Überblick
Project MIGRATE seeks to offer novel insights into population dynamics and range shifts that resulted in dispersals from the Eastern Mediterranean mainland to the island of Cyprus at a critical period (Late Pleistocene, 45-12 kya) through stochastic spatial modelling. This advanced modelling will significantly enhance our understanding of timing, and climatic and social factors important in the initial colonisation of Cyprus. The proposed project aims to establish new research domains in the field of Cypriot archaeology extending traditional chronological frontiers beyond the Holocene (current Warm Period), encompassing innovative and interdisciplinary methodologies at the forefront of archaeological research.
The potential of the Mediterranean islands in elucidating the antiquity of human dispersals into insular environments and coastal adaptations has remained largely unexplored due to the prevailing assumption of the sea as a barrier to human movement and of islands as “hostile” environments to early hunter-gatherers. MIGRATE challenges these outdated narratives and proposes an innovative multi-disciplinary approach to fast-track the study of the Pleistocene in the Eastern Mediterranean true islands, with a special focus on Cyprus. Clear evidence for the successful early exploitation of insular environments in other parts of the world (e.g. Indo-Pacific region) as far back as 100 kya highlights the need to revisit these questions in the Mediterranean and test their validity in the light of new technologies, field methods and data.
