Vabilo na predavanje: Tracing Human Resilience in Mountain Landscapes

MATerial RESilience in times of environmental and social change

Lecture series

University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Department of Archaeology, Zavetiška 5, 1000 Ljubljana

(https://uni-lj-si.zoom.us/my/matija.cresnar?omn=98956986347)

Wed. 8 April 2026, 14.30

Tracing Human Resilience in Mountain Landscapes

Insights from the UNESCO World Heritage area Hallstatt-Dachstein/Salzkammergut (Austria)

Kerstin Kowarik¹, Valentina Laaha¹, Hans Reschreiter

¹ Austrian Academy of Sciences

Mountain landscapes offer a compelling setting to investigate long-term human resilience to environmental change, extreme conditions, and natural hazards. In the Eastern Alps, the Hallstatt–Dachstein region provides an exceptional combination of archaeological evidence and high-resolution environmental archives. Well-preserved organic remains, together with lake sediments, soils, and dendrochronological data, reveal a landscape repeatedly shaped by climatic variability and disruptive events.

Evidence from the 2^nd and 1^st millennium BC suggests that communities developed effective strategies to cope with environmental instability, reflected in resource management, land use, and subsistence practices. At the same time, the broader mountain landscape, including high-altitude zones, preserves traces of diverse human activities whose interrelations remain insufficiently understood.

Despite the richness of these archives, reconstructing human–environment dynamics in mountain landscapes presents distinct methodological challenges. Mountain regions pose challenges for archaeology due to sparse material remains, fragmented preservation, and difficult accessibility. Recent advances in geoarchaeology and biomolecular methods, however, are transforming this picture. Soils and sediments increasingly serve as key archives, preserving evidence of ecological change and human activity across multiple spatial and temporal scales.

Building on these methodological developments, we present a multi-scalar research approach to reconstruct human–environment dynamics across altitudinal gradients, integrating terrestrial and lacustrine archives. Using multi-proxy analyses of soils and sediments—including plant remains, sedaDNA, lipids, micromorphology, and geochemistry—we identify subtle traces of human activity in complex depositional contexts. These methods allow us to refine chronologies, reconstruct land use, and better understand the relationship between lowland and high-altitude practices.

Finally, we explore the role of ritual practices in shaping resilience strategies within this dynamic socio -ecological system.