Welcome to MERMAID

MERMAID is an ERC-Consolidator Grant that aims to uncover how major environmental events and human exploitation have impacted on marine resources in the Mediterranean past and how ancient societies adapted in changing ecosystems. The project will significantly extend existing marine historical records back in time and offer an unprecedented archaeofisheries synthesis (M-ARCHIVES Database) based on archaeofaunal evidence from archaeological sites, covering several millenia of Mediterranean history. We will use an innovative interdisciplinary approach to reconstruct marine ecosystem states through time, provide evidence of shifting baselines, and assess the nature and degree of human exploitation strategies of marine ecosystems. We will also seek to pinpoint the first human impact of fishing. The results will be valuable for historical syntheses and marine management policies.

Funding

MERMAID is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (Grant Agreement no. 101002721).

Principal Investigator: Tatiana (Anastasia) Theodoropoulou (Chargée de recherche-CNRS)

Host Institution: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS-Délégation Régionale DR20) – Université Côte d’Azur 

Partner Laboratories: CEPAM-UMR7264, ECOSEAS-UMR, LOV-UMR

Duration: 1 June 2021 to 31 May 2026