The Impact of Water Stress on Early Humans in the Kalahari Desert. This project aims to understand the impacts of water stressed environments for early modern human behaviour through state-of-the-art excavation techniques and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction at two new archaeological sites in the Kalahari. How humans mitigated water stress during a major technological transition is significant because adaptability to arid environments was crucial for humans expanding beyond Africa and into Aus ....The Impact of Water Stress on Early Humans in the Kalahari Desert. This project aims to understand the impacts of water stressed environments for early modern human behaviour through state-of-the-art excavation techniques and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction at two new archaeological sites in the Kalahari. How humans mitigated water stress during a major technological transition is significant because adaptability to arid environments was crucial for humans expanding beyond Africa and into Australia. The expected outcome of this project is creation of new knowledge on the origins of human resilience to water stress. The benefit lies in the potential to gain insights into meeting future climate challenges by exploring the adaptive strategies developed by early modern humans in the southern Kalahari.Read moreRead less
Environmental and cultural change along the Central Murray River. The aim of this project is to understand how past people in the riverine landscapes of the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) were influenced by and adapted to environmental change. This will be achieved using a novel cross-disciplinary approach combining state-of-the-art palaeoenvironmental and archaeological methods. Indigenous people of the MDB have always been closely linked to rivers, however, over the period of human habitation flow ....Environmental and cultural change along the Central Murray River. The aim of this project is to understand how past people in the riverine landscapes of the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) were influenced by and adapted to environmental change. This will be achieved using a novel cross-disciplinary approach combining state-of-the-art palaeoenvironmental and archaeological methods. Indigenous people of the MDB have always been closely linked to rivers, however, over the period of human habitation flows on these rivers were likely subject to changes that exceeded present-day variability. Understanding how these changes have impacted humans, offers clues on adaption to environmental change and aids in developing strategies for living with the inherently variable and vulnerable rivers in drylands.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210101348
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$369,913.00
Summary
Melting Futures: An Environmental History of the Himalayan Cryosphere. The Himalaya’s cryosphere (or frozen realm) has underpinned Monsoonal Asia’s climate and water supply for millennia, and now it is disappearing. This project forecasts the Himalaya’s melting future by documenting how its ice has shaped Asia’s past and produced its present. Focusing on the period since the end of the Little Ice Age (the mid-1800s), it investigates the climatic, cultural and geopolitical causes of ice loss, and ....Melting Futures: An Environmental History of the Himalayan Cryosphere. The Himalaya’s cryosphere (or frozen realm) has underpinned Monsoonal Asia’s climate and water supply for millennia, and now it is disappearing. This project forecasts the Himalaya’s melting future by documenting how its ice has shaped Asia’s past and produced its present. Focusing on the period since the end of the Little Ice Age (the mid-1800s), it investigates the climatic, cultural and geopolitical causes of ice loss, and asks how they have influenced and intensified each other. The project’s multifaceted approach to the cryosphere challenges the current fragmented debates on the melting ice, and will, therefore, generate improvements in cryosphere management.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200100890
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$427,082.00
Summary
Rapid climate change, early modern human dispersal, and Neanderthal demise. Why are we the only surviving human species? This project aims to investigate whether seasonal environmental changes associated with rapid climate change events played a role in the expansion of our own species and the demise of Neanderthals between 60,000-30,000 years ago. The project will generate quantitative, sub-seasonal records of past climate variability using novel multi-proxy analyses from key archaeological sit ....Rapid climate change, early modern human dispersal, and Neanderthal demise. Why are we the only surviving human species? This project aims to investigate whether seasonal environmental changes associated with rapid climate change events played a role in the expansion of our own species and the demise of Neanderthals between 60,000-30,000 years ago. The project will generate quantitative, sub-seasonal records of past climate variability using novel multi-proxy analyses from key archaeological sites, offering a framework for understanding early human responses to extreme climate fluctuations. This may inform our strategies for coping with future extreme scenarios. These unparalleled records will also provide data to test and refine climate models, enabling a better understanding of Earth’s climate system. Read moreRead less
Saving the world the first time: global climate theory and desiccation 1765-1960. Advocates of the world's first global climate theory asserted that deforestation caused desertification. Understanding how this theory, called desiccation theory, launched and guided the world-wide environmental movement helps us to better understand the benefits and problems associated with our present-day climate theory-global warming.
