Bioarchaeology Lab

The laboratory focusses on the investigation of the interaction between humans and the environment using biogenic materials. Using methods from biological anthropology, archaeozoology and archaeobotany, we analyse data in transdisciplinary networks, taking into account both environmental history and cultural anthropology.

Our research spans millennia and vast geographical areas, covering topics such as land use and agriculture, food trade and processing, livestock production and the impact of agriculture on human health. We study human life and death, migration and population research. Various other topics such as wood utilisation and trade, dyeing, medicine, mining, ceremonial activities etc. are also recurring themes in our work.

Flagship projects spanning multiple eras and regions are »History of Fish and Fisheries« in archaeozoology and  »Archaeological Food Remains« in archaeobotany and archaeozoology, which distinguish our work in Austrian and European research. A third such flagship project is located in Biological Anthropology and Funerary Archaeology: »Little Lives: Biological and Social Identities of Infants«.

Methods of Analysis

• Light and electron microscopy, statistics, GC-MS (in development)
• Archaeobotany: Macrofossil analysis, xylology and anthracology, bryology, histology
• Archaeozoology: osteology including archaeoichthyology, archaeomalacology, domestication and evolutionary research, geometric morphometrics (GMM)
• Biological Anthropology and Funerary Archaeology: osteology, palaeopathology, archaeothanatology, histotaphonomy