Prior to the Neolithic: Contextual Analysis of Environmental Dynamics During Early Postglacial Transformation of Central Europe

Czech Science Foundation 13-08169S board no. P504

Geographical ranges of most biological taxa have changed substantially since the Last Glacial Maximum, primarily in response to climatic changes induced by variations in the Earth's orbit. While considerable amount of global palaeoclimatic evidence is now available for the key period of the last Glacial-Interglacial Transition (ca 18 000 to 7000 years BP), reliable analyses of the effects of respective climatic oscillations to the environments, biota and human populations in continental Central Europe are still missing. This situation is especially uncomfortable in the light of recent findings that point to extraordinary importance of this particular region for the evolution of continental biological and cultural diversity. To fill this serious gap in knowledge, we propose a multidisciplinary palaeoecological research to be performed on perfectly selected reference sites that were recently discovered by members of our team in the territory of the Czech Republic.

Principal investigator: Petr Pokorný
Associate Investigators: Jiří Svoboda (Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences if the Czech Republic, Brno)
Jaromír Beneš (Jihoceská univerzita v Ceských Budejovicích)
Petr Šída (University od West Bohemia in Pilsen)

Researchers at Charles University in Prague: Ivan Horáček, Arnošt Šizling, Lucie Juřičková, Jitka Horáčková, Pavla Žáčková, Jindřich Prach, Jan Hošek, Vojen Ložek
Researchers at the Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences if the Czech Republic, Brno: Martin Novák, Sandra Sázelová
Researchers at University od South Bohemia in České Budějovice: A. Bernardová, M. Divišová, P. Houfková, O. Chvojka, J. Novák, T. Šálková
Researchers at University od West Bohemia in Pilsen: Marta Moravcová, Dagmar Vokounová-Franzeová