Kamilla Lomborg

PhD candidate

Contact details

Office
C232
Personal Website
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kamilla-lomborg/

Research topics

  • Archaeology
  • Early and Middle Pleistocene
  • Hominin dispersal models
  • Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction
  • Agent‑based modelling

Thesis :

My PhD thesis is part of the European Research Council project Lateurope (funded by the European Union), an international project led by Marie‑Hélène Moncel and bringing together researchers from France, Spain, Italy, Germany, England, and myself from Denmark.
Project objective: To uncover the reasons for the delayed occupation of Western Europe by humans compared with Eastern Eurasia.

My study focuses on hominin expansion during the Middle Pleistocene Transition (0.7–1.5 million years ago) in Western Europe.
Using an archaeological approach and a computational method, dynamic expansions are explored by focusing on climatic parameters and vegetation.
These two datasets are essential for environmental reconstructions and for understanding prehistoric hominin behaviour.
Moreover, the use of agent‑based modelling makes it possible to test different hypotheses based on the material already available. It is particularly suitable given the scarce archaeological evidence available for the Early and Middle Pleistocene.

The research question is divided into two parts:
  1. Investigating the relationship between environmental conditions and hominin expansion in Western Europe during the Middle Pleistocene Transition.
  2. Assessing the computational method for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction and investigating hominin migration.
These questions are of interest because they combine a new method based on ecological theories.Applying it to archaeological material and proposing dynamic models to test hypotheses about human expansion is innovative. It is a quantitative method used to confirm or refute qualitative hypotheses from archaeological studies. Our study addresses essential questions for both past and future environments.

Understanding hominin behaviour during prehistoric climatic changes is important for understanding future dynamics involving current climate change.

Activities / Resume

Education :

  • Sep 2022 – Jan 2023: Exchange at Leiden University (Leiden, Netherlands)
    The exchange consisted of a variety of courses, ranging from heritage‑focused courses to highly scientific ones. It was there that I discovered computer modelling, found the topic of my Master’s thesis, and established a network with researchers in Palaeolithic archaeology and computational archaeology.

  • 2021–2023: Master’s Degree in Prehistoric Archaeology (Aarhus University, Denmark)
    The Master’s programme included in‑depth courses on theoretical and research‑based topics.Themes such as environmental archaeology, landscape, and inter‑species theory particularly opened new perspectives and new tools for analysis and interpretation. The topic of my Master’s thesis is Middle Palaeolithic lithic raw material procurement within the framework of agent‑based modelling.
     
  • 2018-2021 : Bachelor’s Degree in Prehistoric Archaeology (Aarhus University, Denmark)
    The Bachelor’s programme included period‑based, theoretical, methodological, scientific, and fieldwork‑oriented courses.The courses provided a fundamental understanding of archaeological practice through creative processes.

Employment :

  • March 2022 – July 2022: NeanderEDGE (Aarhus University)
    I am part of a research team led by Associate Professor Trine K. Nielsen, which studies the northern expansion of Neanderthals. JI collected data on Middle Palaeolithic sites in Northern Europe and handled scientific communication through social media.
     
  • Spring 2021: Research Assistant (Aarhus University)
    As part of the follow‑up to my Bachelor’s thesis, I helped initiate contributions and data collection for an article written by Shumon T. Hussain and Nathalie Brusgaard: Human‑Beaver Cohabitation in the Early and Mid‑Holocene of Northern Europe: Re‑visiting Mesolithic Material Culture and Ecology through a Multispecies Lens.
     
  • 2020 – 2023: The Royal Danish Library​​​​​​​
    ​​​​​​​Student assistant at the campus library.

Publications extraites de HAL affiliées à Geode : Géographie de l'environnement

Additional information