Archaeobotany

Department of Prehistoric and Historical Archaeology (IUHA) Members

Maximilian PINIEL

Maximilian Piniel is a university assistant (Praedoc) at the University of Vienna. As a prehistorian and archaeobotanist, his research focuses on the material culture of the European metal ages and on the human-environment relationships of prehistoric societies. He completed his Bachelor and Master studies at the University of Vienna. In his doctorate, he is currently working on agriculture and plant-based diet during the Early and Middle Bronze Age on the Upper and Middle Danube.    

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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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Department of Prehistoric and Historical Archaeology (IUHA) Members

Tom MALTAS

I am a Postdoctoral Researcher in Environmental Archaeology on the 'Migration and the Making of the Ancient Greek World' (MIGMAG) project at the Institute for Classical Archaeology, University of Vienna. My research uses archaeobotany and stable isotope analysis to understand the roles of farming in societal change in the prehistoric Mediterranean. For MIGMAG, I am investigating changes in land use and agricultural production strategies that may have accompanied mobility, demographic change and urbanisation in the Iron Age Mediterranean. I recently completed a DPhil (PhD) at the University of Oxford, where I analysed archaeobotanical assemblages from Chalcolithic and Bronze Age western Anatolia.

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