The Institute of Archaeology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (founded in 1939) is a modern workplace that currently employs more than 70 professional and scientific staff – archaeologists, but also colleagues from several collaborating natural science disciplines. For more information about the department, see www. sav.sk/Science groups/Historical sciences/Institute of Archaeology; www. archeol.sav.sk.
The Institute is an independent education centre for three (Constantine The Philosopher University in Nitra) and four-year (Comenius university, Bratislava) studies in external and internal mode in the field of archaeology in conjunction with several Slovak universities. Upon successful graduation, the doctoral student receives the title “Philosophiae doctor” (PhD.) Currently, internal doctoral students receive a tax-free scholarship of 807 € per month during the first part of study and 940 € per month after a successful dissertation examination. Doctoral students supervised by renowned supervisors have good working conditions at the institute and are usually immediately involved in research projects, which improves their communication in the research area, work mobility and material and technical equipment.
The thesis topics offered are based on the needs of contemporary archaeological research in the Central European area and can be a good start to systematic scientific work for their future researchers.
More information about study:
Constantine The Philosopher University in Nitra
Comenius university, Bratislava
PhD studies topics starting in 2023, the exact date of the admission procedure will be specified. It will probably take place in June 2023 (application deadline mid-May 2023). For further information, you can contact us at: nrausekr@savba.sk
Faculty of Arts, Comenius University Bratislava – 4 years
Historical sciences, study programme: general history
1. Topic: Central hillfort of the Púchov culture on Havránok hill in Liptovská Sielnica-Liptovská Mara. Development, function, and heritage presentation.
Supervisor: PhDr. Karol Pieta, DrSc. (Contact: nraupiet@savba.sk)
Consultant: Mgr. Lucia Benediková, PhD. (Contact: nraubene@savba.sk)
Date of admission: June 2023
The topic includes the analysis of the development of the use and the interpretation of the importance of the dominant site of the Liptovská Basin – the hill Havránok in Liptovská Sielnica- Liptovská Mara – in the Protohistoric Period based on the rich materials from the long-term excavations conducted by the Institute of Archaeology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV). The hill was fortified and used as an important sacrificial place from the Middle La Téne to the beginning of the Roman Period. The topic will also include the reconsideration of the reconstructions of selected archaeological features and the use of the site for cultural tourism.
2.Topic: Exchange and trade as a socio-economic phenomenon of the Protohistorical and Early Medieval period in the western part of the Carpathian Basin. Coins and non-monetary exchange media
Supervisor: PhDr. Karol Pieta, DrSc. (Contact: nraupiet@savba.sk)
Consultant: Dr. Péter Prohászka (Contact: prohaszkapeter1975@gmail.com)
Date of admission: June 2023
The definition of the development of trade and exchange relations in the specified area in the Protohistoric and Early Medieval Periods. The interpretation of the minting and use/non-use of coins and other instruments of exchange and their various functions in different periods and communities, focused on the local coin production and relevant raw material resources in Slovakia..
3. Topic: Early Medieval burial mounds in the Middle Danube region
Supervisor: Mgr. Zbigniew Robak, PhD. (Contact: zbigniew.robak@savba.sk)
Date of admission: June 2023
The main aim of the thesis is to critically analyze early medieval mound burials in Central Europe. Specific aims will include a complex analysis of well-known archeological sites, the so-called Slavic burial mound zone divided into chronological phases, regions and categories (if necessary, investigation of regional differences and revision of dating of the sites. A special emphasis should be put on Western Slovak groups (Upper Nitra, Turiec group).
4. Topic: Life with stone in the early Middle Ages
Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Matej Ruttkay, CSc. (Contact: matej.ruttkay@savba.sk)
Date of admission: June 2023
The aim of the thesis is to summarize, analyze and evaluate archaeological sources documenting the use of stone in various human activities in the early Middle Ages (primarily in the territory of today’s western Slovakia). From the excavations of more complexly investigated settlements and burial sites, an extensive finds fund is available (construction material, millstones, grinding stones, asses, flint stones, art objects, whorls, weights, or parts of grave inventory, etc.). Its analysis and incorporation into the Middle Danube area may provide a number of results important for the reconstruction of medieval life – sources of raw materials, technologies of extraction and processing, transport, trade/exchange, etc. Interdisciplinary cooperation is a requirement for a successful completion of the thesis – especially comparisons with historical and art-historical sources and cooperation with geologists.
Faculty of Arts, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, 3 years
Historical sciences, study programme: Archaeology
5. Topic: Settlement structure of Lower Hron river and Ipeľ river valleys from the Neolithic till the Hallstatt Period in light of human-landscape interactions
Supervisor: prof. PhDr. Jozef Bátora, DrSc. (Contact: nraubato@savba.sk)
Consultant: PhDr. Vladimír Mitáš, PhD. (Contact: vladimir.mitas@savba.sk)
Date of admission: June 2023
During Prehistory, the Lower Hron and Ipeľ basins – two regions important in the northern part of the Carpathian Basin – constituted a bridge between the Danubian Lowland and the Tisza Basin. The aim of the dissertation will be, beside the identification of cultural changes, settlement structure and dynamics in this area, to analyse changes resulting from interactions between the human, landscape and natural environment. Dissertation will require a broader interdisciplinary cooperation.
6. Topic: Early medieval settlement (6th–11th c.) of the Middle Nitra Basin from the perspective of archaeology
Supervisor: Mgr. Zbigniew Robak, PhD. (Contact: zbigniew.robak@savba.sk)
Consultant: doc. PhDr. Matej Ruttkay, DrSc. (Contact: matej.ruttkay@savba.sk)
Date of admission: June 2023
The aim of the thesis is to collect and evaluate archaeological sources from the given chronological period from the central Nitra basin and adjacent mountainous areas – Vtáčnik, Strážovské Vrchy, Považský Inovec and Tribeč. The work will include the documentation and processing of findings deposited in several institutions, as well as work in the GIS environment and with the use of LIDAR data.
7. Topic: Heating in castles in eastern Slovakia (Šariš, Uh and Zemplín Counties) and south-western Ukraine (Podolia) in the Middle Ages and at the beginning of the modern period
Supervisor: PhDr. Peter Bednár, CSc.
Date of admission: June 2023
A comparison of the form and development of heating devices and heating methods in castles in the neighbouring areas of medieval Hungary and the historical Podolie region. The aim of the thesis is to collect the sources, compare the typological development of heating devices (open hearths, fireplaces, furnaces, hypocausts) and compare the art-historical development of tile stoves at selected sites in both areas. The thesis will test a hypothesis about the Eastern and Nordic influences on the development of heating devices in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary.
8. Topic: Medieval and modern ceramics from the upper Žitava river valley based on the archaeological sources from Hrušov and Gýmeš castles
Supervisor: Mgr. Mário Bielich, PhD. (Contact: nraubedn@savba.sk)
Date of admission: June 2023
The aim of the thesis is to process and evaluate ceramic finds acquired during archaeological research of the castles of Hrušov and Gýmeš in the context of archaeological sources from Upper Žitava valley and in a wider context also from the neighbouring areas of the historical Kingdom of Hungary. Also, the aim of the thesis is to capture changes in the production of ceramics in the studied period and recognize imports of different provenance in ceramic assemblages.
You can find more about the topics of the dissertations on the website of the Slovak Academy of Sciences https://www.sav.sk/?lang=sk&doc=educ-phdtopic