GEL · Geo-archaeology in the European Loess

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Project objective

The purpose of this project is to relate early modern human use of the landscape to climatic and environmental cycles by means of sedimentological and micromorphological analyses of Moravian Quaternary loess. The topography of European mountains and associated loess accumulations come together to render Moravia among the best locales to recover evidence of and to study the behaviour of early modern humans.The natural corridor across the Moravian lowlands through the Moravian Gate serves as a chicane constraining the movement of humans and other species through the fluctuations of the Quaternary climate and environment.This corridor conserves deep loess deposits containing well-studied Palaeolithic sites, as well as buried soils and informative sediments. D r Jiri Svoboda of the Institute of Archaeology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic has been the principal archaeologist and main authority on these sites for many years, and has entered into a partnership with Cambridge to bring together contemporary and novel methods of archaeological and quaternary science, to address a key question about the seasonal movement of early modern humans in Europe.This is the context for a training programme of Dr Lenka Lisa. Dr Lisa already has substantial experience in sedimentological techniques, but could benefit greatly from developing skills in micromorphology (in the laboratory of Dr Charly French) and isotopic approaches within sedimentology (in the laboratory of Prof Nick McCave).Our proposal is for a two year fellowship at Cambridge for Dr Lisa, Incorporating fieldwork seasons in Moravia, to acquire skills available in the UK to apply to Central European issues.This will enable her to develop skills to take back to the Czech context, at the same time as contributing to the resolution of a key ecological issue in our understanding of the spread of modern humans into cold regions, an issue that has been key to the spread of humans across the Old World and New.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

• CHANCELLORS, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE · CAMBRIDGECoordinatorCity levelUnited Kingdom

Links

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