The ways in which humans and vegetation have interacted and co-evolved over time, how the identity of a community can be tied to a specific plant or ecosystem, and how anthropogenic migrations, diverse land uses and resource exploitation processes, and cultural exchanges have shaped landscapes over millennia are the central themes guiding my research as an archaeologist and palynologist. Specifically, I aim to understand how these transformations unfolded in contact zones—areas where different vegetation types or environments converge, such as borders or other marginal spaces, areas that historically brought different human communities together.
To address these questions, I employ a multi-proxy approach that includes pollen analysis, non-pollen palynomorphs, and fire signal reconstructions, applied to natural and archaeological deposits. This methodology allows me to investigate how landscapes were shaped and how human communities responded to climatic changes or natural disturbances, as well as socio-economic and political dynamics.