2025 News from the MPI of Geoanthropology

A new book by Dr. Robert Spengler tackles one of the biggest questions in biology and the social sciences: domestication – what it is, how it occurred, and the role that humans really played in developing the first crops and livestock. more

New research in India challenges the idea that the Toba super-eruption caused a global volcanic winter. Instead, evidence points to unexpected regional warming.
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A new study in PNAS uses historical and ecological data to examine the rise and fall of Piast Poland, investigating the factors necessary for the emergence and sustainability of state-run social-ecological intensification more

Mediterranean Hunter Gatherers Navigated Long-Distance Sea Journeys Well Before the First Farmers more

Dr. Huber received the award for her pioneering work in biomolecular archaeology, particularly her research on the identification of organic residues in archaeological contexts. more

Presented by the Johanna Mestorf Academy, the award honors young researchers who have written an excellent dissertation exploring human-environment interactions. more

A new paper published in Earth-Science Reviews examines all studied responses of Ostracoda to anthropogenic environmental stresses, highlighting their benefits as indicators of human impacts on water quality and indicating areas for future implementation more