photo: Roman Meier

As Director of the Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology, I focus my scientific work on the 1st century AD in Central, Northern and Eastern Europe. The interrelations between the Roman Empire and the Barbarian period are as much the focus of my interest as the development of social elites in Northern Europe. Another research focus is the archaeology of the Iron Age of former East Prussia. My activities in the field of science communication are closely linked to the UNESCO World Heritage sites Danewerk and Haithabu, with the large museums in Schleswig representing central mediation units.

Keywords: Archaeology of the 1st millennium AD in Central, Northern and Eastern Europe, science communication

photo: Kinka Tadsen © Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen

Marta Dal Corso is a postdoctoral researcher in archaeobotany specialised in phytolith analysis and palynology. She explores plant uses and cultivation in the past and the relationships between human activities and natural environments. Her education at the University of Padua (Italy) was followed by her PhD on the environment in Bronze Age Northern Italy at the Graduate School ‘Human Development in Landscapes’, Kiel University (Germany). In Kiel, she has been employed as an assistant to the chair of Environmental Archaeology and worked as a researcher in the CRC 1266 on Copper Age Eastern Europe and on the spread of millet in Europe. In 2021, she coordinated the 12th International Meeting for Phytolith Research at Kiel University and collaborates with the DEI-Amman to investigate environmental changes at Tall Zira’a (Jordan). Finally, she has focused on routine activities within ROOTS and within her forthcoming job in the ERC GEODAP in Padova (Italy).

Keywords: Archaeobotany, palaeoecology, prehistoric archaeology, palynology, pollen analysis, bioarchaeology, experimental archaeology, environmental archaeology, Bronze Age, vegetation

The focus of my research is on human environmental interaction in the past. How did people use resources and how did they transform the environment into a cultural landscape? I am dealing with natural as well as cultural archives in the form of soils, sediments and peat deposits. I use pollen, non-pollen-palynomorphs, micro-charcoal, and chemical and physical features of the deposits to reconstruct environmental change with high time resolution and precise dating. The combination of on-site, near-site and off-site studies enables adifferentiation between local, regional and supra-regional processes.

My research focuses on past human-environment interactions in semi-arid and arid environments, specifically in Southwest Asia. My approaches have been broad, from studying the impact of climate change on early farming societies throughout SW Asia using radiocarbon dates, remote sensing and ground survey of smaller areas, to isotope studies of specific sites. In ROOTS, I am part of the Archaeological Stable Isotope Laboratory, where I focus both methodologically on what variables affect plant and animal isotopes and on applying stable isotope analysis to Neolithic archaeological samples from the Southern Levant to understand past environments, agricultural practices, pastoralism, and mobility. I also direct a survey project in the Karak region in Jordan.

In my research, I am particularly investigating and interested in social archaeological topics involving multiple proxies and empirical data. With an interdisciplinary approach, I conduct research on human-environment dynamics during the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, the emergence of social inequality, and demographic development during the Holocene. The main geographic focus of my research encompasses Central and Western Europe, primarily Central and Southern Germany.

Keywords: Social inequality, human-environment dynamics, demography, Neolithic, Bronze Age

photo: Michelle van Dijk 2018

My research is focused in the reconstruction of former landscapes and its relationship to settlements. In my work, I apply standard geophysical prospection methods such as active seismics and geoelectrical measurements. Additionally, I develop and improve new measuring approaches, for example, passive seismics and in situ measurements. The aim is to derive the structure and the properties of the upper most 10 m of the subsurface.

• Human-climate interaction, with special focus on the development during the last 10,000 years and with a regional focus on the Eastern Mediterranean and South America

• Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction as a basis for modeling future climate development

•  Environmental reconstruction based on sedimentary analyses, radiocarbon dating and faunal assemblages

• Carbon cycle and hydrological cycle, groundwater renewal