Michael holds multiple Master's degrees, including Geography, Geology, Meteorology, and Archaeology, earned in 2010 and 2018 from the University of Freiburg. He completed his PhD in Physical Geography at the same university in June 2020. Following this, he secured a two-year post-doctoral fellowship at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic, and later became a Visiting Scholar at the University of Cambridge.

In 2022, Michael joined the Geography Department and CRC1266 at Kiel. He received a Swiss National Science Foundation post-doctoral fellowship in 2023 for his project titled "EXOCHAINS - Exploring Holocene Climate Change and Human Innovations across Eurasia," which is based at the Universities of Basel and Cambridge.

Currently, Michael is actively involved in various research projects, including the study of paleoclimate and human mobility across Eurasia, conducting stable isotope analyses in archaeological and ecological contexts, and utilizing computational methods to gain insights into past human behaviors. His expertise lies in multivariate statistics, spatial analysis, and computational modeling in the fields of geography and archaeology.

Professional Experience

since 2023
SNSF Post-doc research fellow, University of Basel, Department of Environmental Sciences, Switzerland & Environmental Systems Analysis, University of Cambridge

2022 – 2023
Post-Doctoral researcher, Kiel University, Department of Geography & CRC1266, Kiel University „Scales of Transformations“

2022
Invited Visiting Scholar, Cambridge University, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

2021 – 2022
Post-doctoral researcher, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, Department of Archaeology and Museology

Education

2020
PhD in Physical Geography, University of Freiburg, Germany (summa cum laude, supervisors: Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Glaser and Prof. Dr. Frank Preusser)

2018
M.A in Archaeological Sciences, University of Freiburg, Germany

2010
M.Sc. in Physical Geography, Geology, and Meteorology, University of Freiburg, Germany

Publications Michael Kempf

2025 –

Kempf, M., Günther, G., Depaermentier, M., 2025. Exploring Neolithic site preferences in the river Tisza floodplain using point pattern analysis and multicomponent environmental models. In: Szilagy, K.; Depaermentier, M.; Kempf, M. & Furholt, M., 2025 (eds.). The Carpathian Basin as a melting pot during the Neolithic. Sidestone Press (Leiden).

Szilagy, K.; Depaermentier, M.; Kempf, M. & Furholt, M., 2025 (eds.). Beyond heterogeneities: New perspectives on social and cultural diversity from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age in the Carpathian Basin. Paperback ISBN: 9789464271119 | Hardback ISBN: 9789464271126. Sidestone Press (Leiden)

2024 -

Kempf, M., 2024. Book Review (in english): Clive Oppenheimer: Mountains of Fire – the Secret Lives of Volcanoes (submitted).

Depaermentier, M., Kempf, M.,Banffy, E., Alt, K., 2024. Cultural diversity shaped Neolithic subsistence in the Carpathian Basin. Scientific Reports (in review).

Kempf, M., 2024. A dataset to model Levantine landcover and land-use change triggered by climate change, the Arab Spring and COVID-19. Data in Brief, 53, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2024.110198.

Bilotti, G., Kempf, M., Oksanen, E., Scholtus, L., Nakoinz, O., 2024. Point Pattern Analysis (PPA) as a tool for reproducible archaeological site distribution analyses and location processes in early iron age south-west Germany. PloS ONE, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0297931.

Kempf, M., 2024. Climate change, the Arab Spring, and COVID-19 - Impacts on landcover transformations in the Levant. Journal of Arid Environments, 221,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2024.105132.

Kempf, M., Denis, S., 2024. Resource dependency and communication networks in Early Neolithic North West Europe, Quaternary Environments and Humans, 2 (5).https://doi.org/10.1016/j.qeh.2024.100014.

Depaermentier, M.L.C., Kempf, M., 2024. Migration waves or cultural melting pot? A new evaluation of early medieval grave goods at Basel, Switzerland. In: Sayer, D.; Martin, T. (eds.). Current Perspectives on Early Medieval Migration, Mobility, and Material Culture. SMA (The Society for Medieval Archaeology) series, London: Routledge (forthcoming).

