Human Earth Lab People · Soil · Landscapes · Time
Research programme

Research

A long-term programme for studying relationships between people, soils and landscapes.

01

Soils and sediments as archives

Archaeological soils, colluvia, occupation layers, fills, dark earth and buried horizons are treated as records of past processes.

02

Agrarian landscapes

We study long-term farming, manuring, erosion, grazing, fertility and the relationship between settlements and fields.

03

Urban and settlement environments

We examine urban layers, markets, waste, faecal inputs and sediments formed by everyday life.

04

Geochemistry of human activity

Elemental and isotopic signals are used to study buildings, waste, production, burial, conflict and other forms of human activity.

05

Conflict and memory landscapes

We work with battlefields, mass graves, decomposition signals, disinfection, artefacts and post-war treatment of landscapes.

06

Mapping and modelling

We combine GIS, historical maps, spatial modelling, data workflows and publication-ready visualisations.