ENLIGHT Archaeologies of Sustainable Environments (EASE)
Financed by ENLIGHT
The ENLIGHT Thematic Network (ETN) EASE is a collaborative coalition between the Department of Archaeology, Ancient History and Conservation at Uppsala University, the Institute of Archaeological Sciences at the University of Bern and the Division of the Archaeology of Northwestern Europe at the University of Groningen.
Contact:
PI: Erika Weiberg, Uppsala University
Task Manager: Marco Hostettler, University of Bern
More about the network
The ENLIGHT Thematic Network EASE is inspired by the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals and aims at fostering collaborative archaeologies of sustainability with a focus on Climate Histories, Food Security and Agriculture, and Innovation and Infrastructure.
The main objectives for EASE are:
- To foster collaborative archaeologies of sustainability across all departments of archaeology at ENLIGHT universities.
- To create an interdisciplinary platform for collaboration on human-environment dynamics in ancient societies and their relevance today.
- To initiate joint research and teaching initiatives that bind together departments, individual researchers, and the expanding research infrastructures available.
By combining the science of climate change and agricultural development with a greater understanding of the forces of human innovation in the past we build a bridge between two of the core themes of ENLIGHT – Climate Change and Culture and Creativity. We especially emphasise the role of diversity, and how the different appearances of climate change through time and space meets the full diversity of human resourcefulness. Of great importance thereby is the role of cultural, social, economic, biological and environmental diversity for sustainable alternatives in times of crises. The team displays the broad expertise needed to tackle the complex topic of human-environment dynamics, including traditional archaeology, digital archaeology, archaeobotany, zooarchaeology, geoarchaeology, palynology, paleoclimatology.
Activities
The archaeologies of sustainable environments will be forwarded through a series of activities set up to foster collaboration, research and career development within the three initial partners, with the aim of extending the team to other ENLIGHT partners throughout the period:
- Conference
- Local organisation of the European Society for Environmental History 2025 Conference (ESEH 2025) in Uppsala
- Workshops
- Panel at the ESEH 2025, entitled Archaeologies of Sustainable Environments
- Panel at the ESEH 2025, entitled Archaeologies of Sustainable Environments
- Courses
- Course 1: The Deep History of Food, University of Bern, Autumn 2024
- Short term PhD and staff mobility
