Projects
Dendara in the shadow of the temple. Cultural and natural landscape archaeology of an ancient Egyptian city from Prehistory to Late Antiquity KU Leuven
This project aims to investigate the archaeological site of Dendara, one of the most important cities in Upper Egypt during antiquity, in order to address the question of the sustainability of an ancient community in the face of Nilotic-Egyptian environmental, social and economic challenges from Prehistory to late Antiquity. The project is set around four key interconnected archaeological areas, crucial to a greater understanding of the ...
The impact of the physical characteristics of flint and their weathering on the preservation of prehistoric use wear traces Ghent University
The present project aims at analyzing the relationship between the technical properties of flint artefacts from the Scheldt valley and the origin and weathering of their micro wear traces. By characterizing the intrinsic properties, combined with functional experiments as well as weathering experiments, a new 3D registration protocol will follow the evolution of the micro wear traces in relation to the structure of the flint.
Late Prehistoric (8000-2000 BC) communities in marginal landscapes. Investigating human-environment interactions in the Western Taurus Mountains, SW Turkey KU Leuven
Our current knowledge of Late Prehistoric (8000-2000 BC) communities in Anatolia is primarily based on evidence from a number of well-known settlements in areas suitable for agriculture. Next to nothing is known about sites in other landscape units such as marginal mountainous areas. The proposed research aims to fill this gap in knowledge by shedding light on how different landscape units were incorporated into the cultural landscape, ...
Studying the origin and use of the oldest prehistoric pottery in north Belgium using high-end mass spectrometric methods Ghent University
Prehistoric pottery sherds from the Scheldt basin will be analyzed via high-end mass spectrometric techniques. Elemental “fingerprinting” and isotopic analysis of selected elements within the clay fraction will be relied on for provenancing the clay. Compound-specific isotopic analysis of absorbed organic residues will reveal the diet of the users, which will also aid in adequate sampling for reliable radiocarbon dating.
The evolution of prehistoric occupation in Sandy Flanders from an environmental perspective Ghent University
The present project aims at an interdisciplinary, GIS-related study of the land-use systems in Sandy Flanders (NW Belgium) from the late Stone Age (ca. 13,000 uncal. BP) until the Roman period. The main aim is to investigate the role and impact of the environment (vegetation, climate, soil) on the preshistoric settlement system in a multitemporal framework. The project will focus on 3 to 4 core-areas, 2 with a low site-density ("empty ...
Backup mandate Research Council: Through Bared Teeth: Using Incremental Dentine and Enamel Sampling and Isotopic Analyses to Recreate In-Life Mobility Patterns and Diet in Prehistoric Humans. Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Drowning landscapes along the Scheldt. Threat or opportunity? Shifting prehistoric land-use along changing waterways during the Early and Middle Holocene Ghent University
During the last two decades, large scale infrastructure works along the Lower Scheldt river, in particular in the Waasland Scheldt polders (NW-Belgium), have revealed deeply buried and well preserved prehistoric landscapes and archaeological sites from the end of the last ice age about 11000 years ago until the arrival of the first farmers about 6500 years ago. The combination of the paleolandscape and archaeological data retrieved from ...
The life and thought of northern prehistoric hunter-gatherers: ethnographical and ethnoarchaeological theory and analysis of the behavioral and material expression of the relationship between ideology and ecology Ghent University
The research proposal consists of the application of the new anthropological paradigm to the study of northern European prehistoric hunter-gatherers with specific focus on the relationship between ecology - the reality of the world in which human beings must survive - and ideology - the human cognition and perception of that world. The new anthropological paradigm sees ecology and ideology as dynamic and dialectic entities, whose relationship ...
Geotechnical and archaeological prospection: drilling and probes for detecting deeply buried paleo landscapes -bodems and prehistoric sites. Ghent University
The overall objective of this project is the integration of geotechnical drilling and sondeermethoden in archaeological evaluation of sealed prehistoric landscapes and sites.