MedCoRes · Mediterranean Coastal Resources: benefits and constraints for Prehistoric hunters-gatherers
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2017-01-01 → 2018-12-31
- EU contribution
- €158,122
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Mediterranean Coastal Resources: benefits and constraints for Prehistoric hunters-gatherers
Coastal environments have long been attractive for societies but in the context of increasing risks associated with current global changes, populations living along the coasts are exposed to the consequence of rapid sea-level rise. What exactly will be the consequences of the sea-level on the environments? How people can accommodate with? Nine to eight thousand years ago, after the massive melting of ice sheet following the last glaciation, the global sea-level rose of almost 100 meters’ height, flooding the ancient coastal plains. People living at that time, the last hunter-gatherers, experienced rates of sea level rise and has to adapt to dramatic transformations of their environments, of similar or higher amplitude than the ones modelled for future. Studying past coastal adaptations can provide clues to understand human resilience to climate and environmental changes. The Project MedCoRes “Mediterranean Coastal Resources: benefits and constraints for Prehistoric hunters-gatherers” proposed to investigate how Mediterranean coastal ecosystems and climatic changes have affected settlement and subsistence patterns during the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition. Specifically, MedCoRes aimed to reconstruct the evolution of coastal landscapes in the close vicinity of well-known Mesolithic-Neolithic settlement area through the multi-proxy analysis of sediment cores of Pego-Oliva lagoon (Western Mediterranean). The objectives were the reconstruction of the past environmental changes in a well-constrain chronology and the comparison of the inferred environmental dynamics with archaeological datasets from the study area.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The Project “Mediterranean Coastal Resources: benefits and constraints for Prehistoric hunters-gatherers” aims to investigate how Mediterranean coastal ecosystems and climatic changes over the last 19,000 years have affected settlement and subsistence patterns during the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition. Studying past human adaptation in coastal zones is a key research topic to understand processes of economic intensification and human resilience to environmental change.We propose to reconstruct the evolution of coastal landscapes around a well-known Mesolithic settlement area through the multi-proxy analysis of sediment cores of Pego lagoon (Gulf of Valencia, Spain). The objectives are: (a) the reconstruction of environmental changes through geomorphological, sedimentological and geochemical analysis and fossils of aquatic fauna in a well-constrain chronology, (b) the identification of vegetation cover changes through the analysis of pollen, spore and charcoal, which are linked to climatic change and human land-use, (c) the reconstruction of the frequency of storm surge marine events using sedimentological analysis, and (d) the evaluation of ecosystems services and vulnerability to human pressures through a comparison of the inferred palaeoenvironmental dynamics with archaeological datasets from the same study area.The hosting laboratory IPHES (University Rovira i Virgili, Spain) is the ideal institutional environment to develop the proposed research during the course of the fellowship and beyond. The researcher will be integrated within, and trained, in a strong collaborative and multidisciplinary network. This fellowship will reinforce the research experience, transferrable skills and audience and outreach of the candidate, and will thus be crucial for her future career.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- FUNDACIO PRIVADA INSTITUT CATALA DE PALEOECOLOGIA HUMANA I EVOLUCIO SOCIAL · TarragonaCoordinatorSpain
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union