ArchSci2020

15 PhD students working at four leading research institutes will transverse cross-disciplinary boundaries between archaeology and the natural sciences and be given the skills to exploit the latest bioscience technologies to research processes and events that are central to some of the most important phases and dimensions of Northern Europe's past cultural development. The network will address the complex interactions between the peoples, cultures and environments of Northern Europe situated within the broader east-west interaction zones of the Circumpolar World.

Human-Environment Interactions

Archaeologists work with very long time perspectives, making it possible to investigate the interplay between environmental factors and cultural factors, and how this interplay has acted in the past, how it acts in the present and how it might act in the future.

Food & Health

The ability to gain direct information on health and diet directly from skeletal remains by combining osteological analysis with new isotopic and molecular techniques. Secondly, the identification of food remains associated with artefacts, such as pottery, offers direct evidence for understanding how new technologies transformed economies and culinary practices.

Technology, Innovation and Dispersal

Traditionally, archaeologists have understood many of the pivotal prehistoric technological developments in Northern Europe as the final links in a chain of related events that ultimately extend back to the Near East. This view is now being challenged as evidence for independent innovation and the dispersal of technologies across the circumpolar world is beginning to emerge.