Projects / Programmes
January 1, 2022
- December 31, 2027
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 6.02.00 |
Humanities |
Archaeology |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 6.01 |
Humanities |
History and Archaeology |
Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Eneolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages, Roman period, Epigraphy, Late Antiquity, Early Middle Ages, palynology, archaeobotany, archaeozoology, chronology, settlement, migrations, interdisciplinary research, digital archaeology, databases
Data for the last 5 years (citations for the last 10 years) on
April 18, 2024;
A3 for period
2018-2022
| Database |
Linked records |
Citations |
Pure citations |
Average pure citations |
| WoS |
155 |
1,860 |
1,629 |
10.51 |
| Scopus |
185 |
2,340 |
1,998 |
10.8 |
Researchers (24)
Organisations (1)
Abstract
The programme will be focused on fundamental research to acquire new knowledge about the development of man and society in the earliest periods. It will be multi-layered and will encompass a wide range of activities, from the implementation and testing of new research methods and the construction of databases and documentation systems to acquiring new insights into settlement structures, trade, social processes, and the way of life of people who lived in the south-eastern Alps from prehistory to the Middle Ages. In the Palaeolithic & Mesolithic, the dynamics of the process of microlithisation, the development of microlithic tool types and mobility will be studied. We will look at the chronology, settlement dynamics, and life in all their aspects in the Neolithic. The interdisciplinary manner of the research will provide a more comprehensive picture of the settlement, life, and burial in the wider area of central Slovenia in the BA. We will be interested in communication flows and the processes of centralisation, disintegration, and reintegration in the IA. Romanisation will be studied through questions of military presence, immigration, the new organisation of space, changes in the settlement picture, the role of autochthonous people, and chronology. Settlement development will be discussed with the help of town, smaller settlement, and countryside studies. Everyday provincial life, as is derived from the texts of selected antique sources, will be studied. The crisis of the Roman Empire will be dealt with. The change in the settlement pattern at the transition to the Late Roman period will be studied. The study of the development of early Christianity will be continued and the transition from the LA to the EMA studied. The development of Early Medieval settlement will be researched with extensive data gathering. Archaeological analyses will be upgraded with those from natural science and comprehensively interpreted with digital tools. New research approaches will be developed with interdisciplinary research on material culture. Within natural science studies, man's influence, climate fluctuations, and other environmental processes in vegetation will be studied. Knowledge about trade, social circumstances, and the origin and spread of cultural plants, as well as data about the environment, will be upgraded with archaeobotanical research. We will be interested in diet, the diversity of animal husbandry policies, communication, and migration. Classical research approaches will be upgraded with contemporary statistical and biochemical tools. The Centre of Epigraphy functions at the Institute of Archaeology (ZRC SAZU), the only such institution in Slovenia. Nationally significant comparative collections for archaeobotanics and archaeozoology will be supplemented and, simultaneously, the equally important Arkas, Zbiva & Libera databases will be upgraded and updated. Arheološki vestnik, the central Slovenian archaeological journal, will be published.
Significance for science
The proposed research programme is complex and unites all those research fields that have to be performed by the Institute as the central national research establishment for the field of archaeology. The range of the research is wide since it spans from the questions of methodology, construction of fundamental databases, and publications of material to synthetic works in which social processes or the development of man from prehistory to the Middle Ages will be presented. Palaeolithic and Mesolithic studies maintain the comprehensiveness of archaeological research in Slovenia. The interdisciplinary analysis of stone tools' raw material will provide important information about the mobility of early anatomically modern humans. The research of pile-dwellings in the Ljubljansko barje uncovers many secrets about the origin of certain plant species, provides insight into the economy in prehistory, etc. Research on wet land offers possibilities for the development of palynology and archaeozoology. Interdisciplinary dendrochronological research significantly improves the chronology of the prehistoric period in this part of Europe. For period of more than three hundred years in the 4th millennium BC, we can speak about the precision of a calendar year, a fact which was hardly imaginable only a few years ago. The research will also include findings of AMS and isotopic analyses, which will enable the presentation of a more comprehensive picture of the settlement, life, and burial in the wider central Slovenian area in the Bronze Age. Several depots and settlement finds will be published. In collaboration with the German archaeological institute, an international conference with the working title Cremations Beyond the Urnfields will be organised, which will additionally establish the institution's position in the international environment. The programme will deal with issues of various Hallstatt groups and settlement cycles. A better insight into the economic potential of settlements with their hinterland (e.g. in Posočje) will be acquired. We will look at communication flows and the knowledge of processes of centralisation, disintegration, and reintegration. Findings of various scientific disciplines will be linked, and metallurgic innovations at the transition from the bronze to the Iron Age dealt with. Using the example of Bela krajina with its surroundings, the differences in material culture, funerary customs, and settlement pattern among two different social groups in the Late Iron Age will be studied diachronically and defined in detail. The study of Romanisation will bring to light questions of military presence, immigration, new spatial organisation, changes in settlement picture, the role of autochthonous people, and chronology. New findings about the settlement will be acquired with targeted studies of towns, smaller settlements, and the countryside. The study of Roman written sources will maintain and develop the nationally important Centre of Epigraphy which has a vital role within the programme group and the Institute with its long tradition of research and integration in the international environment. Because the study of changes in the settlement pattern at the transition into the Late Antique period, new settlement patterns, and ethnic mixing of inhabitants in the 6th century will be researched, the questions will be addressed and some answers given as to the actual social happening at the present time. We will also be interested in the development of early Christianity, within which written sources will be supplemented and confronted. In the field of Early Medieval archaeology, settlement development will be studied. Archaeological analyses will be upgraded with natural science methods and will be comprehensively interpreted with the use of digital tools. The results of published data revisions will be included in a proposed international database, which will lead to the unification of the chronological system and enable the study of structural changes in society. New research approaches will be developed with interdisciplinary research on material culture. Analyses will be supplemented and upgraded with fundamental publications of sites from the Early Medieval period. An important aspect of modern research approaches in archaeology is represented by natural science research, developed by the programme group of the ZRC SAZU Institute of Archaeology and the only project of its kind in Slovenia. Archaeological research on the national level will be upgraded or supplemented with the targeted study of human influence on the environment, palaeoeconomy, diet, animal husbandry development, etc. Classical archaeozoological research approaches will be upgraded with modern statistical and biochemical tools (analysis of stable isotopes and ancient DNA). The preparation, supplementation, and management of the archaeobotanical and archaeozoological collections-both of which are of supranational significance-make an important contribution to science. Similar is true for the Arkas, Zbiva and Libera digital databases and the publications of the main Slovenian archaeological journal Arheološki vestnik.
