Ferran Antolin

Ferran Antolin

Leiter des Referats Naturwissenschaften

Referat für Naturwissenschaften, Zentrale-ZWA, Zentrale

Ferran.Antolin@dainst.de

Head of the Division of Natural Sciences

I am an archaeobotanist interested in farmers across history: the plants they grew or gathered, how they were grown, tended, harvested and stored, how they were processed and used, how labour was organized, how risk was predicted and avoided, how farmers reacted to catastrophes and climate change, and that all of this tells us about past societies as well as about current society. Interdisciplinarity has always been paramount to my research and hence this is our main goal at the Division.

My research focuses on plant economy from the origins of farming until the Medieval period. I lead the archaeobotany team at the DAI, with one technician and several bachelor, master and PhD students. I participate in numerous projects at the DAI in North Africa, Croatia, Turkey, Iran and Mongolia, but also of other German universities working in Egypt and Irak. My own research projects are in Southern Europe. I coordinate the Research Cluster GroundCheck together with Ingo Heinrich and lead a project within KulturGutRetter aiming to predict the effects of climate change on archaeological sites.

I am also teaching Introduction to Archaeobotany and have taught for several years Domestication of Plants at the University of Basel. Currently I am designing a new lecture on Farming strategies and social structures.

Publikationen

Tabellarischer Lebenslauf

Seit 2021
Adjunct Professor for Archaeobotany at the University of Basel

Seit 2021
Head of the Division of Natural Sciences at the German Archaeological Institute.

2018 – 2021
SNSF Professor, leading the AgriChange Project at the University of Basel

2014 – 2017
Post-Doctoral Researcher at the University of Basel.

2009 – 2013
PhD Student at the Autonomous University of Barcelona

El projecte «AgriChange» (2018-2022) ha estudiat evidències relacionades amb les pràctiques agrícoles d’una sèrie de jaciments clau per al neolític del nord-oest de la Mediterrània.  L’objectiu és identificar moments de canvi en els cultius i establir-ne els factors detonants.