CCHRI/BRIDGES Hub Workshop at Princeton University: 9-day intensive introduction to the palaeoenvironmental sciences for historians and social scientists, Princeton University.

A series of 16 x 3-hour sessions over 8 days with a final day for reflection and discussion.

This entry-level workshop will introduce participants from the fields of history and archaeology to the palaeoecological sciences and their relevance to historical and archaeological research. Beginning with an overview of palaeoecology, how it works and how it can be used, the program will offer surveys of key ecological sciences, involving the study of stable isotopes and sedimentary geochemistry; speleothems, ice cores and tree-rings; palynology and dendroclimatology; C14 dating, multi-proxy data, and more. The focus will be on the reconstruction of pre-instrumental climate, vegetation, and land cover.

In particular, the program will explain how such proxies are interpreted, the conceptual basis for the reconstructions derived from them, and the assumptions, uncertainties, and statistical methods for data transformation that accompany their use. While we will focus on the Mediterranean Basin as a case study, examples will also be drawn on from other world regions, including temperate Europe and North America.

• An intensive 9-day workshop

• Entry-level: no previous knowledge of the subject required

• Geared towards younger scholars (junior faculty members and graduate students, although undergraduates may also be admitted)

• For scholars in the humanities and social sciences

Instructors: Sturt Manning, Cornell; Chris Bradley, University of Birmingham (UK); Warren Eastwood, CCHRI/British Institute of Archaeology (Ankara)/ University of Birmingham (UK); John Haldon, CCHRI, Princeton; Alistair Morgan (Basel); Lee Mordechai, Hebrew Univ/CCHRI; Tim Newfield, Georgetown University/CCHRI