Mario Rempe

Master in Classical Archaeology at Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
PhD research stay at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (Research on Contact Zones at the Gulf of Taranto)

PhD project:
My PhD project (start in 2016) focused on ancient human-environment interaction in Sicily and tried to clarify if strategies of sustainable land-use existed.
To answer these questions a reconstruction of the local landscape and paleoenvironment, which were shaped by dynamic patterns of change in human-nature interaction, was necessary. Landscape Archaeology offers a wide repertoire of methods. I incorporated approaches from my own academical background (archaeology, archaeological survey) with methods from various other fields, such as geoarchaology or palynology.
Within the scope of the PhD the sites which have been recognized during the Göttingen surveys were contrasted with reconstructions of their natural environment and investigated in the light of their chronologies and landscape change. Thus, the space around the sites is interpreted not as a mere container, but as interconnected with the environment. The archaeological result have been connected to new data, thereby creating a more detailed vision of the area's historical development.

Thesis defended in May 2020, Dr. phil. awarded in March 2021
Supervisors: Johannes Bergemann and Peter Attema