Independent and Externally-Funded Research Groups and Projects
The Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History hosts independent and externally-funded research groups and projects on a variety of topics.
Max Planck Independent Research Groups
The Extreme Events Research Group (EXT) is an intersectional research group exploring the definition, detection and impacts of extreme events. The group is physically based at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, but works with all three Jena Max Planck Institutes (the other two being the MPI for the Science of Human History and the MPI for Biogeochemistry).
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The Minds and Traditions Research Group (the Mint) is a Max Planck Independent Research Group started in February 2016. The group explores the origins and evolution of graphic codes through cognitive science, linguistic anthropology and quantitative cultural history. The group is headed by Olivier Morin.
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The Human Palaeosystems Group is led by Dr. Eleanor Scerri and explores the African origins of our species, Homo sapiens, through a combination of field research and modeling.
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Palaeo-Science and History (PS&H) is a Max Planck Independent Research Group that started in 2018. The group is headed by Adam Izdebski.
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The
Transmission,
Infektion,
Diversifikation &
Evolution Group (tide) is a Max Planck Independent Research Group started in June 2018. The group is headed by Denise Kühnert.
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European Research Council-Funded Groups
The Archaeolinguistic Research Group is funded by an ERC Consolidator Grant titled, “Millet and beans, language and genes. The origin and dispersal of the Transeurasian family,” started in September 2015. The group is headed by Martine Robeets.
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Many of the fruits, nuts, and grains on our dinner tables today once spread across the ancient world along the great Silk Road. By studying the plants of the ancient Silk Road, we are studying the history of our food – the greatest artifacts of the ancient Silk Road are in your kitchen.
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The FINDER Research Group is funded by an ERC Starting Grant, titled “Fossil Fingerprinting and Identification of New Denisovan Remains from Pleistocene Asia,” started in June 2017. The group is headed by Katerina Douka.
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The ERC funded IslandLab project will document long-term legacies and feedbacks between ecological changes, societal responses and ecosystem resilience on the island of Malta.
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PANTROPOCENE will study the degree to which combined pre-colonial and colonial impacts on tropical forests across the bounds of the former Spanish Empire initiated changes to climate, geomorphology, and the atmosphere and whether such feedbacks represent the origins of a pre-industrial 'Anthropocene'. The group is headed by Patrick Roberts.
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Former Externally-Funded Groups and Projects
The Waves Research Group is funded by an ERC Starting Grant, titled “Waves of history in the South Pacific: A gene-culture coevolutionary approach,” started in January 2018. The group is headed by Adam Powell. Since October 2019 the group is hosted by the MPi for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig.
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The APGREID Research Group was funded by an ERC Starting Grant, titled “Ancient Pathogen Genomics of Re-emerging Infectious Disease,” and concluded in December 2017. The group was headed by Johannes Krause.
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The Palaeodeserts project was funded in part by an ERC Senior Researcher Grant, titled “Climate Change and Hominin Evolution in the Arabian Desert: Life and Death at the Cross-roads of the Old World,” and concluded in 2017. It was also funded by the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage and the Max Planck Society. The project was headed by Michael Petraglia.
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The Sealinks project was funded by an ERC Starting Grant, titled “Bridging continents across the sea: Multi-disciplinary perspectives on the emergence of long-distance maritime contacts in prehistory,” and concluded in October 2014. The project was headed by Nicole Boivin.
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