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by HEAS Team Leader Kerstin Kowarik   The FWF-funded project Mining and Dining investigates the dietary habits of Bronze and Iron Age miners through the analysis of exceptionally well-preserved human excrement recovered from the prehistoric salt mines of Hallstatt, Austria. The aim is to produce high-resolution, individual dietary profiles, offering new insights into nutrition, health, and everyday life in the Metal Ages. By combining archaeobotanical, parasitological, genetic, and proteomic analyses, the project examines 50 individual palaeofaeces to explore: • the diversity and complexity of prehistoric miners' diets, • long-term dietary patterns via gut microbiome composition, • the consumption of fermented and dairy products, • and possible correlations between diet and biological sex. This integrated, multi-method approach opens up a new perspective on prehistoric food culture – from cooking and consumption practices to health and social structures – and highlights the unique scientific potential of salt-preserved palaeofaeces. Project Details Mining and Dining is funded by the FWF Joint Projects Programme (Austria–South Tyrol) and carried out under the joint leadership of the Austrian Archaeological Institute (OeAI, Austrian Academy of Sciences) and the Institute for Mummy Studies (Eurac Research, Bolzano). Research partners include: • Natural History Museum Vienna • Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna • Geosphere Austria • Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle (USA) • MedUni Vienna • University of Trento…

  Interest in science is high, as evidenced by well-attended children's universities, dedicated citizen scientists, and science fiction bestsellers. But how is new knowledge created, what are researchers working on, and why are diverse perspectives on unresolved questions more important today than ever before? The new podcast "What We Know" from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) takes listeners into the world of science. It contextualizes new knowledge, previously overlooked connections, and background information. Each season focuses on a major scientific topic. The very first season of the FWF podcast, which premieres on November 12, tackles a truly significant subject. It's about nothing less than us: humanity. What do we know about being human? A good question – and not so easy to answer. Therefore, in six episodes, hosts Francesca Grandolfo and Thomas Zauner visit researchers at their workplaces and gather as much knowledge as possible. The episodes span from the origin of life four billion years ago, through the history of civilization and the development of language and cognition, to artificial intelligence and the impact of humans on the environment in the Anthropocene. Speaking of the Anthropocene – does it even exist? Making science tangible In laboratories, institutes, and in the field, journalists Francesca and Thomas speak with researchers throughout Austria about their current work, about basic research, curiosity, and…

HEAS Member Tom Maltas has recently had a paper published in Scientific Reports on 'Agricultural adaptations to mid-late Holocene climate change in western Türkiye'. Abstract The period around the mid-late Holocene transition (c. 2200 bc) saw major societal developments across the eastern Mediterranean. At the same time, the region experienced a shift to more arid climatic conditions. This included punctuated episodes of rapid climate change such as the ‘4.2 ka event’, which has been implicated in widespread societal ‘collapse’ at the end of the Early Bronze Age. The ways in which societies adapted agricultural production to cope with a drying climate are poorly understood. We begin to rectify this through stable isotope analysis of archaeobotanical remains from the Aegean region of western Türkiye, conducted to reveal changes in agricultural decision making across the mid-late Holocene transition. We find that Bronze Age farmers adapted agricultural production strategies by investing in drought-tolerant cereals cultivated on drier fields with water management strategies redirected towards pulses. Despite this, we find no evidence for pronounced drought stress in cereals grown during the period of the 4.2 ka event. This raises the potential for alternative explanations for societal disruptions visible across the Anatolian Plateau during this time, such as the breakdown of long-distance trade networks. Read full article

HEAS members Philip R. Nigst and Marjolein D. Bosch published new paper on Fire Use during the Last Glacial Maximum at Korman' 9, Ukraine We are very pleased to announce our latest publication on our research on fire use and combustion activties during the Last Glacial Maximum in collaboration with William Chase Murphree, University of Algrave (Faro, Portugal). We analysed three combustion features at the Epigravettian site of Korman' 9 in the Middle Dnister valley, Ukraine. Our paper was published in Geoarchaeology. Open-access. The Last Glacial maximum (LGM), spanning from 26.5 to 19 thousand years before present (ka BP), is a period of extreme climatic degradation associated with reduced biomass production and resource stress throughout Eurasia. Arguably, one of the most fundamental tools for human survival during this cold and arid period was the ability to create, maintain and use fire. While fire is widely considered a ubiquitous tool in modern human behaviour, there are surprisingly few well‐described combustion features during the LGM in Europe. In this paper, we provide high‐resolution geoarchaeological research into three combustion features associated with Epigravettian occupations at the site of Korman' 9 (Ukraine) with ages falling in the LGM. Our results show distinct variations in the size and structure of the combustion features, potentially indicating multiple occupations within the same layer or reflect differences in…

