As the HESCOR Project concludes, the research team, led by editors Dr. Andreas Maier and Dr. Nikki Vercauteren, will summarize their work in an upcoming Special Issue!

As a compilation of results towards the end of the HESCOR project, the research team is currently preparing a Special Issue at the Journal of Quaternary Science, entitled Humans in the Earth System. Perspectives and case-studies on population dynamics and cultural evolution during the Pleistocene and Holocene. The Special Issue units contributes with a joint natural sciences-humanities approach on Human-and-Earth-System coupling and presents perspectives, method advancements, and case-studies on the relationship between environmental developments and cultural evolution, demographic developments, and network dynamics. Themes of gathering and sorting data from across the humanities and natural sciences for interdisciplinary projects are also addressed. In total, the Special Issue will thus constitute a well-rounded reading on latest diachronous, interdisciplinary approaches to Human-and-Earth-System research and provide insights into current methodological and theoretical advancements, put to test in analysis of the archaeological record. The broader scope of the Special Issue has not only geoscientists and archaeologists as target audience, but is also interesting for people working in the environmental humanities. The Special Issue comprises the following titles and is expected to be published by early next year:

• Forest or tundra? How different vegetation reconstructions of Last Glacial landscapes in Europe may shape our perception of early human dispersal processes
• Settlement Preferences and Population Dynamics in Early Farming Societies of Central Europe (5400–4950 BCE)
• Under pressure: Beyond cyclical theories of human resilience during the LBK
• Efficient Path Reconstruction in Prehistoric Human Migration: An Adaptive Dijkstra’s Algorithm Based on Wavelet Compression for Topographic Data
• From Data to Meaning: Capturing Expert Interpretations for Interdisciplinary Data Reuse
• Interdisciplinary Data Integration Challenges and Opportunities in Human–Earth Systems Research
• Technospheric Dynamics in the Deep Human Past: Multi-Level Causation in the Macroevolution of Late Pleistocene Lithic Technology
• Earth System Agency and Telecausality: Bringing the Earth Sciences and the Environmental Humanities into Conversation

We believe this diverse array of contributions appropriately reflects the uniqueness and cross-disciplinary work from the past three years of HESCOR. Congratulations to all of the research teams!