Roland Filzwieser is a postdoctoral researcher in archaeological prospection, landscape archaeology, medieval history, and digital humanities at the Vienna Institute for Archaeological Science (VIAS). He is specialized in geophysical prospection and digital documentation methods in combination with historical written and cartographic sources
Congratulations to VIAS-HEAS Member Mathias MEHOFER on being awarded a standalone EU-H2020-IPERION project titled “Hallmetals-Archaeometallurgical analyses on metals from the famous Iron Age cemetery of Hallstatt, Austria. The discovery of the famous cemetery of Hallstatt, Austria, with its rich and spectacular grave goods gave its name to an entire prehistoric culture – the Hallstatt culture (ca. 8th to the 4th cent. BC). These metal objects, which are nowadays housed in the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (NHM), represent a remarkable and, to date unexplored, (archaeometallurgical) pool to examine the wide-ranging exchange connections of the prehistoric salt miners. As a first step, a set of 130 metals (gold and copper based objects) covering the time span of the 8th to the 4th century BC, will be examined for their chemical composition and metal provenance. For the first time, the generated archaeometallurgical database will allow for in-depth analyses of Iron Age metal exchange to the region over vast distances. Project partners: Priv.-Doz. Mag. Dr. Karina Grömer, Mag. Dr. Georg Tiefengraber, Mag. Daniel Oberndorfer, Conservator-Restorer, Prehistory, Natural History Museum Vienna Prof. Dr. Ernst Pernicka, CEZA Mannheim, Germany More information can be found on the following homepage
van der Sluis, L.G., Zazzo, A., Tombret, O., Thil, F., Pétillon, J.M., 2023. Testing The Use Of Xad Resin To Remove Synthetic Contamination From Archaeological Bone Prior To Radiocarbon Dating . Radiocarbon, 1-16. read more
Rybin, E.P., Belousova, N.E., Derevianko, A.P., Douka, K., Higham, T., 2023. The Initial Upper Paleolithic of the Altai: New radiocarbon determinations for the Kara-Bom site. Journal of Human Evolution 185, 103453. read more
Sawyer, S., Gelabert, P., Yakir, B., Lizcano, A.L., Sperduti, A., Bondioli, L., Cheronet, O., Neugebauer-Maresch, C., Teschler-Nicola, M., Novak, M., Pap, I., Szikossy, I., Hajdu, T., Meshorer, E., Carmel, L., Pinhasi, R., 2023. Improved detection of methylation in ancient DNA. bioRxiv, 2023.2010.2031.564722. read more
Doneus, M., Neubauer, W., Filzwieser, R., Sevara, C., 2022. Stratigraphy from topography II. The practical application of the Harris Matrix for the GIS-based spatio-temporal archaeological interpretation of topographical data. Archaeologia Austriaca. read more
Roland Filzwieser, Michael Doneus, Gerhard Hasenhündl, Matthias Kucera, Andreas Lenzhofer, Michał Pisz, David Russ, Franz Seidl, Gerhard Stüttler, Geert Verhoeven, Georg Zotti und Wolfgang Neubauer. (2023): Der Dernberg. Neue Perspektiven auf einen mittelalterlichen Hausberg mit anschließender Ortswüstung durch integrierte archäologische Prospektion und die systematische Analyse historischer Karten. In: Beiträge zur Mittelalterarchäologie in Österreich 39, S. 115–136. read more
I am an evolutionary anthropologist and morphometrician. I obtained a PhD in Biological Anthropology from the University of Cambridge and am currently based at the Department of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Vienna as an ESPRIT fellow. I am interested in which sense the human lineage is unique and in which sense we are “just another unique species.” Central to my research, therefore, is placing human evolution in a wider comparative and theoretical biology context. I study complex traits such as the pelvis, cranium, inner ear, and the entire dentition. Currently, my main research focus is on the study of evolutionary trade-offs in the human and non-human placental mammalian pelvis in pursuit of understanding what constrains human pelvic canal size and flexibility, leading to a tight fit and difficult childbirth (an "obstetrical dilemma"). I lead an FWF-funded project devoted to this question, in which I aim to disentangle the relative contributions of reproduction, locomotion, posture, body mass support, and phylogenetic heritage in hard and soft tissue anatomy of the mammalian, including human, pelvis.
After I started studying biology at Leibniz University Hannover, I developed an interest in population genetics, conservation genetics, and ecology. Driven this passion, I pursued my education in evolutionary systems biology at the University of Vienna. For my master's thesis, I focused on recurrent ecotype formation of an alpine plant. I conducted a comprehensive analysis of smRNA profiles from reciprocally transplanted individuals and those grown in a common garden. Currently, for my PhD, my research focuses on New Zealand feral horses. Through bioinformatic and comparative population genomics, my goal is to provide science- based insights for future conservation management plans. This endeavor aims to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of New Zealand's European settlers through studying their horses, as human history has always shaped and been shaped by the history of our livestock’s.
