Research Topics

There are currently two main research topics:  thematically on Holocene human-environment relations and settlement patterns, as well as a methodologically on archaeological prospection. The projects target locations in Southern Germany (Northern Franconian Jura), the Alps (Silvretta Mountains), Turkey (Northern Anatolia) as well as Central America (Yucatan Peninsula) and the Caribbean (Hispaniola).

The research on Holocene human-environment relations aims to clarify which natural resources were available to humans in the past, how were these used and which traces are left in the landscape. The main source of this are environmental archives, especially soils and sediments, which can provide information on important aspects such as environmental conditions and land use and their natural and anthropogenic changes over time.

The aim in the development of archaeological prospecting methods is to open up new data sources, often from the geosciences (especially remote sensing, but also geophysics, palaeopedology, etc.) for the detection and documentation of archaeological sites, thus making archaeological prospecting more efficient and effective. Informatics (for example digital image processing, pattern recognition) can also play an important role here.

An overview on previous and to some extent current research projects can be seen in the publication record of the IVGA since 2011.

Leiden University public outreach on the recently published paper on semi-automatic detection of archaeological sites. "De Indiana Jones van de toekomst werkt semiautomatisch" (in Dutch).