Early Career Researchers Group

Complete title: »Archäologische Interpretation der geophysikalischen Prospektionsmessungen von Ephesos 1995 – 2016« 

Type: Dissertation

University: University of Vienna

Advisor: S. Ladstätter, I. Trinks

Short description: On the basis of extensive ground-penetrating radar and magnetic survey data recorded from 1995 to 2016 from Ephesos, this dissertation project deals with the archaeological interpretation of the results of this non-destructive geophysical prospection. This will lead to a comprehensive characterization of the settlement area of Ephesos and I will carry out cultural and historical analyses through the comparison of the excavated material from a topographical perspective. Furthermore, the extensive possibilities but also the limits in the integration of archaeological and geophysical data in settlement archaeology will be analyzed.

Contact: jasmin.ableidinger(at)gmx.at

Complete title: »Production and use of white marble in Roman Thrace. Provenance and diffusion of marble in the area of Roman Thrace (modern Bulgaria)«

Type: Dissertation

University: University of Salzburg

Advisor: A. Sokolicek

Short descripition: The PhD programme aims to research, examine, analyse and deepen the subject of Production and use of white marble in Roman Thrace. The main domains of the research will be focused on both regional and long-distance trade in white marbles, which represented a significant economic-historical component in the Roman imperial period (1st-3rd centuries AD), in the region of Thrace. Through investigation of the Thracian quarries and Roman architectural elements in the main urban centres in the region of Thrace, theories regarding marble trade and the cultural and technological transfer between the Roman world, Asia Minor and Thrace will be examined.

A large number of methods will be performed in this project for the investigation of the provenance studies. This PhD connects the antiquity-directed disciplines of archaeology and Roman economic history with geology and the application-based analysis procedures of petrography and geochemistry.

Complete title: »Vatin Kultur in Nordostserbien«

Type: Masterarbeit

University: University of Wien

Advisor: K. Rebay-Salisbury

Short description: The aim of this work is to investigate the occurrence and characteristics of the Vatin culture in the region of north-eastern Serbia. Ceramic finds from the sites Čoka Njica, Hajdučka Česma, Trnjane 1 and 2 and Ružana are documented and analysed. Pottery from these sites is classified into typological categories and compared with Vatin ware from other regions. Elements of other cultures such as Verbicoara, whose influence is obvious, will be incorporated. Interdisciplinary results, anthropological as well as metallurgical analyses are also presented within the framework of this work.

Complete title: »Eine kritische Neubewertung schriftlicher Quellen für eine historische Chronologie des Neuen Reiches« 

Type: Dissertation

University: University of Vienna

Advisor: R. Gundacker

Short description: The dissertation examines the historical chronology of the ancient Egyptian New Kingdom (ca. 1550 – 1050 B.C.; Dynasties 18 – 20). By means of collecting and critically evaluating written sources as well as genealogical investigations, the duration of the individual administrations and their relationship to each other should be deduced. Furthermore, synchronisms with other Levantine cultures will be taken into consideration. (Sub-project 4 of the ERC Starting Grants (GA Nr. 757951) "Challenging Time(s): A New Approach to Written Sources for Ancient Egyptian Chronology").

The project »Minor marble quarries in Turkey: Case studies for the Turkish Thracian and Manisa Regions« focuses on two small-scale quarry regions in Turkey that have received little or no attention so far: Thrace Turkey and the Manisa region (Western Anatolia).  Geological data show that there are geological units containing prominent marble formations, which have the potential to contain quarries in both regions. The aim of the project is to locate deposits in the two defined regions and to perform a petrographic-geochemical analysis of the raw material.

Complete title: »Transport und Logistik von weißem Marmor im römischen Thrakien. Analyse der Marmorlandschaften des 1. bis 3. Jh. n. Chr.« 

Type: Dissertation

University: University of Wien

Advisors: S. Ladstätter, C. Gugl

Short description: The dissertation project investigates the transport and trade of white marble in Roman Thrace from the 1st to the 3rd century A.D. The landscape archaeological study will reveal the accessibility of the quarries, the transport routes and lengths between the quarrying site and the place where marble artefacts were found. The analysis of the distribution networks of the quarries and reference networks of selected towns and villae rusticae will be carried out in synthesis with economic models of the Roman Imperial period to illustrate the marble landscapes of Thrace.

