W2 Professor and Lise Meitner Group Leader of the Pan African
Research Group, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

ERC IslandLab Project

The ERC funded IslandLab project is an exciting new project that will document long-term legacies and feedbacks between ecological changes, societal responses and ecosystem resilience on the Maltese Islands. IslandLab builds on a pilot - the Malta Quaternary Palaeoecologies Project (MQP). MQP was  begun in 2019, funded by the Foyle Research institute, U.K. In 2020, further funding was received from the University of Malta, where Dr Scerri holds an affilated associate professorship, and FIMBank Malta.

IslandLab's key partners include the University of Malta, Heritage Malta, and the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage. While the IslandLab project is new, it will build in the findings of the MQP and its established personnel and collaborators. Recruitment for IslandLab personnel will begin in 2023. 

Students include:

Ms. Rochelle Xerri, MRes in mammalian microfauna and zooarchaeology

Ms. Nicolette Mifsud, MRes in marine zooarchaeology

Postdoctoral researchers:

Dr Andres Curras - pollen and coring works

Dr James Blinkhorn - director of excavation

Affiliated researchers:

Dr Mathew Stewart - palaeontology, zooarchaeology

Dr Huw Groucutt - archaeology

Prof. Ian Candy - sedimentology, geomorphology

Dr Ritienne Gauci - geomorphology

Prof. Nick Vella - archaeology

Dr Ethel Allué - anthracology

Dr Aitor Burguet-Coca - phytoliths

Dr Robert Spengler - archaeobotany

Dr Matthias Meyer - archaeogenetics

Dr Patrick Roberts - isotopes

Ms. Emma Richard-Tremeau - pottery

 

Top