Project Leader: Dr. Magdalena Krajcarz
Project Description
The major challenges of the contemporary world—climate change, overpopulation, loss of biodiversity, and animal adaptations to urbanized environments—place bioarchaeology and ancient environment studies at the center of modern science. The research strategies of the team focus on the origins and transformations of these fundamental issues—their prehistory and history, as well as forecasting their future trajectories. The main objective of the project is to identify key moments in the transformations of Europe’s natural environment and their connections with developing human cultures and societies.
The project employs modern methods in archaeological research of organic remains (biomolecular indicators, stable isotopes, ancient DNA), while integrating traditional bioarchaeological approaches and situating them in archaeological and historical contexts. Research methods include:
- Archaeological excavations at selected sites
- Reconstruction of past vegetation and its changes
- Paleoecology and history of wild and domesticated animals
- Biomolecular and biogeochemical analyses
Strategic Objectives
The project aims to understand how past biocenoses responded to the gradually increasing influence of humans. Practical aspects include:
- Behavioral adaptations of wild fauna as responses to the emergence of new landscapes and food resources
- Human and animal well-being in the context of diet quality and health
- Changes in biodiversity, including loss of forest fauna, as well as understudied cases of species transgression into anthropogenic environments, increasing local biodiversity
- Transmission of pathogens within the human–domestic animal–wild animal system
Research Team and Resources
The team comprises researchers from the Institute of Archaeology, specializing in several sub-disciplines, including archaeozoology (Prof. D. Makowiecki), archaeobotany (Dr. Hab. A. Noryśkiewicz, Prof. UMK), molecular bioarchaeology (Dr. M. Krajcarz), archaeology (Prof. W. Chudziak, Dr. Hab. M. Sudoł-Procyk), and environmental history (Prof. A. Izdebski). The project is based on extensive bioarchaeological collections housed at the Institute, including human and animal skeletal remains, coprolites, palynological cores, and plant macroremains, spanning from the Late Pleistocene to the present. Well-established collaboration with other teams in Poland and abroad ensures broad access to additional collections. Fieldwork conducted by the team provides invaluable fossil material.
Collaboration and Future Perspectives
The project envisions cooperation with other research groups in archaeology and environmental history. Future development includes expanding collaboration with disciplines such as history, geography, geology, biology, anthropology, and mathematical modeling, with the goal of integrating past research with predictive models of present and future interactions between the ecosphere and the anthroposphere.