Complete title: »Das Zirkulationsverhalten römisch-republikanischer Münzen während der Prinzipatszeit« 

Type: Dissertation

University: University of Vienna

Advisor: B. Woytek

Short description: This PhD project investigates the circulation of Roman Republican coins, especially silver denarii, from the reign of Augustus onwards. As the continued use of these coins is a central phenomenon of the Roman economy - especially of the Early and High Principate - the influence of coinage reforms on the circulation of Republican denarii and the causes of the disappearance of the majority of pre-imperial silver coins during the reigns of the emperors Trajan and Hadrian form a central aspect of the analysis. This leads to further research focuses, such as the deliberate 'recycling' of old money, regional differences in the circulation patterns of Republican coins, and differences in the circulation behaviour of various Republican coin types and type groups.

Complete title: »Prokonnesischer Marmor in Ephesos«

Contact:  sophie.insulander(at)oeaw.ac.at

Studies: Prehistory and Historical Archaeology, University of Vienna Masters course

Research Interests: Rock Art, Near Eastern Archaeology

OeAI position: student assistant in the research team of Archaeology in Egypt and Sudan working on metadata and documentation of Tell el-Daba

Complete title: »Grave goods and cremation fuel from a Hellenistic and Roman cemetery: Reconstructing the burial rituals and vegetation of Tenos island«

Type: GO.INVESTIGATIO - Archiv- und Reisestipendien der ÖAW, Postdoc

Short description: This project aims to investigate plant remains from a Hellenistic to Roman cemetery in Tenos Island in Greece (4th century BCE to 1st century CE). The study of charred plant remains, such as seeds, will provide insights into grave goods of plant origin and the rituals of giving food for the dead. Modern-day Tenos is lacking sufficient wood resources, and trees are scarce. The charcoal analysis will show if the island was rich in trees and wood in antiquity, or if the Tenians had to import wood for burning their deceased.

Complete title: »Eine kritische Neubewertung schriftlicher Quellen für eine historische Chronologie der Frühdynastischen Zeit und des Alten Reiches« 

Type: Dissertation

University: University of Vienna

Advisor: R. Gundacker

Short descripition: In absolute chronological terms, this dissertation deals with the period of ca. 3000 until 2100 B.C. (Dynasties 0-6). The main field of investigation are dated (to the day) Egyptian inscriptions (administrative documents, building dipinti, annals etc.), based on which a) the duration of rule of particular kings should be re-evaluated and b) controversial individual questions regarding the methods of dating should be clarified. Furthermore, other potentially relevant texts for dating, for example with genealogical or astronomical information, will be incorporated (Sub-project 2 of the ERC Starting Grants "Challenging Time(s): A New Approach to Written Sources for Ancient Egyptian Chronology").

Complete title: »Reworked Sculptures of Ephesus«

Type: Dissertation

University: Universität Hamburg

Advisor: Ch. Berns, S. Ladstätter

Short description: The main focus of this study is to examine the reworked statues at Ephesos and the reasons for their relocation. The reworked/reused sculptures of Ephesus start from the first century AD until the sixth century AD, at the end of the sculpture habit. Reuse was a widespread phenomenon, particularly in Late Antiquity, and the Ephesian examples indicate that reused sculptures were reused in different locations as the originals. The main focus of this study is to examine the practice of reuse in Ephesus and to understand how statues were used and perceived in combination with new statues in public buildings. The aim is to answer the question of the reasons for the reworking of portrait sculptures and at the same time the results in the social, economic and cultural identities and developments of Late Antique Ephesus.

Complete title: »Bronze Age alloying practices and traditions in the Balkan region«

Type: Dissertation

University: University of Vienna

Advisor: B. Horejs

Short description: With the help of trace element and lead isotope analyses, the chemical composition of copper and bronze objects from the Balkan region of the Bronze Age will be analysed from a chronological and chorological point of view. The aim of this is, within the framework of the overarching research project »New insights in Bronze Age metal producing societies: an interdisciplinary study on the social impact of metallurgy and exchange networks«, to grasp developments, parallels and particularities in metallurgical practices and traditions at both local and supra-regional levels by processing both previously published and newly submitted archaeometric data, taking archaeological contexts into account. With the help of the results of these investigations, insights into technological communication and social distribution networks of Bronze Age societies will be gained.

