Project description
The impact of medieval industries on river ecosystems
Rivers in Western Europe have faced severe anthropogenic impacts, such as pollution and biodiversity loss, since the medieval and post-mediaeval periods. Despite historical records, the extent of these impacts remains largely unconfirmed through archaeological research. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the FRESH project, focused on Flanders, aims to bridge this gap by examining how freshwater fish exploitation and ecosystem health evolved alongside socio-economic and environmental changes. By applying advanced bioarchaeological techniques like palaeoproteomics and isotope analysis to ancient fish bones, the project will offer insights into past biodiversity, pollution, and habitat degradation. These findings will provide pre-modern baselines to support conservation efforts, helping restore one of Europe’s most dynamic ecosystems.
Objective
Historical records indicate that the onset of severe anthropogenic impacts on rivers, such as pollution and biodiversity loss, in western Europe started during the medieval and postmedieval periods due to an increase in cities and industries. This has not been extensively confirmed on a wide scale by archaeological research. In order to provide necessary pre-modern baselines to support modern day conservation in one of Europe’s most extensive and dynamic habitat types, an in-depth bioarchaeological approach is needed.
The aim of this interdisciplinary project, Flanders' Riverine Exploitation and ecoSystems throughout History (FRESH), is to determine how freshwater fish exploitation and ecosystem health changed during the medieval and postmedieval periods in relation to socio-economic and human-induced environmental changes in Flanders, an industry rich region at these times.
To obtain these insights, I will refine and apply palaeoproteomic, elemental (Hg and Pb) and isotope (C, N, S, O, and Sr) analyses of archaeological freshwater fish bones from various sites in Flanders to make species-specific interpretations on the geographical origin of the fish, their ecology, and pollution of their environments. The obtained pre-modern baselines of historical species diversity, habitat degradation and the long-term effects of pollution on river environments are used to evaluate and support modern-day conservation.
My current knowledge of historical aquatic exploitation and skills in bioarchaeology make me ideally suited for this project. In order to successfully implement FRESH, I will conduct the interdisciplinary research and receive hands-on training in the relevant analysis techniques at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and during the secondment at the University of York under the guidance of Prof. Christophe Snoeck and Dr. Jessica Hendy respectively, who are both experts and leaders in their field.
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
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences environmental sciences pollution
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology ecosystems
- humanities history and archaeology archaeology bioarchaeology
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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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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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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-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01
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1050 Bruxelles / Brussel
Belgium
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