Project - ICArEHB

About the Centre

The Interdisciplinary Centre for Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behaviour (ICArEHB) is a research centre based at the University of the Algarve that carries out research into the evolution of human behaviour from an archaeological and anthropological perspective.

Highlighted Project

  Revealing Past Coastal Societies to Dialogue with the Future of Oceans

Since the dawn of our species, the ocean has called to us.

Tens of thousands of years ago, early hominins followed the African coastlines, using them as routes to new lands into Eurasia, and later, Homo sapiens reached the shores of the Americas and Oceania. Oceanic coasts have always been dynamic zones of cultural exchange, migration, and innovation. Today, at the ICArEHB, the Interdisciplinary Centre for Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behaviour at the University of Algarve, we’re continuing to follow those tides.

Our mission is to uncover the deep story of how humans have explored, used, and adapted to coastal environments over millennia. From the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean in Europe, to the Indian Ocean in southern Africa, our team carries out archaeological and environmental research in some of the world’s most significant coastal zones.

But we don’t just study stone tools, ancient pottery decorated with cockle shell imprints, and ancient campsites. We use cutting-edge science methods from geology, ecology, and biomolecular analysis to reconstruct ancient diets, coastal environments, and the ways communities responded to rising seas and shifting estuaries.

Shellfish tell a particularly compelling story. In Portugal, these marine resources helped fuel the rise of the first sedentary coastal communities. One of our key focuses is the remarkable shell mounds left behind by these people, like the iconic Muge Shell Mounds.

Shellfish still nourish coastal communities in Portugal today. At ICArEHB, we see our work as a bridge between the past and present, helping foster a sustainable relationship with our oceans, with respect inspired by the ways our ancestors thrived along the shore. Because understanding how past coastal peoples designed their societies, is essential to navigating the oceans of our future.

  Find out more about ICArEHB