🌍 ESTER – Estimating Population Dynamics for Europe and Western Asia (12,000 – 2000 BP)
This repository hosts open-source tools, datasets, and research outputs from the ERC-funded ESTER project. Our goal is to develop computational models and archaeological datasets to reconstruct past population dynamics across Europe and Western Asia over the past 12,000 years.
The ESTER project (Estimating the Earth’s prehistoric population based on a large number of Records) is an interdisciplinary research initiative combining:
- Prehistoric archaeology
- Paleoenvironmental science
- Computational modeling
Using advanced spatial and demographic modeling, ESTER aims to provide quantitative estimates of past human populations and their interactions with changing environments.
Host Institution: University of Kiel, specifically the Institute of Pre- and Protohistoric Archaeology
Funding: European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant
🔹 Open Datasets – Chronological, archaeological, and paleoenvironmental datasets used in our research.
🔹 Computational Models – Code for demographic reconstructions, simulations, and data analyses.
🔹 Scientific Publications – Open-access papers and preprints related to ESTER research.
🔹 Collaboration & Community – Guidelines for contributing and reusing our work.
ESTER is committed to Open Science! All datasets, scripts, and models will be made freely available under appropriate licenses. We encourage collaboration with researchers across disciplines.
For Details, check our Open Science Standards
If you’re interested in contributing, check out our collaboration guidelines or open an issue in the respective repository.
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Principal Investigator: Martin Hinz
- Contact: [martin.hinz@ufg.uni-kiel.de]
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PostDoc Archaeology: Sophie C. Schmidt
- Contact: [s.c.schmidt@ufg.uni-kiel.de]
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Website: ester-project.org
- Ester Code of Conduct - mission, principles, and logistics for the group
- Overarching Planning and Roadmap at our ESTER Forward Planning (🔒)
- Ongoing development and sprint progress on our Sprint Planning Board (🔒)
- Onboarding Guide (🔒)
All project data will be published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY 4.0).
All code will be published under the MIT License, unless otherwise stated.
You might find the general LICENSE and CITATION.cff in our Governance repository. Please check the LICENSE and CITATION.cff files in each repository for the most up-to-date information.
➡️ A full citation guide will be added once the first datasets and model versions are released.
Note: This repository is part of the ESTER Project, which officially starts in September 2025.
All content is preliminary and may change. Licensing will apply as described from that date onward.
Publications
- yet to come...
Collaboration & Attribution Policy
The ESTER project team is open to collaboration and welcomes engagement from researchers, developers, and practitioners interested in our work. When substantial intellectual contributions are provided by us, we kindly ask for appropriate credit.
Intellectual contributions may include, but are not limited to:
- Development of custom code or software components,
- Data processing, manipulation, or integration,
- Methodological support, including experimental design, modeling approaches, or analytical strategies.
The form of credit will be determined through mutual agreement, reflecting the nature and extent of contributions. This may include co-authorship on manuscripts, datasets, or other research outputs arising from collaborative efforts.
For general inquiries regarding the use of our open-source tools, we encourage users to first consult the available documentation, tutorials, and relevant publications. If further assistance is needed, please open an issue in the respective GitHub repository.
Co-authorship is not expected for routine troubleshooting, issue resolution, or technical support. However, we highly appreciate proper citation and fair acknowledgment of our work in publications and presentations.
For additional details on our research ethos and best practices, please refer to our collaboration guidelines or contact us directly. Thank you for supporting open science and responsible academic collaboration!