Science of the Human Past at Harvard

04/15/2024

Upcoming event, April 16th 4:30pm: Migrations, Mediterranean to Slavic. Ancient DNA reveals the Roman Empire’s cosmopolitan Danube frontier from Domitian to the Slavs. Come learn how the humanities are using biomolecules, archaeology and history to discover a dramatic new vision of the Roman Empire and its enduring impact. Join us in person at Fong Auditorium, Boylston Hall, Harvard University or register below for the Zoom Webinar link.
https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_yHvhdLG3QN6DAyFNWokodA

02/02/2021

Call for Papers: A Crossroads Between the Continents – Interdisciplinary Approaches to Interconnectedness in the Ancient Mediterranean, a - panel at the next meeting. Submit abstracts at this link!
https://www.archaeoscience.org/crossroadsbetweenthecontinents

Call for Papers: A Crossroads Between the Continents – Interdisciplinary Approaches to Interconnectedness in the Ancient Mediterranean

10/28/2020

Our own Dr. Alex More with our partners at the Institute has just launched a website with talking points on "Why Climate Matters for Your Security, Health and Wealth."

Experts' talking points for voters

10/16/2020

Alex More spoke to CNN's Bill Weir on his latest research and what we can do to prevent another :

"I don't like the word hope. Hope is not a plan. And panic is not a plan either." "The single, easiest and most important thing we can do is ban wildlife trade worldwide right now." More difficult but necessary is "addressing climate change with science-based solutions."

Can climate change make pandemics worse? CNN’s Chief Climate Correspondent Bill Weir talks to Alexander More, Assistant Research Professor at the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine, about how a years-long cold weather anomaly worsened the 1918 pandemic, and what that mea...

09/10/2020

The 4th Annual Young Investigator Symposium - Max Planck Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean will take place on Friday, October 30th.

Students interested in applying for the Symposium should arrange to send a letter of application, an abstract of research to be presented, a CV, an academic transcript, and, separately, a letter of recommendation, by October 6, 2020 to [email protected]

This is a great opportunity for undergraduate juniors and seniors, and current or recent Master’s students, to participate in a virtual Young Investigator Symposium. Students will have an opportunity to present cross-disciplinary research which utilizes modern scientific tools and knowledge to illuminate the history of humanity, and to network with other students and faculty members similarly engaged. An interest in the Ancient Mediterranean is desirable but not indispensable. Due to COVID-19, the Symposium will take place entirely online. Fellowships for graduate study at Harvard University (with research conducted in Germany) may become available.

Welcome to the Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard (SoHP). We envision the creation of a supra-departmental network that will bring historians together with other scholars and scientists to chart bold new answers to the age-old question: what is history?

06/11/2020

A deep dive into one of Science of the Human Past at Harvard flagship projects in a in The Analytical Scientist, by Lauren Robertson, featuring Prof Michael McCormick (Harvard SoHP), Prof. Paul Mayewski, Prof. Andrei Kurbatov, Dr. Elena Korotkikh, and Heather Clifford of the Institute at the University of Maine, Prof. Christopher Loveluck of University of Nottingham &
Prof. Alex More (Harvard, Climate Change Institute, and LIU).
This project is funded by a generous grant by Arcadia, a charitable foundation of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin. It is one of many projects in environmental and cultural preservation supported by Arcadia.

The Colle Gnifetti Historical Ice Core Project applies state-of-the-art analytical technology to explore the intricate interactions between humans and the environment – captured in glaciers over millennia

04/22/2020

Heartening news!
The Arcadia foundation generously renewed our grant for our research project w/ SoHP's
& Prof Alex More in collaboration w/ University of Maine's 's Director/Professor Paul Mayewski, Prof. Andrei Kurbatov, Dr. Elena Korotkikh, Ms. Heather Clifford, Prof. Chris Loveluck et al.
Many thanks to the Arcadia Fund!

The Initiative for the Science of the Human Past (SoHP) at Harvard and the Climate Change Institute (CCI) at the University of Maine are delighted to ...

04/06/2020

Coverage of our new research by Science https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/lead-pollution-ancient-ice-cores-may-track-rise-and-fall-medieval-kings

04/06/2020

The Harvard Gazette on our new research: “By shining a laser on centuries-old ice we’ve learned to read glaciers as we read a book. We’re doing both to shed light on economic history and its health implications,” said Prof. Alexander More of the Institute, LIU (Long Island University), and Science of the Human Past at Harvardt at Harvard University.

In a new study, scientists and archaeologists from the University of Nottingham, the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine, and Harvard ...

04/06/2020

Coverage by The Times of London of our newly published research on the history of & the of Europe with co-authors Prof. Alex More &
Prof. Michael McCormick & lead author Prof. Chris Loveluck
University of Nottingham. Photo by Dr. Nicole Spaulding, co-author, at University of Maine.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/clue-to-murder-of-thomas-becket-buried-in-the-ice-of-a-swiss-glacier-near-zermatt-9lbrbmv2x

03/04/2020

Max Planck - Harvard Research Center for the of the Ancient Mediterranean team members collaborate on new discovery of links between spread of farming & the emergence of a human-adapted enterica pathogen in the Neolithic period. New research just published in Nature.

Ancient Salmonella enterica genomes from Neolithic Eurasian humans compared with those from later archaeological contexts illuminate the evolving host specificity of the pathogen from an initial multi-mammalian adaptation towards an increasingly human specialization.