Ribeiro, A., Kempf, M., 2024. Recognizing patterns in data: inductive and deductive modelling in archaeology. Cambridge Archaeological Journal (under review).

Bilotti, G., Kempf, M., Morillo Leon, J. M., 2024. Modelling land and water based movement corridors in the Western Mediterranean: a least cost path analysis from chalcolithic and early bronze age ivory records. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 16 (122). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-024-02029-x

Zach, B., Spengler, R., Kempf, M., Fernandez, R., 2024. Rates of Prehistoric Cultural Diffusion: A proxy from millet dispersal across Europe and Asia (in preparation).

Schjerven, N., Bilotti, G., Kempf, M., Reiter. S., 2024. Integrating 87/86Sr with Multivariate Modeling to assess movement corridors and connectivity in Late Neolithic-Bronze Age Germany: Insights from Jade Axes and Hilted Swords (in preparation).

Kempf, M., 2024. Von Landschaftsaffordanzen zu Landschaftskonnektivitäten: Konzepte (archäologischer) Humanökologie. In: Renger, M; Schreiber, S. & Veling, A. (eds.), Theorie | Archäologie | Reflexion. Kontroversen und Ansätze im deutschsprachigen Diskurs. Sidestone Press, Leiden (in print).

Depaermentier, M.; Kempf, M. et al., 2024.Multiproxy isotope analyses reveal scale-based mobility and social patterns in Neolithic Hungary. In: Bánffy, E. (ed.), Confinia et Horizontes II, Frankfurt (in print).

Kempf, M., Depaermentier, M., Bánffy, E., Alt, K., 2024. Strontium and oxygen isotope baselines from multicomponent environmental analyses. In: Bánffy, E. (ed.), Confinia et Horizontes II, Frankfurt (in print).

2023 –

Kempf, M., 2023. A ‘Divergence Problem’ of global explanatory models in-between science and humanities. Nature Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 10, 740. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02232-6.

Depaermentier, M.L.C., Kempf, M., 2023. Local integration or social distinction at Late Antique and Early Medieval Basel, Switzerland. In: Flückiger, A., Helmbrecht, M., Lobinger, Ch. (eds.). Prunk in der Provinz – Tagungsbeiträge der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Spätantike und Frühmittelalter, Hamburg: Verlag Dr. Kovacs.

Depaermentier, M.L.C., Krause-Kyora, B., Hajdas, I., Spichtig, N., Schwarz, P.-A., Kempf, M., Gerling, C., 2023. Multi-isotope and aDNA analyses reveal long-lasting continuity at the periphery of the late antique Roman Empire. iScience (7), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.107034 .

Kempf, M., Depaermentier, M., 2023. Scales of transformations - Modelling settlement and land-use dynamics in Late Antique and Early Medieval Basel, Switzerland. PLoS ONE, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0280321.

Kempf, M., 2023. Enhanced trends in spectral greening and climate anomalies across Europe. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 195, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-10853-8.

Kempf, M., Günther, G., 2023. Point pattern and spatial analyses using archaeological and environmental data – a case study from the Neolithic Carpathian Basin. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 47, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2022.103747.

Kempf, M., Weaverdyck, E.J.S. 2023. Modelling bias and environmental preferences in archaeological spatial analysis. Vegueta: Anuario de la Facultad de Geografía e Historia, 23, 1, https://doi.org/10.51349/veg.2023.1.03.

Kempf, M., Depaermentier, M., Glaser, R., 2023. Throw it at the environment and see if it sticks: Resilience theory in archaeology. In: Miera, J. (ed.), ‘Man makes himself’ – Narratives in Archaeology, Archaeolingua.

2022 –

Renz, M., Strohm, S., Kempf, M., Nakoinz, O., 2022. Cross Domain Fusion in der Archäologie – Interview mit Dr. Michael Kempf und Prof. Dr. Oliver Nakoinz. Informatik Spektrum, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00287-022-01488-7

Kempf, M., Brather, S., 2022. Bergbau-Prospektionen im südlichen Schwarzwald - Möglichkeiten und Grenzen ihrer Interpretation. ZAM, Zeitschrift für Archäologie des Mittelalters, 49, 143-198.

