Behavioral and material culture response to environmental change in the north-eastern Carpathians and adjacent regions between 30 and 15 ka

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Frank Lehmkuhl; Professor Dr. Andreas Maier; Professor Dr. Thorsten Uthmeier; Dr. Christian Zeeden
• Subject Area: Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 554747946

The area between the north-eastern Carpathians and the Black Sea is unique in the Upper Palaeolithic record of Central and Eastern Europe for its density of sites covering the period of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), roughly 25 to 20 ka, while elsewhere, the evidence is strongly discontinuous, at best. Currently, it is the most likely refugium for hunter-gatherers during the LGM in Central Europe, a locus of cultural continuity, and a nucleus for subsequent expansions. The area stands out since 1) Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers there maintained the only continuously viable population throughout the LGM in Central Europe and 2) it provides geoscientific and archaeological archives with an unmatched opportunity to understand what environmental conditions and behavioural as well as material culture responses enabled their continuous presence and survival. In this project, an interdisciplinary team of researchers with complementary expertise on glacial environments and the Central European Upper Palaeolithic record will conduct an in-depth, high-resolution and diachronic analysis on regional ecological conditions, human and animal mobility and seasonality, social network dynamics, and tempo and mode of material culture change. By reconstructing a comprehensive picture of (i) the specific ecological situation between 30 and 15 ka (analyses of sediments, microfossils, wind proxies, soil formation type- and intensity, and permafrost phenomena) in connection with (ii) specific behavioural and material culture response patterns in terms of human mobility (analysis of lithic raw materials), technological responses and social networks (analysis of lithic and organic artefacts), and seasonality and prey patterns (analysis of faunal remains and isotopes) the project aims to understand exactly what (a) environmental conditions as well as (b) behaviour and elements of material culture enabled Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers to maintain the only continuously viable population throughout the LGM in Central Europe.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants