The Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW)

The members of the Academy engage in interdisciplinary exchange to consider important questions concerning the future, advise on policy and society and inform the general public of important scientific insights. They also form commissions in which they examine questions of great relevance to science and society.

 

The Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) Vienna Institute for Archaeological Science (VIAS) Members

Magdalena BLANZ

I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Vienna Institute for Archaeological Science (VIAS) and the Austrian Archaeological Institute, where I work on stable isotope ratios of bioarchaeological remains. Originally trained as an environmental analytical chemist, my interests have always been in analysing archaeological remains. For my PhD I focussed on the identification and interpretation of seaweed consumption by terrestrial mammals in archaeological contexts. During my postdoc, I am researching the first introductions of domesticated animals and plants into Europe, focussing on dietary patterns and plant growth conditions. I am particularly interested in method development and acquiring modern reference data for stable isotope ratio studies.

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The Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) Team Leaders

Barbara HOREJS

Deputy Head

I am Professor for Prehistory and Scientific Director of the Austrian Archaeological Institute at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, where I am heading the Department for Prehistory & WANA Archaeology. My research focuses on late Pleistocene to Holocene phenomena in Southeast Europe and West Asia with excavations and geoarchaeological surveys to produce, analyse and model new primary data of early communities and their environmental contexts. I enjoy working with interdisciplinary teams of students, ECR’s and experts to gain new insights into neolithization, intensification & centralisation.    

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The Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) Department of Prehistoric and Historical Archaeology (IUHA) Team Leaders

Katharina REBAY-SALISBURY

Management Board

Katharina Rebay-Salisbury is professor of Prehistory of Humanity at the University of Vienna and directs the research group ‘Prehistoric Identities’ at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Enthusiastic about the European Bronze and Iron Ages, her research focusses on combining interdisciplinary approaches for insights into people’s lives, identities and social relations in prehistory. Her current research explores themes such as sex and gender, motherhood, kinship, mobility and migration through ERC and FWF-funded projects analyzing burial contexts and human remains from Central Europe.

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The Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) Team Leaders

Martin STESKAL

Management Board

Martin Steskal is Head of the Department of Historical Archaeology at the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the OeAW and Director of the excavations of Ephesos. He is a trained classical archaeologist with a research focus on Mediterranean archaeology. He has been studying the mortuary landscape and practices in Ephesos for many years and is trying to reconstruct the living environment of the inhabitants of one of the great ancient metropolises. His research includes archaeological, historical and scientific methods. In addition to his work at the OeAW, he is also a lecturer at the University of Vienna.  

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The Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) Department of Prehistoric and Historical Archaeology (IUHA) Members

Ana M. HERRERO CORRAL

Dr. Ana M. Herrero Corral is a Marie-Curie postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Prehistory and WANA Archaeology, of the Austrian Archaeological Institute. She has a master's degree in Physical Anthropology and a PhD in Prehistory from Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain). Her main research focuses on the social role that children of recent prehistory would have within their communities through the bioarchaeological analysis of the funerary record. During her Marie-Curie project she will explore biological and non-biological kinship relationships between children and adults buried together in multiple graves of recent prehistory Iberia. Since 2017 has been part of the Humanejos research project, one of the most important cemeteries of the III and II millennium BC in Iberia, financed by the Spanish Ministry of Culture. Out of an output of over 30 academic publications, those more relevant include: Herrero et al. 2019 The Inheritors: Bell Beaker Children’s Tombs in Iberia and their Social Context, Cintas and Herrero 2020 Missing prehistoric women? Sex ratio as an indicator for analyzing the population of Iberia from the 8th to the 3rd millennia B.C, or the recently published book (Herrero 2022) Bioarchaeological analysis of child burials from the III and II millennium BC in the upper and middle basins of the Tagus.

