Project description
Prehistoric earthen architecture’s role in social transformation
As an architectural form, mudbricks emerged during the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age in Inland Iberia. With the spread of technological innovations, peasant communities started moving to the Western Mediterranean. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the IBEARTH project is examining the role of earthen architecture in social transformation from 1200 to 400 BC in the Douro and Mid-Upper Ebro basins. It will examine innovations such as mudbricks and painted walls through advanced analyses and interdisciplinary approaches. By viewing buildings as cultural artefacts, the project will create a framework for studying prehistoric architecture and contribute to discussions on technological transfer and gender roles in ancient construction.
Objective
IBEARTH explores how earthen architecture, particularly mudbrick construction, became a powerful marker of social transformation during the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age (c. 1200–400 BC) in inland Iberia. This pivotal moment witnessed the emergence of new architectural forms, the spread of technological innovations, and the consolidation of peasant communities in the Western Mediterranean. By focusing on the Douro and Mid–Upper Ebro basins, the project investigates how the introduction of mould-shaped mudbricks, the appearance of painted walls, and the persistence of earlier techniques reveal intertwined processes of innovation, adaptation, and cultural interaction.
Through a multi-scalar and interdisciplinary approach, IBEARTH integrates cutting-edge archaeometric analyses—ceramic petrography, micromorphology, phytolith analysis, and sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA)—with archaeological and ethnographic perspectives to illuminate how construction knowledge circulated, how labour was organised, and how architecture embodied social choices, framed within the chaîne opératoire theoretical approach. Rather than treating buildings as mere shelters, the project conceives them as cultural artefacts with biographies of their own, encoding memory, identity, and collective practices.
By delivering the first comprehensive study of earthen architecture in inland Iberia, IBEARTH will establish a transferable analytical framework for prehistoric and protohistoric buildings. Its outcomes will advance key debates on technological transfer, hybridisation, and resilience, while also promoting inclusive narratives that challenge conventional assumptions about gender roles and labour in ancient building practices.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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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 biological sciences genetics DNA
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences geology petrology petrography
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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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1010 Wien
Austria
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