Dr. Mario Novak, Institute for Anthropological Research
Mario Novak received BA in history and archeology from the University of Zagreb, where he also received his PhD in Roman period archaeology (bioarchaeology). Between 2002 and 2013, he worked at the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and from 2013 to 2015, he stayed in Ireland (University College Dublin) for post-doctoral training. After returning to Croatia, he got a job at the Institute for Anthropological Research in Zagreb, where he still works today as a senior research associate. His scientific work is directed towards a holistic approach to the research of human skeletal remains from an archaeological context. In his research, he combines numerous analytical methods taken from various scientific disciplines such as (bio)archaeology, stable isotope analysis, paleogenetics, radiology, etc. Based on these analyses, he tries to get a better insight into the secrets of life (and death) of our ancient ancestors, i.e. he tries to reconstruct how these people lived, what they ate, where they came from, what diseases they suffered from, and even what they looked like. He is the PI and collaborator on several domestic and international projects, and in addition to publications in scientific and professional journals, he has presented the results of his research at more than 80 professional meetings.
Ass. Prof. Anna Osterholtz, Mississippi State University
Anna Osterholtz is an Associate Professor of Bioanthropology with a specialty in Bioarchaeology. Dr. Osterholtz began at MSU in the fall of 2016 and is developing research programs in Cyprus and Croatia. Dr. Osterholtz began working in southwestern bioarchaeology with massacre assemblages and has conducted fieldwork and/or analysis of remains from the US, Cyprus, Jordan, the UAE, Guam, and Romania. Her current research in Cyprus examines the interplay between populations in the Mediterranean during the Bronze Age and the creation of Cypriot identity. She is also engaged examining the social role of violence and how poetics models can be applied to both violence and the treatment of the dead. She is interested in bioarchaeology, how relationships between the living and the dead are illustrated through the treatment of the dead, commingled and fragmentary assemblage (such as ossuaries or massacre assemblages), applied bioarchaeology, life-history approach, trauma analysis, bioarchaeology of the Bronze Age Mediterranean, identity formation and negotiation, poetics, and migration.
Jun. Prof. Cosimo Posth, University of Tübingen
Cosimo Posth received his BSc in Natural Sciences and MSc in Anthropological Sciences at the University of Florence (Italy). In 2017, he completed a PhD in Archaeological Sciences at the University of Tübingen (Germany) where he investigated the genetic diversity of European hunter-gatherers between the Middle Paleolithic and the Mesolithic. As a Postdoctoral researcher and later Group Leader at Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena (Germany), he studied the genetic profile of the first settlers of South America and the Southwest Pacific. Since 2020, he is Junior Professor at the University of Tübingen and Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment where he leads the Archaeo- and Palaeogenetics group. Prof. Posth interests spans from reconstructing the demographic history of Neanderthal populations to tracking modern human dispersals during the Late Pleistocene and early Holocene across Eurasia. Moreover, Prof. Posth has explored the processes involved in the first settlements of multiple regions such as South East Asia, Remote Oceania and the Americas – and the processes that shaped their genomic make-up through time. He is also engaged in addressing long-lasting hypotheses of more recent European history, such as those involving the origins, and admixture of Iron Age populations, and the analysis of human mobility during the Roman and Migration periods.
Hrvoje Vulić, Vinkovci Municipal Museum
Hrvoje Vulić completed his studies in Archeology at the Faculty of Humanities and Arts, University of Zagreb in 2006, where he enrolled in doctoral studies in 2008. Since 2007, he has been employed as a curator of the Roman Provincial collection and since 2013, of the Numismatic Collection of the Vinkovci Municipal Museum, and since 2019, he has been working as a director. During his career, he participated in more than 50 protective and systematic archaeological investigations, of which he was the leader of more than 30. He participated in the work of many international and domestic scientific and professional gatherings, conferences and round tables, and published several articles in foreign and domestic scientific publications. Since 2012, he has been collaborating on processing the hoard of Late Antique silverware found in Vinkovci.
Timka Alihodžić, Archaeological Museum Zadar
Timka Alihodžić received BA in Latin language and literature and archeology from the University of Zadar in 2002. Since 2006, she has been permanently employed at the Archaeological Museum Zadar, and today she works as a museum advisor. She was leading numerous protective archaeological excavations, the most significant of which are the investigations of the Zadar Roman period necropolis between 1989 and 2014. The focus of her research is post-excavation processing of burials and the creation of a database for over 2,400 burials from the Zadar necropolis with an emphasis on burial context. The work of collecting all the data from a closed context such as a burial (determination of archaeological material, anthropological analysis, analysis of faunal remains) provides a clearer picture of the life and funeral customs of the people who lived in this area between the 1st and the 5th century CE. Part of this research is the backbone of the exhibition “I’ll tell you a story” (which has so far had 19 guest appearances in Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and B&H), “I believe therefore I am – Even after death I believe I will be” (virtual exhibition in cooperation with the Provincial Museum in Maribor) and “Funeral rites and customs of ancient Rome”.
Dr. Ivor Janković, Institute for Anthropological Research
Ivor Janković is scientific advisor at the Institute for Anthropological Research, Zagreb, Croatia. He received BA in Archaeology from the University of Zagreb in 2001, MA in Anthropology from Northern Illinois University in 2003, and PhD in Prehistoric Archaeology from the University of Zagreb in 2009 (dissertation: Neandertal lateral midface: a morphometric analysis). His scientific interests are human evolution, particularly biological and cultural adaptations during the Middle and Late Pleistocene and Palaeolithic archaeology. He taught various classes on Human evolution and related topics at the University of Zagreb, where he was associate Professor, and is an adjunct Full Professor at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Wyoming, USA. He authored or coauthored 6 scientific and professional books and over 70 scientific papers and chapters, over 30 professional papers and 80 presentations at scientific meetings. He is a coauthor of five museum exhibitions. He was PI on two scientific project financed by the Croatian Scientific Foundation, two by the Ministry of Science of the Republic of Croatia, and is currently the Action Chair for the iNEAL project financed by the EU COST programme). He was a collaborator on numerous scientific projects (currently on two ERC projects). For his work he was awarded the annual award and medal “Dragutin Gorjanović Kramberger” of Croatian Anthropological Society and the Annual award and medal “Josip Brunšmid” of Croatian Archaeological Society.
Barbara Kriletić
Barbara Kriletić completed her graduate studies in archeology and anthropology in 2020/2021. at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. During her studies, she volunteered at the Institute of Anthropology and actively participated in the analysis of skeletal human remains. She worked on numerous archaeological sites, collaborating with several archaeological institutions. In 2024, she enrolls in doctoral studies at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb and participates in the project of the Institute of Anthropology. As part of the mentioned project, she will deal with the analysis of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes from collagen in order to reconstruct the details of breastfeeding and nutrition of infants and young children during the late Roman period, and how it affects their health. By analyzing the amelogenin protein, she will determine the biological sex of young children to see if there is a difference between male and female children.
Dr. Mario Carić, Institute for Anthropological Research
Mario Carić completed his high school education at the Sisak Technical School as Chemical Technologist, after which he enrolled in archeology studies at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, where he obtained his PhD in 2023. He worked on numerous archaeological sites, from research to supervision, also participating in the preliminary identifications of victims of the WWII in cooperation with the Croatian Armed Forces and Ministry of Internal Affairs. After completing his specialization at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, United Kingdom, in the field of carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis for the purpose of reconstructing the diet of archaeological populations, he successfully incorporated previously acquired knowledge in chemistry and archeology and set up the first archeologically-oriented method of extracting collagen from bone remains for the purpose of carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes analysis in Southeast Europe.
