Pacific atolls are at the forefront of debates about effects of global warming and sea-level rise. The resilience capacities of atoll-dwelling populations often dominate discussions although with none or very little consideration for the long history of human occupation and adaptation to the hostile and restricting environmental conditions of these peculiar islands. To shed light on such complex processes, the PASTAtolls project offers a multidisciplinary and multifocal approach of atolls’ socio-ecosystems in Central-East Polynesia (today’s French Polynesia) over the long term. While the ecology of Polynesian atolls is well documented, dedicated Human and Social Sciences (SHS) research remains rare and heterogenous. The atolls’ societies have long been considered unable to achieve social complexity due to the supposedly constraining environments. Such environmental determinism was recently challenged thanks to archaeological and anthropological studies mostly led by members of our team. However, our knowledge on relationships and dynamics between humans and atolls is by far too incomplete. Our project aims at filling this gap by apprehending the unique lifeways of atoll-dwelling populations, both past and present, at a time when they are facing new challenges, especially climate changes. The project is fourfold: 1. Refining the chronology of geological history and human occupation on the Polynesian atolls; 2. Documenting the timing and processes of plants and animals’ introductions and their impact on ecosystems; 3. Reconstructing traditional knowledge and technical know-how now threatened of disappearance; 4. Examining symbolic representations of atolls environments through the investigation of ancient ritual practices. PASTAtolls is a 4-yr Collaborative Research Project (PRC), with eight partners. For the first time, it brings together specialists in archaeology, anthropology, linguistics, palaeoecology and geomorphology with long experience on Polynesian atolls. Our multidisciplinary approach, structured in eight work-packages, will be deployed on five targeted atolls in three different archipelagos, characterized by various environmental conditions and cultural backgrounds (from west to east: Teti’aroa, Niau, Anaa, Takume and Temoe). Several field seasons will allow for data collection through archaeological excavations, palaeoecological studies, and ethnographic and linguistic works. While questions and issues tackled in this project are of primary concern to the Humanities, they also participate in the diachronic perspective on biodiversity, which biologists are lacking. They will further increase our knowledge about the resilience mechanisms of Pacific populations in the face of global challenges.

The ERC Starting Grant EArTH project aims to document the technical evolution of earthen architecture during the Neolithic period (12000-5000 BC) in Western Asia and its margins (Caucasus, Anatolia, Cyprus) in order to define the mechanisms underlying the evolutionary phenomena reflected in earthen architecture (invention, diffusion, adaptation) and the modalities of technical knowledge transmission. Earthen material represents a worldwide transhistorical heritage dating back to more than 11,000 years in Western Asia. Thus, commonalities are witnessed in all the geographical areas of genesis of earthen architecture, despite specific socio-cultural and historical contexts spread across the world (Central Asia, Americas, Africa, Europe and Western Asia). However, this project defends that the birth of these innovations covers a complex history that express themselves in multiple variants, depending on the availability of environmental resources, technical or cultural choices as well as social evolutions. The ERC Starting Grant EArTH project requires an ambitious program mobilising various socio-cultural and historical contexts to define cross-cultural architectural mechanisms. In this respect, this research intends to exceed the strict archaeological approach to gain an anthropological view of ancient and current populations through a comparative approach. I intend to carry out a multidisciplinary project based on a multi-scale approach combining fieldworks and laboratory analyses - through archaeological excavations in Iraq and Azerbaijan and archaeometric laboratory analyses of building materials and soils - with ethnographic surveys - through fieldworks in current populations in Eastern Africa (Djibouti, Ethiopia, Sudan), in Arabian Peninsula (Oman) and in North America (Mexico) - and the creation of an agent-based model based on empirical data collected in order to define the factors leading to the diffusion of architectural techniques as well as general exchange mechanisms. The ERC Starting Grant EArTH project targets the following objectives: 1) To provide an exhaustive study of the architectural remains in Western Asia and its margins supported by the implementation of a database and a unique GIS for the region; 2) To analyse resource supply routes and mobility dynamics with a multi-scalar perspective (site, territory, region) in order to interpret architectural changes over a large time span and to highlight regional and extra-regional interaction networks; 3) To explore transfers and social phenomena (population displacements, whole or partial acculturation processes, cultural diffusion or non-diffusion) in order to define the modes of structuring networks on ideas and architectural know-how exchange; 4) To understand the environmental, cultural and social impact of the technical choices made by each population. In view of the progressive disappearance of traditional knowledge and the replacement of raw earth by modern materials due to growing economic and social pressure, it is important to document and to preserve this common heritage of humankind which is increasingly threatened. The knowledge acquired by the ERC Starting Grant EArTH project will allow us to envisage sustainable solutions to current demographic and ecological challenges. In a time of climate change, sustainability of earthen architecture has fully to be part of the energy debate. In this context, safeguarding this living heritage and ancestral technical knowledge is a crucial social challenge of the globalisation of cultures.

The MOBILITH project is based on the study of lithic industries from the first agro-pastoral communities in continental Europe (5250 to 4750 BCE). In this spatio-temporal framework, the LBK was fragmented into a mosaic of cultural entities. Four key areas located in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and the Czech Republic have been selected because they reflect distinct cultural trajectories. The analysis will focus on the reconstruction of learning networks and the circulation of raw materials networks. By modelling the evolution of these networks based on a demographic approach and a Social Network Analysis, the aim will be to understand the nature and impact of mobility on the cultural trajectories perceived by archaeologists. This 42-month project is structured around a combination of original study methods, the scope of which is fully in line with the objectives of the ANR's Axis D.06 (Studies of the past, heritage, cultures). In particular, the diachronic perspective adopted will shed new light on cultural evolution through the prism of an archaeology of the transmission of technical know-how.