environmental frameworks. The TransCause project focuses on two main research questions, what are the impacts of long-term climatic and environmental changes on hominin behavioural repertoire and population dynamics? And what are the adaptations of Pleistocene hominins to changing seasonal resource availability in the landscapes of Armenia? Past hunter-gatherer’s social networks would be studied as a possible solution for populations coping with such terrains. The results of the project will test the presence or absence of population resilience over time; moreover, it will evaluate hypotheses on hominin behavioural responses to variation in resource availability using multi-scalar models; ultimately, those results will examine and compare the population dynamics of humans, large mammals and small mammals against the backdrop of paleoenvironmental oscillations. Examining the ecological tipping point of survival in both hominids and mammals will change the way in which we grasp hominin population dynamics. This project will be of pivotal importance for understanding the economic, demographic and social mechanisms behind the behavioural elasticity which enabled our species to expand globally.
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 computer and information sciences databases
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics DNA
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology ecosystems
- natural sciences biological sciences zoology mammalogy
- social sciences sociology anthropology physical anthropology
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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.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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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.
ERC-STG - Starting Grant
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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) ERC-2020-STG
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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.
91904 JERUSALEM
Israel
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.