About us
HIMAT (Human Interaction with Mountain Resources and Alpine Terrains) investigates the co‑evolution of hominines, other animals, and mountain environments across deep time – from the Pleistocene to the Holocene, from remote prehistory to the dawn of industrialization. We connect the University of Innsbruck's strengths across archaeology, archaeometry, biology, digital humanities, geology, geomorphology, history, material sciences, and mineralogy. Our research centers on the European Alps and extends to mountain ranges worldwide. As such, HIMAT integrates natural and cultural sciences to create new synergies and research agendas to understand the past, inform the present, and help to preserve mountain sustainability.
Our core research areas include:
- Paleolithic and prehistoric archaeology as well as mining and resource archaeology
- History of resource use
- Paleoecology and geoarchaeology
- Geochronology and optical dating techniques
- AI‑assisted geodesy and geoinformation analyses
- Traceology, material analysis and archaeometry
In our interdisciplinary projects, we investigate trajectories of raw materials from resource extraction to consumption; trace alpine human–environment dynamics over time; analyze artefacts, sites, and ecosystems across altitude ranges; and apply and develop field and laboratory methods as well as numerical dating, and remote sensing techniques. We promote original master’s and doctoral research and mentor next‑generation scholars who bridge disciplines within and beyond the University of Innsbruck.
