Research interests
I am both a physical anthropologist (human osteology, paleopathology, paleodemography and bioarchaeology) and archaeologist (focusing on mortuary behaviour). My current research project Women at the Edge of Empire (WAEE - DLV-78985) draws together human osteology, stable isotopes, mortuary behaviour, material culture and epigraphy to examine how the identities of migrant women, and local women married to migrant men, responded to intercultural contact at the eastern border of the Late Roman Empire (4-6th centuries AD). The Danube frontier is conventionally seen as a highly militarised environment and to-date women have been largely invisible, yet women were integral to the cultural melting pot that formed between Romans and nomadic peoples at this critical crossroads in human history.
Previous work has included the analysis of human bones dated from Upper Palaeolithic to 20th century AD and I have participated in archaeological excavations in various sites in Romania. From 2002-present, I have excavated mortuary contexts from Slava Rusă (Tulcea County) dated in the 4th-6th centuries AD. In 2005, I worked with Dr Erik Trinkaus at Peștera cu Oase, a paleontological site in the Banat. In 2012 and 2013 I was involved in the archaeological excavation and anthropological analyses of the clergymen Vladimir Ghika, Ioan Bălan, and Vasile Aftenie from Bellu Catholic Cemetery; all died during the Communist repression. My fieldwork has been complemented by laboratory analyses of human remains in collaboration with colleagues at the ‘Francisc J. Rainer’ Institute. Along with other human skeletons sample, I have studied 300 cremations from the Banat Museum (2016-2017), 200 skeletons from Brăilița, Bronze Age cemetery (2015-2016), 625 skeletons from University Square-Bucharest, Late Medieval cemetery (2013), 300 skeletons from Valul lui Traian, Early Medieval cemetery (2013), and 1500 skeletons from Sibiu-Huet Square, Medieval cemetery (2011-2013). From 2012 to 2016, I was (PI) along with F. Raicu (co-PI) for the project ‘Revealing Bucharest’s Past: An Integrative Study of Ancient DNA and Osteoarchaeological Data of Late Medieval Population’ (PNII-ID-PCCE-2011-2-0013).
Affiliate research group
Classical Empires
Dr Andrei Dorian SoficaruFaculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Southampton
Avenue Campus, Highfield
Southampton
SO17 1BF
United Kingdom
