“Exploring the Dynamics and Causes of Prehistoric Land Use Change in the Cradle of European Farming (EXPLO)”: The Contribution of Palaeoecology

The ERC Synergy project EXPLO proposes a novel interdisciplinary approach to investigate key questions regarding the interaction between past human ways of life, land use and the wider environment through a unique combination of archaeological, biological and dynamic modelling approaches. More than 8 000 years ago, technological and social breakthroughs allowed the introduction of farming for the first time into Europe, Greece, from southwestern Asia. However, so far no high-resolution picture of how this revolutionary innovation interacted with the environment has been obtained. In this frame, palaeoecology will produce new radiocarbon-dated fine-resolution multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental records from a number of lakes located in northern Greece and the southern Balkans (e.g. Limni Zazari, Limni Vegoritida, Limni Volvi, Limni Orestias, Lake Ohrid, Drakolimni Smolikas) to gain detailed palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. We will analyse pollen, spores, charcoal, aDNA, HSI, XRF, GDGTs and δD to reconstruct the interactions between climatic variability (temperature, moisture), fire activity, herbivory, diversity, land use and vegetation dynamics. We will also accomplish calibration studies to refine the vegetation and climatic reconstructions. Additionally, we will use dynamic landscape modelling to better understand the underlying mechanisms driving ecosystems change.