TransLands/TransMed projects: Landscapes of Ancient Mediterranean colonisation

This collaborative research develops within the framework of the TransLands and TransMed projects (2019-2021), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology, (PGC2018-093734-B-I00) and the European Commission (H2020-MSCA-IF-2018-8396), and directed by researches H.A. Orengo, J.M. Palet, and M. Georgiadis from the Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology in Tarragona, Spain. The projects gathers a multi-disciplinary research team from different international research centres (eg. GIAP/ICAC, GEOLAB UMR 6042 UCA-CNRS, EVS UMR 5600 UNIV LYON2-CNRS, Xanthi Ephorate of Antiquities, Kapodistrian University at Athens), and employs a combination of multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental and archaeological research methodologies to reconstruct changes in the shaping of past cultural landscapes following the foundation of two Ionian Greek colonies, Abdera in Thrace (Greece) and Emporion in Catalonia (Espagne) located at the opposite sides of the Mediterranean. Dr. Ana Ejarque (GEOLAB UMR 6042) directs the palaeoenvironmental work package of the TransLands/TransMed projects which includes the employment of different techniques such as geomorphology, sedimentology and palynology to reconstruct changes in local vegetation, wetlands, landforms and soil-scapes following ancient colonial settling.