Dr Petra Vaiglova
Areas of expertise
- Archaeological Science 430101
- Archaeology Of Europe, The Mediterranean And The Levant 430104
- Geochemistry 3703
Research interests
Biomolecular archaeology; Multi-proxy isotope analyses; Mediterranean and Near Eastern prehistory; Ancient agropastoralism; Landscape use and human–environment interactions
Biography
Petra Vaiglova specializes on the application of biomolecular techniques for understanding how ancient humans interacted with their environments within both utilitarian and ritual spheres of interaction. She has collaborated on archaeological projects in Greece, Turkey, Israel/Palestine, Morocco, Syria, Iraq, and China. During her doctorate studies, Petra was a Clarendon Scholar at the University of Oxford and a Pre-doctoral Fellow at the Malcolm H. Wiener Laboratory for Archaeological Science at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. She subsequently worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Haifa, the University of Connecticut, Washington University in St Louis, and Griffith University. Petra enjoys sharing her passion for archaeology and science with the wider public, and gave an invited TEDx talk ‘An archaeologist’s view: how connectivity drove our human past’ for an event in Prague, Czech Republic.
Researcher's projects
RESEARCH FUNDING
2022 New Researcher Grant, Griffith Arts, Education, and Law Group • $20,000 (AUD)
Chief Investigator on project "A new method for understanding how human–animal interactions impacted past environments."
2022 Early Career Researcher Grant Development Award, Griffith Centre for Cultural and Social Research (GCSCR) & Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution (ARCHE) • $6,000 (AUD)
Chief Investigator on project: "New high-resolution technique for investigating human–wild boar interactions."
2022 Early Career Research Support Award, Society for Archaeological Science • $500 (USD)
Chief Investigator on project: "New high-resolution technique for investigating human–wild boar interactions."
2017 Integrated Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Haifa • ILS 80,000
Research fellowship for project: "Using stable isotopes to reconstruct the environment in the Negev Desert during the Byzantine times."
2015 Malcolm H. Wiener Predoctoral Research Fellowship for Archaeological Science, American School of Classical Studies at Athens • $40,000 (USD)
Research fellowship for project: "Understanding Aegean Neolithic Farming using Multiple Isotopes."
2012 Clarendon Fund, Oxford University Press • £68,300 (GBP)
Research studentship for project: "Neolithic agricultural management in the Eastern Mediterranean: new insight from a multi-isotope approach."
2014 Steering Committee Studentship Grant, Natural Environmental Research Council, British Geological Survey • £8,280 (GBP)
Co-Investigator (with Prof Amy Bogaard and Prof Julia Lee-Thorp) on project: "A multi-isotope approach to animal management and mobility at Neolithic Makriyalos and Koufovouno, Greece."
CURRENT COLLABORATIONS
Türkiye 'Spatial Analysis of State Agropastoral Economies'; funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation; with John Marston, Boston University; David Meiggs, Rochester Institute of Technology; Ethan Baxter, Boston College, USA.
Iran – ‘Asiab archaeological project’, Early Neolithic (with Pernille Bangsgaard, Center for GeoGenetics, Denmark; Lisa Yemonas and Tobias Richter, University of Copenhagen, Denmark; Hojjat Darabi, Razi University, Iran)
Greece ‘Classical Cities and Agricultural Production’; funded by the Institute of Aegean Prehistory; with Evi Margaritis, Cyprus Institute of Science, Cyprus.
PAST COLLABORATIONS
China – 'Origins and spread of broomcorn and foxtail millet cultivation'; funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation; with Xinyi Liu, Michael Franchetti and Alexander Bradley, Washington University in St Louis, USA.
Israel/Palestine – 'NEGEVBYZ: Crisis on the margins of the Byzantine Empire'; funded by the European Research Council (PI Guy Bar-Oz).
Central Europe/Aegean/Southwestern Asia – 'AGRICURB: The Agricultural Origins of Urban Civilization'; funded by the European Research Council (PI Amy Bogaard).
Publications
- Vaiglova, P, Avila, J, Buckley, H et al. 2024, 'Past rainfall patterns in Southeast Asia revealed by microanalysis of δ18O values in human teeth', Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 162.
- Vergidou, C, Karamitrou-Mentessidi, G, Malama, P et al. 2023, 'Exploring Dietary Differentiation in the Roman Province of Macedonia: Isotopic Evidence from Pontokomi-Vrysi and Nea Kerdylia-Strovolos', Environmental Archaeology, vol. 07 Sep 2023.
- Smith, T, Arora, M, Austin, C et al. 2023, 'Oxygen isotopes in orangutan teeth reveal recent and ancient climate variation', eLife, no. 12:RP90217.
- Vaiglova, P 2023, 'Sampling archaeological remains for isotopic analyses', in Evi Margaritis, Artemios Oikonomou, Efthymia Nikita and Thilo Rehren (ed.), Field Sampling for Laboratory Analyses in Archaeology, The Cyprus Institute, Nicosia, pp. 53-64.
