Emmy Noether Group SEAFRONT

The project focuses on the spread of the Neolithic in southern Europe 9,000–7,000 years ago, when large-scale climatic changes took place that may have directly caused this spread. In order to quantify this climatic influence, the Emmy Noether project analyses the shell finds of known Stone Age sites (Franchthi, Grotta dell’Uzzo, Grotta d’Oriente, Cyclops Cave and Haua Fteah) in the Mediterranean region, whose climatic archives have so far not been subjected to detailed analysis despite the long history of research on the area.

That this van now be done for the first time is made possible by technological advances, specifically the method of laser-induced plasma spectroscopy, which is capable of analysing large quantities of finds through rapid elemental mapping. We can now directly compare short-term weather conditions at sites with archaeological material and make confident statements about the impact of the environment on human behaviour.

The following questions are particularly interesting in this context:

1. Was the spread of the Neolithic slowed down by poor climatic conditions?
2. How comparable are climatic archives using different temporal (decades vs months) and spatial (100 km vs 100 m) scales?
3. At what point are changing weather conditions “extreme” and how resilient were Stone Age people to these conditions?