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The Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) Team Leaders

Michael BRANDL

I am a Prehistoric archaeologist, geo-scientist and coordinator of the Archaeological Sciences at the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the ÖAW. My research focusses on lithic raw material economy and questions relating to past human behaviour. For this task, I develop innovative protocols for provenance analyses of lithic raw materials and economic models. My geographical and chronological frame is broadly laid out to achieve a large comparative database and enable intercultural comparisons. Consequently, I am involved in extended international research networks and pursue the promotion of young scholars.   Publications Michael Brandl

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The Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) Team Leaders

Laura DIETRICH

I am an archaeologist in the Department Prehistory and WANA Archaeology at the Austrian Archaeological Institute, and Associate Professor at the Free University of Berlin, Institute for Prehistoric Archaeology. I specialize in functional studies on stone tools and object biographies, with a focus on functional morphometric, use-wear and residue analyses, and experimental archaeology. My research focuses on Southwestern Asia to Central Europe, from Epipaleolithic to the Bronze Age, especially on the Neolithic and the process of the Neolithization.  

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The Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) Team Leaders

Thomas EINWÖGERER

Since 2017 I have been the head of the research group “Quaternary Archaeology” at the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and group leader of the Krems branch. I am an expert for the Federal Office for the Protection of Monuments, I am involved in extended international research networks and pursue the promotion of young scholars by teaching at the Institute for Prehistory and Historical Archaeology at the University of Vienna. I also maintain public relations and was curator for several exhibitions in museums in Lower Austria. As the principal investigator of the excavation sites Krems-Wachtberg (2005-2015), Gösing am Wagram (2014) and Kammern-Grubgraben (since 2015) my research focusses on the Upper Palaeolithic in the Danube Region. My interest is to get as much information as possible about past human behaviour, settlement structures and settlement patterns, art and jewellery and stone tool inventories. For this purpose, I also focus on the prospecting of Palaeolithic find layers by means of pile-driven probing and experimental archaeology (reconstructions and models).

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The Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) Team Leaders

Pamela FRAGNOLI

I am an archaeometrist with a degree in Archaeological Sciences and a PhD in Archaeology. As ceramic specialist I am involved in various projects in the pre- and historical Mediterranean and South-Western Asia. My research focuses on the study of craft organization in relation to cultural, economic and political changes. As supervisor of early-career scientists I expanded my expertise to pigment, brick, mortar and glass analyses. Currently, I am head of the Research Group “Object Itineraries” and part of the core team of the Research Infrastructure “Heritage Sciences” at the OeAI as well as lecturer at the University of Vienna.

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The Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) Team Leaders

Alfred GALIK

Alfred Galik originally studied paleontology at the Univ. of Vienna. Since 2003 he has collaborated as a research associate at the institute for Anatomy at the Vetmed Univ Vienna. From 2012 to 2016 he was university assistant at the institute for Anatomy, histology and embryology at the Vetmed Univ Vienna with cooperations in numerous historical and prehistoric archaeozoological projects. He was awarded with the habilitation with the venia legendi “archaeozoology in veterinary medicine” in 2016. Since 2016 Alfred Galik is member of the ÖAI as academy scientist. His prime-interest lies on Archaeozoology, including archaeomalacology and ichthyoarchaeology, besides animal anatomy and osteology, palaeopathology, domestication and evolution research, morphometry and environmental history.

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The Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) Members

Leslie QUADE

I am a bioarchaeologist and palaeopathologist, specialising in interdisciplinary analyses of stress and health from human skeletal remains. My research is focused on the ‘stress’ hormone cortisol in living and past populations, and the impact of cultural, sociopolitical and environmental disparities on child and adult health. I am further interested in trauma, health and living conditions in 18th-20th century military settings. I have a BA from Columbia University, an MSc and PhD from Durham University, and I completed a postdoc at Masaryk University in 2023. I have also worked as a contract osteologist in Austria, Czechia, France, Italy, the UK and USA. I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at the department of Prehistory and WANA Archaeology in the Austrian Archaeological Institute, where I am investigating stress markers and cortisol in teeth. This research is supported by a FWF & OeAW “Disruptive Innovation - Early Career Seed Money” grant. In early 2025, I will begin a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship also focusing on dental cortisol methods.  