Significance for the country
Archaeology is a science that decisively contributes to creating the perception of human development and operation in the earliest periods of human history with its scientific-expert apparatus. As a science of humanities, it has an immense influence on the current social happening and the interpretation or understanding of current social phenomena. In doing so, it establishes a critical distance towards various ideological and mythical interpretations of historical occurrences that had and still have an effect on the present socio-political practice. Since present-day borders do not match the borders of communities who once lived on our territory, the programme also includes the wider area of the south-eastern Alps and western Balkans. In its content, the programme represents a significant segment of archaeological research in central Europe. The programme is important for strengthening national identity, protection and presentation of cultural heritage, and the valorisation of cultural landscape. Since it is embedded into the educational processes of several universities (in Ljubljana, Koper, Nova Gorica, and abroad) and the Postgraduate School ZRC SAZU, it is also important for the education of new professionals. In the 2015-2021 programme period, the Institute had six young researchers, three of whom have already completed the programme. We also publish the main Slovenian archaeological magazine Arheološki vestnik (Acta archaeologica). In the 2015-2021 programme period, six volumes were published, from no. 66 to 71, while 72 is in print. The only researcher of the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic in Slovenia works within this programme group, comprehensively dealing with these issues, studies the material, and does field research. This continues the long tradition of this type of research at the Institute, which reaches back almost to the time of the beginning of the institutional role of archaeology in Slovenia, from the discovery of the so-called Neanderthal flute at the site of Divje babe I, and other significant findings reached by researchers within the programme group of the ZRC SAZU Institute of Archaeology, until today. The situation is similar with the research of pile-dwellings at the Ljubljansko barje, where new research approaches are being implemented and finds significant on the global scale, such as the wooden wheel with an axle, are being discovered. The permanent presence of archaeologists and systematic interdisciplinary research in one area yields very positive effects on the broadest public, while the awareness about the importance of preserving cultural heritage and its recognisability are significantly increased. Thus, good conditions for heritage tourism are created, one example of which is the project (still in implementation) of the pile-dwellers' open-air museum in Ig, in which members of the programme group play a crucial role. The research will highlight the until recently very poorly known time of the Early and Middle Bronze Age, two crucial periods in our country when metal objects and important social changes are definitively established. Scientific publications of depots and settlement finds will enable the preparation of expert articles for greater popularisation of archaeology in public. For the Iron Age, topics from areas covering practically the whole of Slovenia will be studied. The programme group will function as the connecting link between different institutions. The important socio-economic result of common work will be smaller occasional exhibitions, at which science will be directly brought closer to ordinary people. The study of processes during the Romanisation of our territory will enable archaeological findings to be confronted with contemporary events and possibly make them more predictable or less stressful. Answers to similar questions and possible directions for the search of solutions will be presented by studying the Empire crisis in the 3rd century, as can be seen from epigraphic monuments. Similar questions will be answered in the study of Late Antiquity, the turbulent era when the image of the old world is drastically changed. Research findings of the programme group will be included in the proposed international database, which will increase the recognisability of Slovenian archaeology in the international environment. Recognisability, both at home and abroad, is also strengthened with natural science research since the programme participants formally and informally collaborate in numerous projects and other types of international scientific collaboration. The implementation of new research approaches and distinctly interdisciplinary research is increasing the credibility of the science, enabling a sovereign public appearance either through lectures, exhibitions, popular-scientific articles or other public appearances. And finally, professionally performed field research will serve as the foundation for the preparation of guidelines for the protection of cultural heritage on the state level, while the databases will be an invaluable digital tool to help in the preparation of e.g. spatial plans all over the country.
