We investigate human evolution in the context of past environmental / climatic boundary conditions and interaction of humans with the environment. This comprises, for example, human responses to (changing) palaeoenvironmental conditions, chronologies for human evolution and environmental archives or reconstructing palaeoenvironmental / palaeoclimate conditions.

Our key research directions include

• Isotope based research on human mobility, palaeo diet and palaeoecology
• Palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimate research
• Dating techniques (radiocarbon, luminescence, U-series) and their applications to archaeological sites and environmental archives

The research is geographically spread over a wide range of areas of interest for the department including north and south Africa, Europe and Asia and is done on a variety of different materials such as biogenic minerals from archaeological sites (teeth, bones), loess sequences, excavation sediments or cave deposits like stalagmites.

Details about our research lines within the Palaeoenvironmental frame of Human evolution can be found here:

• Isotopes - Diet and Mobility
• Isotopes - Environment and Climate
• Luminescence Dating
• Palaeoparasitology Research
• Paleoproteomics
• Radiocarbon Dating
• Speleothem Based Palaeoclimate
• U-Series Dating