Mission and Vision
Our mission is to investigate and document the Caucasus region’s unique climatic and cultural heritage. By leveraging advanced research methodologies and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, we aim to uncover historical climate patterns, environmental changes, and their impacts on human societies. Our goal is to contribute valuable insights that inform current and future climate and environmental policies. We envision a world where the rich historical and environmental records of the Caucasus region are fully understood and appreciated. We strive to create a comprehensive and accessible archive of the region’s climate and cultural history, promoting awareness and inspiring action to address the challenges posed by climate change.
Research Goals
- This project seeks to undertake the first high-resolution interdisciplinary analysis of pre-instrumental historic climate change and human macro-economic and societal transformations in central Eurasia and the eastern Mediterranean by integrating data reconstructed from climate, environmental, archaeological and historical archives preserved in the southern Caucasus region in Georgia, during the late Holocene.
- It will provide a groundbreaking high-resolution chronological (up to annual for some intervals) perspective on:
- the impact (or not) of both slow and rapid climate and environmental change, on the landscape and human populations in the Caucasus, Black Sea- and eastern Mediterranean regions for selected periods since the last glacial maximum.
- human transformation of the environment through agriculture and metal economies from the Bronze Age to the present.
- key moments of human societal change through population movement, technological innovation, connection/trade, war and disease pandemics.
- the historic impact of climate change and human environmental pollution and its consequences in our own time (for food, environment and infrastructure security) through comparison with rapid warming and cooling periods in the past, and realization of the toxic impact of the release of historic ‘legacy pollution’ into modern ecosystems.