- Vaiglova, P, Lazar, N, Stroud, E et al. 2023, 'Best practices for selecting samples, analyzing data, and publishing results in isotope archaeology', Quaternary International, vol. 650, pp. 86-100.
- Vaiglova, P & Roberts, P 2023, 'Multiple scales of stable isotope palaeoecology (Papers in honour of Prof. Julia Lee-Thorp)', Quaternary International, vol. 650, pp. 1-3.
- Ritchey, M, Sun, Y, Matuzeviciute, G et al. 2022, 'The wind that shakes the barley: the role of East Asian cuisines on barley grain size', World Archaeology, vol. 53, no. 2, pp. 287-304.
- Li, H, Sun, Y, Yang, Y et al. 2022, 'Water and soil management strategies and the introduction of wheat and barley to northern China: an isotopic analysis of cultivation on the Loess Plateau', Antiquity : A review of World Archaeology, vol. 96, no. 390, pp. 1-17.
- Vaiglova, P, Coleman, J, Diffey, C et al. 2021, 'Exploring Diversity in Neolithic Agropastoral Management in Mainland Greece Using Stable Isotope Analysis', Environmental Archaeology, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 62-85.
- Vaiglova, P, Reid, R, Lightfoot, E et al. 2021, 'Localized management of non-indigenous animal domesticates in Northwestern China during the Bronze Age', Scientific Reports, vol. 11, p. 15764.
- Bogaard, A, Mike, C, Filipovic, D et al. 2021, 'The archaeobotany of Çatalhöyük: results from 2009-2017 excavations and final synthesis', in Ian Hodder (ed.), Peopling the Landscape of Çatalhöyük: Reports from the 2009-2017 Seasons, British Institute at Ankara, Ankara, pp. 91-123.
- Vaiglova, P, Gardeisen, A, Buckley, M et al. 2020, 'Further insight into Neolithic agricultural management at Kouphovouno, southern Greece: expanding the isotopic approach', Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, vol. 12, no. 43, pp. 1-17.
- Vaiglova, P, Hartman, G, Marom, N et al. 2020, 'Climate stability and societal decline on the margins of the Byzantine empire in the negev Desert', Scientific Reports, vol. 10, p. 1512.
- Vaiglova, P, Halstead, P, Pappa, M et al. 2018, 'Of cattle and feasts: Multi-isotope investigation of animal husbandry and communal feasting at Neolithic Makriyalos, northern Greece', PLOS ONE (Public Library of Science), vol. 13, no. 6, pp. e0194474.
- Nitsch, E, Lamb, A, Heaton, T et al. 2018, 'The Preservation and Interpretation of δ34S Values in Charred Archaeobotanical Remains', Archaeometry, vol. 61, no. 1, pp. 161-178.
- Coleman, J, Karimali, E, Karali, L et al. 2017, 'The Environment and Interactions of Neolithic Halai', in Apostolos Sarris, Evita Kalogiropoulou, Tuna Kalayci, Lia Karimali (ed.), Communities, Landscapes, and Interaction in Neolithic Greece, Berghahn Books, Oxford, New York, pp. 97-125.
- Schulting, R, Vaiglova, P, Crozier, R et al. 2017, 'Further isotopic evidence for seaweed-eating sheep from Neolithic Orkney', Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, vol. 11, pp. 463-470.
- Cavanagh, W, Renard, J, Bogaard, A et al. 2017, 'Farming Strategies at Kouphovouno, Lakonia, in the MN-LN Periods', in Apostolos Sarris, Evita Kalogiropoulou, Tuna Kalayci, Lia Karimali (ed.), Communities, Landscapes, and Interaction in Neolithic Greece, Berghahn Books, Oxford, New York, pp. 281-291.
- Vaiglova, P, Bogaard, A, Collins, M et al. 2014, 'An integrated stable isotope study of plants and animals from Kouphovouno, southern Greece: a new look at Neolithic farming', Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 42, pp. 201-215.
- Vaiglova, P, Snoeck, C, Nitsch, E et al. 2014, 'Impact of contamination and pre-treatment on stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic composition of charred plant remains', Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, vol. 28, no. 23, pp. 2497-2510.
- Vaiglova, P, Rivals, F, Bogaard, A et al. 2014, 'Interpreting ancient crop and animal management strategies at Neolithic Kouphovouno, southern Greece: results of integrating crop and animal stable isotopes and dental micro- and mesowear', 14e Rencontre Agenne internationale/14th International Aegean Conference, ed. Gilles Touchais, Robert Laffineur, F. Rougemont, Peeters Publishers, Belgium, pp. 287-297.
- Bogaard, A, Fraser, R, Heaton, T et al. 2013, 'Crop manuring and intensive land management by Europe's first farmers', PNAS - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 110, no. 31, pp. 12589-12594.
- Bogaard, A, Henton, E, Evans, J et al. 2013, 'Locating Land Use at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey: The Implications of 87Sr/86Sr Signatures in Plants and Sheep Tooth Sequences', Archaeometry, vol. 56, no. 5, pp. 860-877.