Kahle, M., Kempf, M., Martin, B., Glaser, R., 2022. Classifying the 2021 “Ahrtal” flood event using hermeneutic interpretation, natural language processing, and instrumental data analyses. Environmental Research communications, 4, 051002, https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/ac6657.

Kempf, M., 2022. Documentary Evidence of 17th Century Landcover and Climate Change in Northern China and Mongolia Compared to Modern Spectral Greening Trends. land, 11,100, https://doi.org/10.3390/land11010100.

Kempf, M., 2022: Book review (in english): Oliver Nakoinz: Zentralität. Germania.

2021 –

Kempf, M., 2021. The Designed Landscape: Spatial Concepts of human-environmental interactions in Early Medieval southern Germany. In: M. Bartelheim, L. Garcia San Juan, R. Hardenberg; L. Salanova (eds.), Human-made Environments – The Development of Landscapes as Resource Assemblages. ResourceCultures, SFB 1070, Tübingen.

Kempf, M., 2021. Take a seed! Revealing Neolithic landscape and agricultural development in the Carpathian Basin through multivariate statistics and environmental modelling. PLoS ONE 10.1371/journal.pone.0258206.

Depaermentier, M.*; Kempf, M.*; K; Bánffy, E., Alt, K. W. ,2021. Modelling a scale-based strontium isotope baseline for Hungary. Journal of Archaeological Science, 135, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2021.105489 (*equivalent first authors).

2020 –

Depaermentier, M.; Kempf, M; Bánffy, E., Alt, K. W., 2020. Tracing mobility patterns through the 6th-5th millennia BC in the Carpathian Basin with strontium and oxygen stable isotope analyses. PLoS ONE, 15(12): e0242745.

Kempf, M.; Glaser, R., 2020. Tracing Real-Time Transnational Hydrologic Sensitivity and Crop Irrigation in the Upper Rhine Area over the Exceptional Drought Episode 2018-2020 Using Open Source Sentinel-2 Data. Water, 12, doi:10.3390/w12123298.

Kempf, M., 2020. Fables of the Past: Landscape Reconstructions and the Bias in the Data. Documenta Praehistorica, 47, 476-492.

Kempf, M., 2020. Neolithic land-use, landscape development, and environmental dynamics in the Carpathian Basin. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 34.

Depaermentier, M.; Osztás, A.; Bánffy, E.; Alt, K. W., Kempf, M., 2020. Neolithic land-use, subsistence, and mobility patterns in Transdanubia: a multiproxy isotope and environmental analysis from Alsónyék–Bátaszék and Mórágy–Tűzkődomb. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 33.

Kempf, M., 2020. From landscape affordances to landscape connectivity: Contextualizing an archaeology of human ecology. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 12, 174.

Kempf, M., 2020. Modeling multivariate landscape affordances and functional ecosystem connectivity in landscape archaeology. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 12, 159.

Kempf, M., Brather-Walter, S., 2020. Spatial analyses of three early medieval graveyards in south-ern Germany: Social status or chronological signal? Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 29.

2019 –

Kempf, M. & Brather-Walter, S., 2019. Frühmittelalterliche Bestattungspraktiken am Beispiel Lauchheim ‘Wasserfurche’: Pragmatismus oder Sozialarchitektur? ZAM - Zeitschrift für Archäologie des Mittelalters, 46 (2018) 1-26.

Kempf, M., 2019. Paradigm and pragmatism: GIS-based spatial analysis of Roman infrastructure networks in the Upper Rhine Valley. Geoarchaeology, 34(6),797-808.

Kempf, M., 2019. The Application of GIS and Satellite Imagery in Archaeological Land-Use Reconstruction: a Predictive Model? Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 25, 116-128.

2018 –

Kempf, M., 2018. Migration or landscape fragmentation in Early Medieval eastern France? A case study from Niedernai. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 21, 593-605.

Kempf, M., 2018. Predictive Modeling of Land-Use Opportunities in the Early Medieval Period: A Case Study from Lauchheim, Southern Germany. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 20, 382-389.