Over the last decade, archaeological research in both Scotland and Ireland has begun to overturn the notion that these regions at the extreme edge of north-west Europe were uninhabited (and uninhabitable) by humans – and numerous large mammalian species – in the Late Pleistocene. However, relatively little is known about the recolonizations, in part due to the lack of integrated, multi-disciplinary research that brings together a wealth of climatic, glacial, environmental, and topographic evidence for the world that late Pleistocene communities would have encountered.
This project will explore glacial dynamics of the retreating ice masses, topographic and environmental change in Late Pleistocene Scotland and Ireland as a means of determining the timing of (and ways in which) humans and other large animal species may have moved into these regions following the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Through the integration (and modelling) of diverse existing datasets and the identification (and filling) of knowledge gaps, the ultimate goal will be to produce a series of time-sliced environmental reconstructions across the region from the LGM until the end of the Pleistocene. These reconstructions will then be integrated with current archaeological and palaeontological data. This research will form a new foundation for our understanding of the potentials (and limitations) of human activity in these regions during this period of rapid climatic change, and biogeography of other large mammals, and will be significant in bridging the gap between earth sciences, palaeogeographical and archaeological research in the late Pleistocene.
The student will consider diverse and multi-proxy sources of evidence pertaining (but not limited) to ice extent and dynamic water ways (e.g., drainage systems and connections opening and closing), relative sea level, climate and atmospheric circulation, palaeoenvironment and palaeoecological context. Datasets will be integrated using GIS and/or modelling in order to reconstruct when, and how, the landscape was partitioned for faunal communities (including humans), identifying possible pathways of recolonization. Depending on the previous experience and specialisms of the student, and knowledge gaps identified, there would be the option to undertake limited field or laboratory research to provide additional evidence for the natural environment and/or human activity in specific regions of Scotland and/or Ireland. This could include the generation of new primary proxy data, and/or the wider consideration of archaeological and anthropological evidence for recolonization events and human -environmental/ -ice interactions from other regions.
More project details are available here: https://www.quadrat.ac.uk/quadrat-projects/
How to apply: https://www.quadrat.ac.uk/how-to-apply/
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