This subproject aims at studying past environmental changes in the Black Sea region, specifically the human stress on the environment. Since the first settlements occurred during the second half of the Holocene (i.e. past 5000 years) in the Eastern coast of the Black Sea (Western Georgia), human influence on the landscape evolution and anthropogenic adaptation to climate and landscape changes are evident. The long and continuous population of the study area enables us to study these interdependencies. Our study will concentrate on Western Georgia, specifically the Colchian plain surrounding the Rioni basin and the foothills of the Lesser Caucasus. This region was the cradle of the Colchian culture during the Early Bronze Age around 3000 BCE, leaving a geomorphological legacy through cone-shaped settlement mounds and geochemical traces of early, intense metallurgy in the surrounding sediments.