The island of Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean occupies a critical position at the intersection of the African and Eurasian landmasses; its unique position provides archaeologists with the distinct opportunity to investigate human dispersals, island colonisation and human coastal adaptations. Despite its potential to contribute to global key phenomena of the human deep history, the Pleistocene past of Cyprus remains under-researched. MIGRATE proposes an interdisciplinary approach, the first of its kind in an Eastern Mediterranean context, at the frontier of archaeological research globally to fast-track the study of hunter-gatherer dispersals and adaptation at a true island environment in a key insular region of the world. Combining stochastic spatial modelling, geoinformatics and archaeological field prospection on land and underwater, MIGRATE aims to generate a significant body of new data that firmly positions Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean at the forefront of archaeological sciences.
Project MIGRATE (2022-2024) is implemented under the “Excellence Hubs” Programme within the “RESTART 2016-2020” funding framework for Research, Technological Development and Innovation (RTDI) administered by Cyprus’s Research Promotion Foundation. The Programme aims at promoting bottom-up scientific excellence through the funding of pioneering research projects, both intersectoral and multidisciplinary, in cutting-edge fields. The present Call falls within the framework of the Operational Programme ΘΑλΕΙΑ 2021-2027 under Priority 1 “Competitive, Smart and Digital Economy” and the MIGRATE project addresses the Specific Objective (1i) “Developing and enhancing research and innovation capacities and the uptake of advanced technologies”, which seeks to strengthen collaborations between local research and academic organisations, as well as between local and foreign institutions.
The project’s objectives are also aligned with all the horizontal priorities of the Smart Specialisation Strategy for Cyprus (S3Cy) and, especially, the “Conservation, Promotion and Exploitation of Cultural Heritage” dimension of the S3Cy horizontal priority sector of “Sustainable Growth – Environment”. MIGRATE aims at establishing new heritage sites and use the new data to conserve and exploit them in a sustainable way. Based on the above, the MIGRATE project is expected to contribute to the sustainability and dynamics of Cyprus’ RTDI system, and consequently strengthen its future prospects, particularly in the area of modern and interdisciplinary archaeological science.
The Archaeological Research Unit (ARU) of the Department of History and Archaeology of the University of Cyprus (UCY) is the Host Organisation (HO) for this project, while the ERATOSTHENES Centre of Excellence (ECoE) of the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT), the Geological Survey Department (GSD) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment of the Republic of Cyprus and the Global Ecology Laboratory (Partuyarta Ngadluku Wardli Kuu) in the College of Science and Engineering at Flinders University in Australia form the MIGRATE Consortium.
Last Updated on October 14, 2022