Complete title: »Places of Christian-Motivated Charity in the Eastern Mediterranean in Late Antiquity. An Interdisciplinary Study Based on Archaeological and Other Ancient Sources (working title)«

Type: Dissertation

University: University of Graz/Max Weber Centre Erfurt/IGS Resonant Self-World Relations in Ancient and Modern Socio-Religious Practices

Advisors: C. Heil/W. Spickermann (Graz), M. Vinzent (Erfurt), A. Pülz (ÖAW-ÖAI)

Short description: The study deals with places of Christian-motivated charity in the Eastern Mediterranean. The time frame ranges from the late 3rd CE to the mid-7th CE. While charitable acts have been the subject of numerous studies, the localities of their performance have generally received little attention. This interdisciplinary study aims to bring archaeological, epigraphical, and literary sources together, and an attempt will be made to grasp places of charity in their entirety. 

Contact: florian.oppitz(at)uni-graz.at

Viola C. Schmid is a postdoctoral fellow at the Austrian Archaeological Institute in the research group ‘Quaternary Archaeology’ since October 2022. She is the project leader of the project »Time of Essential Change - The South African Middle Stone Age during MIS 5« funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF-project number: T 1321 Firnberg-Programme). Her research concerns three South African sites in different biomes, Bushman Rock Shelter, Rose Cottage Cave, and Sibhudu Cave. The main focus of the project is to identify technological and techno-economic behaviours, land use patterns, and inventiveness of hunter-gatherer societies as well as possible trigger mechanisms for the developments in less well-studied ecozones during Marine Isotope Stage 5.

She is a Postdoctoral project collaborator at the Austrian Archaeological Institute, where she works on the project »Colours Revealed – Polychromy of Roman Monuments in the Danubian Provinces (PolychroMon)«. Within the project, she investigates the polychromy of the Mithraic monuments from Carnuntum and its environs. She defended her PhD in 2022, dealing with the cult of Mithras in the Roman province of Dalmatia.

Contact: nirvana.silnovic(at)oeaw.ac.at

Complete title: »Lifeways of the early medieval Slavs: A bioarchaeological examination of diet and health from the human remains from three cemeteries north and south of the Karawanken Mountains«

Type: Dissertation

University: University of Vienna

Avisors: S. Ladstätter, S. Kirchengast

Short description: This doctoral project aims to explore and compare the lifeways of three communities from the Eastern Alpine region in Austria and Slovenia during the early medieval period (7th-10th centuries AD). The human skeletal remains will be analyzed using macroscopic methods as well as stable isotopes (C and N) for diet reconstruction and ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis to identify migration patterns.

Complete title: »Die Münzprägung in Khuzistan von Alexander dem Großen bis zum Ende der Sasaniden« 

Type: Dissertation

University: University of Vienna

Advisor: N. Schindel

Short description: This PhD project, which covers the period from c. 325 BC to c. AD 642, is part of the oriental numismatics and therefore includes the periods of Seleucid, Arsacid and Sasanian sovereignty in the region of Khuzistan in present-day Iran, as well as the attempts at independence under autonomous rulers. The numismatic and economic processes in Khuzistan – such as the beginning of the use of coins, the start of local coinage, and the differences with neighbouring regions and cities – and their historical effects will be examined. The project will also consider possible geographical and chronological limitations of denominations and coin types, or even their continued use and/or adoption.

She is a PhD student in the research group research group "object Itineraries" of OeAI. My PhD project is regarding the archaeometric study of the finishing and decoration practices utilized for the ceramics from the Early Bronze Age II to the Iron Age at the site of Arslantepe (Malatya, Eastern Türkiye). A multi-proxy approach, integrating macroscopic technological examination, compositional and microstructural analyses, as well as experimental reproduction will be applied.