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The Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) Members

Viola SCHMID

I am a postdoctoral researcher in the research group Quaternary Archaeology at the Department of Prehistory & West Asian/Northeast African Archaeology of the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Since my master’s, I focus on lithic technological developments in the southern African Stone Age. In 2019, I finished my PhD on the C-A layers of Sibhudu Cave (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa) in the light of the MSA lithic technologies in MIS 5 with "magna cum laude" in a joint doctoral programme at the Universities of Tübingen and Paris Nanterre. I started my Hertha Firnberg project ‘Time of essential changes in human history (TECH)’ in October 2022. The project concerns the analysis of lithic assemblages from three quasi-synchronous sites, Sibhudu Cave, Bushman Rock Shelter, and Rose Cottage Cave, in different biomes of South Africa. My aim is to gain a better understanding of the lithic technology, innovativeness and connectedness of past societies in South Africa during Marine Isotope Stage 5.    

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The Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) Team Leaders

Mario GAVRANOVIĆ

Mario Gavranović is a prehistoric archeologist with research focus on Metal Ages in Europe and the Balkans in particular. He is Deputy Scientific Director of the Austrian Archaeological Institute at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Department for Prehistory & WANA Archaeology and leader of the research group “Urnfield Culture Networks”.  In his projects, he explores the interactions, resource managements and burial practices of prehistoric communities by applying the fieldwork and interdisciplinary analytic approach. He is currently running several projects on metallurgy of Bronze Ages and copper distribution networks, radiocarbon dating of urn cemeteries and mobility patterns pf prehistoric groups in southeastern Europe.     Publications Mario Gavranović

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The Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) Team Leaders

Andreas G. HEISS

I am an archaeobotanist with a PhD in Biology from the University of Innsbruck. My research is dedicated to exploring the fascinating interactions between human cultures and plants, with a particular focus on the history of agriculture and food cultures. I am also interested in topics as diverse as mining, dyeing, wood use, and ritual practices. Over the years I have been actively involved in numerous research projects throughout Europe and the Aegean, which have helped me to develop my expertise in my field. During my academic career I have had the privilege of teaching at three institutions: the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), the University of Vienna, and the University of Applied Arts, Vienna. In 2012 I was honoured with the BOKU Teaching Award and in 2020 I received the Venia Docendi (habilitation) for Archaeobotany at the same university. As a founding member of the Bioarchaeological Society of Austria (BAG) in 2015, I am contributing to the development of zooarchaeology, archaeobotany, and biological anthropology in Austria, which has been a rewarding experience. In 2016, I was given the opportunity to establish the Archaeobotany Laboratory at the Austrian Archaeological Institute at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW-OeAI), which I have been leading since then. In 2021 I took over the leadership of the research group…

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The Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) Team Leaders

Kerstin KOWARIK

I am a prehistoric archaeologist and coordinator of the research group Prehistoric Identities at the Department of Prehistory & West Asian/Northeast African Archaeology at Austrian Archaeological Institute of the ÖAW. My research focuses on human-environment interaction, prehistoric dietary patterns, risk management and crisis and coping (natural hazards, physical stress), and Alpine archaeology. I enjoy working in interdisciplinary networks and am especially interested in and developing new innovative research frameworks using bioarchaeological and geoarchaeological approaches to gain new insights the living conditions of Europe’s Metal Ages communities.     Kerstin Kowarik Publications

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The Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) Team Leaders

Alexandra S. RODLER-RØRBO

I am an archaeological scientist at the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences with a PhD in Geosciences. My research focuses on the organization of ancient colorant networks in view of economic, political and technological changes, currently from late Bronze Age to late Antiquity in the Mediterranean, southwest Asia and Europe. This includes materials of various industries such as mineral pigments, glasses/glazes, metals, and earths, and includes geological fieldwork, experiments, and mineralogical/petrographic and geochemical analyses with a focus on mass spectrometry.  

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The Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) Team Leaders

Lyndelle WEBSTER

Based at the Department of Prehistory and WANA Archaeology at the Austrian Archaeological Institute, my research focuses on radiocarbon dating and soil micromorphology. Developing radiocarbon-based chronologies for Neolithic through Iron Age sites across a wide geographic area, from the Levant and Near East to Europe and the Balkans, has enabled me to contribute to key chronological debates. My current FWF ESPRIT project employs an integrated approach using soil micromorphology and other micro-scale techniques, as well as radiocarbon dating, to study earliest settlements along a major corridor for Neolithisation in the central Balkans.  

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