Project description
Medieval pig husbandry in wetland environments
Reconstructing animal husbandry and food production in medieval wetlands will enhance our understanding of past human-animal-environment interactions. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the AquaPig project aims to conduct zooarchaeological analyses of early medieval pig remains from two water-dominated environments: the final course of the River Rhine in the Netherlands and the Venetian Lagoon in Italy. It will reconstruct pig husbandry practices, landscape use, and the socio-economic significance of pork production, which has historically played a crucial role in local communities but remains under-researched. The project will combine traditional zooarchaeological methods, isotopic analyses of bones and teeth, and 3D dental microwear analyses. This approach is designed to highlight the similarities and differences between the regions.
Objective
The AquaPig project aims to conduct zooarchaeological analyses of early medieval pig remains in order to reconstruct animal husbandry practices and food production, which will in turn inform historical dynamics and contribute knowledge on past human-animal-environment interactions. It relies on a comparative approach of two study regions characterised by water-dominated environments: the final course of the river Rhine (the Netherlands) and the Venetian Lagoon (Italy).
The project will reconstruct in detail pig husbandry practices, landscape use linked to such activities, and the socio-economic significance of pork production, which played a major part in the food supply and development of local human communities but, to this date, remains largely under-researched. It will do so by applying an unprecedented combination of traditional zooarchaeological analyses, isotopic analyses on bones and teeth, and 3D dental microwear analyses, as well as by processing and integrating the evidence obtained from other disciplines, such as additional archaeological knowledge, history, environmental studies, and food science.
The comparative approach will highlight valuable similarities and differences between the two regions, stimulating interpretative insights; in addition, the historical value of the comparison lies in the fact that political and economic dynamics in these parts of northern and southern Europe have been shown to be interconnected, although the role of food production in local macro-developments is rarely considered.
AquaPig is designed to answer long-standing research questions in the zooarchaeology of domestic animals in wetland environments, parallels efforts made by other archaeological projects to highlight the role of humans and animals within specific environments, and reflects current growing interest in wetland research.
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
- agricultural sciences animal and dairy science domestic animals animal husbandry
- humanities history and archaeology archaeology bioarchaeology
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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.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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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.
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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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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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1050 Bruxelles / Brussel
Belgium
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