The new paper “Quantum Leaps in Human Biocultural Evolution and the Relationship to Cranial Capacity” published in Life 2023, 13 by HEAS Head Gerhard Weber bridges between the domains of biological anthropology and archaeology. The evolution of the genus Homo can only be understood by considering both of the inheritance systems that interact to shape human nature: biology and culture. While growing intellectual abilities are a key factor of human evolution, they are rarely contrasted with cultural progress. Cranial capacity data of 193 hominin fossils from the last seven million years and artefacts of increasing number and complexity in the archaeological record are used to demonstrate the concordant progression of brain-size increase and cultural development, starting approximately two million years ago. Our biocultural evolution shows a number of quantum leaps along the time axis applying to both domains. At first, humans left the canonical evolutionary pathway, which pertains to all other organisms, by enhancing their fitness using sophisticated tools and fire; secondly, they turned into a symbolic species; and finally, humanity now faces a new challenge: “intentional evolution”. Chronologically, these quantum leaps correspond to cranial capacity data used here as a proxy for cognitive performance. This contribution tries to demonstrate this parallel development and argues for a simple and generalized model of human biocultural evolution. An extrapolation of the model into the…

HEAS Member Mario Gavranovic has recently published a paper with Cambridge University Press on 'Kopilo: a newly discovered Late Bronze and Iron Age burial ground in Bosnia' Read full article here

Dominik Hagmann's latest research, "Home is Where my Villa Is: A Machine Learning-based Predictive Suitability Map for Roman Features in Northern Noricum (ca. 50–500 CE/Lower Austria/AUT)," was recently published in the Journal of Maps. The study applies the Maxent machine learning (ML) algorithm to identify suitable locations for Roman archaeological features in Lower Austria. It offers new insights into ancient Roman settlement patterns and provides valuable support for heritage management and archaeological research.   https://www.heas.at/research/publications/home-is-where-my-villa-is-a-machine-learning-based-predictive-suitability-map-for-roman-features-in-northern-noricum-ca-50-500-ce-lower-austria-aut/

HEAS Members Magdalena T. Srienc-Ściesiek, Sabine Ladstätter and Sylvia Kirchengast recently published a paper on Evidence of non-adult vitamin C deficiency in three early medieval sites in the Jaun/Podjuna Valley, Carinthia, Austria. Read full article    

A team led by J.-M. Tejero, integrated by several HEAS members, published research assessing the reliability of Cervidae antler as a source of ancient DNA by analysing samples from several Eurasian regions.   More information here

During excavation work in Hallstatt (on the property of the Kocsar-Riezinger family in the Seestraße), archaeological layers of scientific importance were uncovered: Medieval terracing walls, a burnt layer with coins, bricks and fragments of vessels of the Roman period, as well as up to one meter thick layers from the Latène period (Late Iron Age, c 450-15 BC). Around 1,000 artefacts from different epochs have recently been recovered. The results will be presented to the public on the 12th August 2025 at the NHM Wien. More information in the press release here. Press Release   [gallery ids="4676,4677,4678,4675"]    

We were very happy to welcome a group of early career researchers from the OeAW from the HEAS Partner Insitute the ÖAW to the University of Vienna Biology building (the UBB). The group had a tour of the UBB followed by a tour of the Vienna Micro-CT Lab by Gerhard Weber, a tour of the Higham and Douka labs by Tom Higham and of the Pinhasi Lab by Olivia Cheronet. We were happy to have such an enthuastic group visit us and we hope to have a lot more fruitful meetings in the future.    

HEAS members Ron Pinhasi and Olivia Cheronet were recently featured on an arte documentary series 'Das Steinzeit Menu' in the second episode on 'Als Homo sapiens zum Bauern wurde'   The documentary (in German) can be viewed on the link below until the 24th July 2024.   https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/106261-000-A/das-steinzeit-menue/

Several studies on primate genomic variation have now been published in the journal Science. An international consortium of researchers generated and studied high-quality genomes from 233 primate species to gain insights into their evolution, and open new perspectives in conservation biology and human variation related to health. HEAS member Martin Kuhlwilm contributed to these studies, refining a catalog of human-specific changes in the genome. Many recent genetic changes in humans turn out not to be unique to us, but shared with other species. Genetic changes that might make us human seem to be more rare. Studying our living relatives improves how we understand our own species. The publications can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abn7829 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abn8197 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abn8153   University of Vienna Press Release         FINAL Embargoed INTERNATIONAL Press Release Primates IBE_UPF https://www.derstandard.de/story/3000000172769/was-der-genomvergleich-von-menschen-mit-affen-bringt?ref=rss https://www.diepresse.com/6295230/affen-erbgut-zeigt-was-uns-krank-macht   https://www.vbio.de/aktuelles/details/erbgut-von-primaten-als-schluessel-zur-menschlichen-gesundheit https://biermann-medizin.de/erbgut-von-primaten-als-schluessel-zur-menschlichen-gesundheit/