Geogenomic Archaeology Campus Tübingen

Diachronic impacts of humans on ecosystems using caves as models

The Geogenomic Archaeology Campus Tübingen (GACT) focuses its investigation on caves and their sediments, since caves house unique and discrete ecosystems that can be significantly impacted by outside agents. Caves can preserve tens of thousands of years of genetic data, providing a perfect setting to investigate human-ecosystem interactions over the long term.

GACT is a multidisciplinary LeibnizScience Campus in Tübingen that brings together archaeologists, geneticists, microbiologists, geochemists, geoecologists, paleontologists, and paleoclimatologists, among others, with the ultimate goal of using ancient DNA recovered from archaeological deposits to investigate human interaction with, and impact on, past ecosystems through time. In order to achieve this goal, the Science Campus will establish new molecular, computational, geochemical and geoarchaeological methods to analyze sedimentary sequences recovered from caves.

  • A new GACT member joined the project

    Dr. Sibylle Wolf has been accepted as a GACT-member. With her work in the Palaeolithic excavations in Baden-Württemberg (in particular Barnberg Cave and collaboration in the Hohle Fels project) and other cave excavation projects, her expertise is an excellent fit for GACT. Further projects with a clear connection to GACT are planned for 2025. As…

  • Day of the open cave at Hohle Fels

    GACT was at the Hohle Fels event on September 8th!

  • Excavation in Sibhudu, South Africa

    From February 27th to March 28th, 2024, the University of Tübingen conducted its fourteenth fieldwork campaign at UNESCO World Heritage Site Sibhudu Cave, South Africa.

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