Hidden Frontiers: longitudinal crop trajectories in the Alpine Arc

Dotted along lakeshores in the circum-Alpine region are archaeological settlements from the Neolithic to Iron Age. These exceptionally well preserved sites— variously referred as "pile dwellings", "lake villages", palafittiques and Pfahlbauten —provide a huge amount of information to archaeologists and other scientists about how people in the past lived their lives and interacted with their environments. 

Here we are exploring how human- and climate-driven changes impacted ancient Alpine agriculture systems. By learning how past crop systems responded to changes, we will provide invaluable information on crop adaptability and possible interventions needed in the face of climate change.

This project is supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) through the "Pushing the frontiers of environmental research" programme. The project will run from 2024 to 2028.