POSTGLACIAL: Comparative Perspectives on Cultural Responses to Postglacial Warming in Northern Eurasia

This new umbrella project aims to understand human cultural responses to the major climatic and environmental changes that marked the onset of the Holocene. The overarching approach is both regionally-focused and also explicitly comparative, tracking parallel developments in two focal regions, Scandinavia and Northeast Asia (Eastern Siberia, Russian Far East, Northern Japan). Various sub-projects include the ongoing application of new scientific methods in Northeast Asia to understand subsistence transitions and shifts in food-processing traditions, generation of various updated regional syntheses, plus publication of a new monograph on postglacial Northeast Asia (under contract with Cambridge University Press, World Archaeology Series). In southern Scandinavia, the focus is on exploring the potentials of integrating the submerged archaeological heritage of drowned prehistoric coastlines with information gleaned from both terrestrial and waterlogged sites.

The end of the last Ice Age was marked by a series of major shifts in climate and environment, eventually culminating in the onset of the current Holocene warm period. This project aims to understand how human communities living across Eurasia responded to these challenges and opportunities, and how regional developments led to new patterns of cultural diversity. The research compares and contrasts cultural trajectories within and between different parts of Northern Eurasia, including Scandinavia, the Russian Far East and northern Japan. The project includes various research and publication initiatives, all of which are supported by both new and long-running collaborations with partner institutions in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Russia and Japan