Research project
Ancient DNA and the Agricultural Shift: Reconstructing Human-Wildlife Interactions
How the emergence of farming impacted the relationship between humans and wild animals
- Duration
- 2026 - 2027
- Contact
- Nathalie Brusgaard
- Funding
-
NWO-XS
Today, agriculture greatly influences human-wildlife conflict and biodiversity. Yet, there are few deep-time perspectives on the origins of this relationship. The Agricultural Shift project investigates how the emergence of farming 6000 years ago in western Europe impacted the relationship between humans and wild animals. It uses the innovative method sedimentary DNA analysis to reconstruct wild animal populations, their changes over time, and how this related to farming activity. This will provide fresh insights into past biodiversity and human-wildlife interactions, as well as new perspectives for current human-wildlife challenges.
Research background
When people began to farm, they no longer relied solely on hunting—they kept livestock, grew crops, and lived more settled lives. This was a turning point in human history, the so-called Neolithic transition. Research into this transition has focused heavily on new domestic species and farming practices; the changing relationship between humans and wild animals remains largely unexplored.
Yet, even as farming spread, people continued to share their environment with wild animals—interacting with them, competing for resources, and protecting their crops and herds. Because traditional archaeological methods rely on studying animal bones to explore human-animal interactions, and wild species became less central to daily life, their traces are often missing or overlooked in the archaeological record. This project uses the cutting-edge method sedimentary ancient DNA analysis (sedaDNA) to change that. By analyzing DNA preserved in soil layers at archaeological sites, it can detect which (wild) animals were present in the environment, how their populations changed over time, and how farming shaped local ecosystems. This offers a powerful new way to understand past biodiversity and the deep history of human-wildlife interactions.
This project sheds new light on the environmental impact of early farming and offers crucial context for today’s challenges around biodiversity loss and human-wildlife conflict.