Soils and sediments
Archaeological soils, colluvia, occupation layers, fills, dark earth and buried horizons preserve multiple layers of information.
Research programme
Research
We study how long-term relationships between people and landscapes become recorded in soils, sediments and spatial structure.
Archaeological context is connected with geochemistry, isotopes, historical sources and spatial data.
Compare sitesCompare research sites by period, environment, archive type, methods and the main signal preserved in the record.Research timelineFrom field and analytical research to peer-reviewed publication and open data.Explore open dataPublished datasets linked to sites, methods and studies. Only genuinely released data are shown.
How we read landscape
The idea from which our research grows
Before moving to sites and methods, see how Darwin, Arrhenius and Třebokov shape our view of landscape.
How we read landscape →EXPLORE HUMAN EARTH LAB
Human Earth Lab research network
All detailed content below is retained. This layer simply shortens the path between question, site, method, result and data.
5research directions
3 regionsCentral Europe · Southern Levant · Central Asia
Data → processfrom measurement to interpretation of landscape change
Research framework
From archaeological context to long-term process
Human Earth Lab does not treat soil and sediment simply as material for analysis. They are archives of processes that can be read together with archaeology, landscapes and historical sources.
Human activity and environment
We ask how settlement, agriculture, production, waste, erosion and other processes create measurable signals.
Multiple lines of evidence
Results are linked with stratigraphy, spatial data, historical maps and other independent sources of evidence.
Core questions
Questions connecting our sites
Individual projects differ in environment and chronology, but return to the same fundamental problems.
How does human activity become recorded in soil?
We distinguish signals of settlement, waste, production, agriculture, construction materials and post-depositional processes.
How do people–landscape relationships change through time?
We trace long-term farming, erosion, settlement abandonment, vegetation change, water regimes and transformation of land use.
How can different lines of evidence be integrated?
Field stratigraphy is connected with geochemistry, isotopes, micromorphology, GIS, historical sources and statistical analysis.
Research directions
Five interconnected fields
Soils and sediments as archives
Archaeological soils, colluvia, occupation layers, fills, dark earth and buried horizons are treated as records of past processes.
Agrarian landscapes
We study long-term farming, manuring, erosion, grazing, fertility and the relationship between settlements and fields.
Urban and settlement environments
We examine urban layers, markets, waste, faecal inputs and sediments formed by everyday life.
Geochemistry of human activity
Elemental and isotopic signals are used to study buildings, waste, production, burial, conflict and other forms of human activity.
Mapping and modelling
We combine GIS, historical maps, spatial modelling, data workflows and publication-ready visualisations.
Research Graph
Explore Human Earth Lab
A connected view traces each result from research site and question through methods to the paper, public data and the people who produced it.
6research paths
SiteRavat
Question
How was a prehistoric irrigated farming landscape organised and maintained over the long term?
Methods
DataNo public dataset linked
SiteWenceslas Square
Question
How did Urban Dark Earth form, and what traces did a medieval marketplace leave in it?
Methods
DataDataset · Zenodo
SiteMikulčice-Valy
Question
How are Dark Earth formation processes related to settlement strategy in a wet environment?
Methods
DataNo public dataset linked
Team
SiteTel Burna
Question
How can architecture and activity be reconstructed where stratigraphic layers are visually weak?
Methods
DataDataset · Zenodo
SiteTřebokov
Question
Can stable isotopes in soil distinguish historical land use beneath present-day forest?
Methods
SiteTřebokov
Question
How spatially variable are geochemical activity signals within a medieval manorial farm?
Methods
DataNo public dataset linked
No research path matches the selected filters.
How interpretation is built
From field evidence to a verifiable public result
Stratigraphy, context and controlled sampling.
Elemental signals of human activity and materials.
Layer-formation processes at microscopic scale.
Land use, fertilisation and biological inputs.
Spatial patterns, comparison and reproducibility.
A result linked to its study, data and research site.
Scales of interpretation
The same problem is read at several scales
Sample and layer
Chemical, isotopic and sedimentary properties of a specific context.
Stratigraphy and space
Relationships among layers, features, activities and parts of a settlement.
Settlements, fields and hinterlands
Spatial relationships, erosion, agriculture, water and long-term land use.
Long duration
Comparison of processes across occupation phases, site abandonment and later landscape development.
Connected research
Question → site → method → output
The research programme is designed so that individual sites are not isolated case studies. Each tests a particular process while contributing to a shared methodological framework.
Sites
Compare different types of archaeological and landscape archives.
Explore sites →Methods
See how sampling, laboratory analysis, GIS and interpretation are connected.
How we work →Outputs
Publications and other results in which methods and interpretations are tested.
View outputs →