We are pleased to invite you to the upcoming 29th edition of the international conference focused on the current research of the Early and Middle Bronze Age in Central Europe. The call for in-person attendance and active participation is open to all those interested in sharing their findings from rescue and systematic excavations, studies on material culture, more complex thematic syntheses, as well as student works.
The conference, organized by the Institute of Archaeology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in collaboration with the Slovak Archaeological Society at the Slovak Academy of Sciences, will take place on October 13–16, 2025, at the SAV Academia Congress Center in Stará Lesná (map). The program will include three presentation days, a social evening, and a full-day excursion.
We invite contributions in the form of oral presentations with a max. duration of 15 minutes, accompanied by a presentation *.ppt format. Participants may also submit a poster in a printed color version in DIN A0 format (841 × 1189 mm). Speeches may be given in Slovak or Czech, but the text of presentations and posters are required in English or German.
Registration is available via the online form until June 30, 2025. To complete the registration, each participant has to submit a presentation/poster abstract (300–500 words) in English. After the processing, the texts will be published in the printed abstract book.
We invite you to the scientific conference in honour of Bohuslav Klíma, his work, and his legacy will be organized. The conference will be held in the Institute of Archaeology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno (Čechyňská 363/19) during March 26–28th.
If you want to contribute to this meeting, please send us a title and an abstract (1,000–2,000 characters, including spaces) of your presentation by Jannuary 31st, 2025 to klima100@arub.cz. We prefer contributions related to the scientific activities of Bohuslav Klíma, including Pavlovian (Gravettian) and cave excavations.
Preliminary program:
March 26th: Registration, presentations (ARÚB, Čechyňská street)
Evening: Social event held in the same bulding
March 27th: Presentations
March 28th: Excursion (Slovak Museum in Staré Město near Uherské Hradiště)
From May 14th to 17th, 2024, the 23rd International Celtic Conference “Kelti/Die Kelten/The Celts 2024” will take place. The meeting is dedicated to the La Tène period in Central Europe.
Location of the conference: Žilina, Municipal Town Hall.
The conference is organized by the Institute of Archaeology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, the Regional Monument Board in Žilina, the Slovak Archaeological Society by the Slovak Academy of Sciences, and the town of Žilina.
The event is held under the auspices of the Mayor of Žilina Mgr. Peter Fiabáne.
This event was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency under the Contract no. APVV-20-0044.
The organizers would like to express their gratitude to Septentrio, CvA, for the organizational and material support of the event.
The organizers would like to express their gratitude to the municipality of Divinka and the Považské Museum in Žilina for the organizational and material support of the excursion.
We are deeply affected by the terrible tragedy in Prague. We express our sincere condolences to the parents, relatives, teachers and students of Charles University.
‘At the ‘Danubius Awards 2023,’ several researchers from regions traversed by the Danube River were honoured for their academic achievements. On October 19, researchers who significantly contributed to the development of the Danube region were recognized. Our colleague, Mgr. Dominika Oravkinová, PhD., received the ‘Danubius Young Scientist Award.’
The ‘Danubius Award’ assessment was established in 2011 to commend individuals who have excelled in their dedication to the Danube region through their academic work or cultural creations.
This award is open to all disciplines and, among other things, helps promote the involvement of young scientists in research and cultural creation related to the Danube River basin. The awards are granted by an independent expert jury. These awards also contribute to the implementation of the European Union strategy for the Danube Region, adopted by the European Parliament in 2011.
PhD studies topics starting in 2023, the exact date of the admission procedure will be specified. It will probably take place in June 2023. For further information, you can contact us at: nrausekr@savba.sk or here: euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/102557
Uncovering of the skeletons (photo: M. Ruttkay, IA SAS).
The international research team of archaeologists composed of the experts from the Institute of Archaeology (SAS) and the Christian Albrecht’s Universität zu Kiel has researched one of the biggest Central-European settlement agglomerations dated to the Neolithic. The team has been excavating the site for 7 seasons. The settlement existed between 5250–4950 B. C. The three discovered settlements spread over the area of around 50 ha. One of them was fortified with one, maybe even two ditches in the last phase of settlement. This situation is very rare in Central Europe during the Neolithic. Geophysical research has revealed more than 300 long houses. The archaeologists estimate that 50-70 houses were used contemporarily in individual chronological phases.
Already in the past seasons, regular graves around and in the ditch were discovered, but the archaeologists also unearthed skeletons thrown in the bottom of the ditch. This year, an accumulation of human bones was uncovered in the trench near one of the entrances, from which at least 35 skeletons were recovered. The bodies lay in different positions – on the back, on the stomach, on the side, some were found in the stretched “frog position.” All individuals were without head, only one child skull and one mandible were discovered. Peri-mortem fractures were recorded on some of the bones.
The cummulation of human skeletons at the bottom of the ditch (photo: I. Cheben, IA SAS).
Only few accompanying findings were found at the bodies. An interesting found is represented by drilled human teeth, which could have been a component part of some amulets. So far it seems that there were many adolescents and young individuals buried in the trench.
Now, the international interdisciplinary team is about to perform a set of additional analyses which will help us to solve issues such as whether the individuals were intentionally killed, if they were victims of an epidemic event, represent the remains of cult ceremonies, whether they had some mutual genetic links to each other, if their heads were severed intentionally (cut off, chopped off) or post-mortem. Consequently, we will be able to solve other questions regarding social classification and emerging social differentiation in the conditions of early agricultural societies. And maybe we will be able to reconstruct the way the Neolithic society worked and reveal the reason of the fall of this extensive agglomeration.
Plan of one of the settlement entrances (photo: I. Cheben, IA SAS).
Authors of text: Ivan Cheben, Zuzana Hukeľová, Matej Ruttkay (Archeologický ústav SAV, v. v. i.), Martin Furholt, Maria Wunderlich (Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel)
Head of archaeological research representing the Institute of Archeology (SAS), Nitra: PhDr. Ivan Cheben, CSc.
Head of archaeological research representing the Institute of Pre- and Protohistoric Archaeology, Christian Albrecht’s Universität zu Kiel: Prof. Dr. Martin Furholt.
The research is carried out in the framework of projects DFG (CRC 1266), APVV a VEGA and with support of the Institute of Archeology (SAS)
We are pleased to invite you to the upcoming 29th edition of the international conference focused on the current research of the Early and Middle Bronze Age in Central Europe. The call for in-person attendance and active participation is open to all those interested in sharing their findings from rescue and systematic excavations, studies on material culture, more complex thematic syntheses, as well as student works.