The dynamics of human environment interactions in late Pleistocene and Holocene highland New Guinea: a study of the Ivane valley. The project will investigate how access to starchy plant foods facilitated the movement of colonizing peoples into new environments, and was critical to survival in Sahul (Ice Age Australia/New Guinea). It will aid in understanding the dynamics of human responses to the impacts of climate change.
Resolving the Maya climate-collapse hypothesis. This project aims to test the climate-collapse theory by developing detailed records of climate and social change from Maya cities that did not collapse, and in doing so identify why some cities were more resilient to the impact of climatic variability than others. Catastrophic climate variability is often invoked to explain the historic collapse of large low-density urban centres in the global tropics. The collapse of the Maya civilisation of Cent ....Resolving the Maya climate-collapse hypothesis. This project aims to test the climate-collapse theory by developing detailed records of climate and social change from Maya cities that did not collapse, and in doing so identify why some cities were more resilient to the impact of climatic variability than others. Catastrophic climate variability is often invoked to explain the historic collapse of large low-density urban centres in the global tropics. The collapse of the Maya civilisation of Central America after the 8th century AD is the archetypal social collapse yet, despite robust evidence for drought across Central America, archaeological evidence suggests a heterogenous social response. This project will reveal what social, material, or environmental properties facilitated resiliency in historic urban centres confronting climatic variability.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190100160
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$410,175.00
Summary
The environment and human origins in the Kalahari, South Africa. This project aims to test and expand on existing understandings of early modern human origins and human-environment interaction. South Africa has a rich archaeological record documenting the origins of our species. However, current research is biased toward coastal rockshelter sites. This project will expand the narrative of modern human origins away from the coast to investigate the distribution and success of early modern humans ....The environment and human origins in the Kalahari, South Africa. This project aims to test and expand on existing understandings of early modern human origins and human-environment interaction. South Africa has a rich archaeological record documenting the origins of our species. However, current research is biased toward coastal rockshelter sites. This project will expand the narrative of modern human origins away from the coast to investigate the distribution and success of early modern humans in the deep interior of the country. Through the excavation and dating of newly discovered deposits at Gamohana Hill North Rockshelter, archaeological materials analysis, and local studies of palaeohydrology, this study will generate a new record of early human-environment interaction. Its methods will inform the study of comparable sites in Australia.Read moreRead less
Settlement sustainability and societal change in the ancient Mediterranean: the case of Zagora. A settlement becomes a community when its physical design supports its social structure and thrives when diversity secures its economic base. Probing the failure of once-prosperous centers like 8th-century BC Zagora will illuminate past approaches to issues of settlement sustainability in the face of environmental, social and economic challenge.
Hazards, Tipping Points, Adaptation and Collapse in the Indo-Pacific World. The project aims to provide a new understanding of Indo-Pacific history post-1000 based on an improved understanding of the interrelationship between natural environmental cycles and events, and social and political cycles and events. By employing specialists and methodologies in both the social and natural sciences, the project aims to identify tipping points or thresholds beyond which both social and natural systems ch ....Hazards, Tipping Points, Adaptation and Collapse in the Indo-Pacific World. The project aims to provide a new understanding of Indo-Pacific history post-1000 based on an improved understanding of the interrelationship between natural environmental cycles and events, and social and political cycles and events. By employing specialists and methodologies in both the social and natural sciences, the project aims to identify tipping points or thresholds beyond which both social and natural systems change irrevocably. The anticipated outcome of the project highlights the importance of natural hazards as potential catalysts of historical change. Current societies might learn from these experiences to better understand disaster risk reduction in the context of anticipated climate variability.Read moreRead less