Shelter: human-environment interactions in karst around pleistocene/holocene transition

This project aims to present and discuss in a multidisciplinary way the current possibilities of karstic studies to different groups of people (public, semi-professionals, students, and academics). The impact of the project should be more systematic protection of karst in Central Europe, because karstic areas are the example of one of the most valuable archives of detailed information about Paleolithic hunter-gatherers. Project is funded by Visegradfund.org.

The shelter project will deal with the important topic of climatic change and human response to it. An example of the environmental change around the Pleistocene/Holocene transition is the most recent event, which can help us to catch regional differences of this global issue. Fieldwork conducted as a part of the project will be the excavation of two sites: the rockshelter (Skalice u Měňan (CZ) and the cave (Veľká ružínska cave (SK). From both are known well-preserved situations with archaeological and palaeoenvironmental record. This excavation will aim to collect new data, but even more important will be to link what we know about the environment itself (phytolith analysis, charcoal, malacozoological, macroremain analyses) with the information on how did people used natural resources, especially plants (phytolith and starch analyses of the microremains on the tools and use-wear analysis). Fieldwork should also serve to form an international research group focused on the topic of karstic archaeology. Another important point will be to disseminate information about the necessary protection of these sites and their actual way of research between the general public, students, and semi-professional speleologists.