A laboratory for analyzing historic DNA will serve as a platform for the Graduate School Human Development in Landscapes, the Cluster of Excellence Life Science and the Kiel Academy of Interdisciplinary Marine Sciences (KAIMS). This laboratory will form the analytic basis for a close cooperation for various disciplines. Extracting genetic and radiometric data from historic human and non-human hard and soft tissues is essential for understanding important transfers in the history of mankind. The aDNA-database will also store data on historic environmental conditions and nutrition. Other data that will play a strong role in scrutinizing historic conditions at any given time are those extracted from deposited solid materials, coarse and microbiological residues.