Project information

 

Images of Russia: comparative qualitative study in Poland and Germany
Kierownik projektu: Prof. Dr. Agnieszka Halemba (Polish Academy of Sciences); Prof. Dr. Joachim Otto Habeck (Universität Hamburg)
Financed by Polish-German Foundation for Science

 

Description:

 

The aim of the project is an in-depth analysis of narratives on attitudes towards Russia as a state, cultural area and historical-political agent. The research will be carried out in selected regions in Poland and Germany.

Analyses to date, based mostly on survey data and existing sources, point towards significant differences in attitudes towards Russia in both countries. In Germany we can observe ambivalent and diverse narratives, with significant disparities between eastern and western part of the country. In Poland, on the other hand, the image of Russia as inimical state seems to be coherent and stable. Both in Poland and Germany there is observable co-occurrence of both fear and fascination with Russia; however those function differently in both contexts. In Poland Russia plays an important role in building a self-image of Poles as a nation of victims. In Germany awareness of historical, political and economic ties with Russia seems to be more important.

The existing research in the area remains at a generalising level. There is significant lack of research offering in-depth description and analysis of the strategies of argumentation, dominant narratives and topoi functioning in everyday social life.

This project is based on qualitative, un-structured interviews that enable more astute and coherent investigation of narratives about Russia in Poland and in Germany.

 

Research team at IAE PAS:

 

• Agnieszka Halemba
• Marcin Skupiński
• Łukasz Smyrski

 

Research team at University of Hamburg:

 

• Joachim Otto Habeck
• Natascha Bregy

Project information

 

Research project’s title: Serengeti of the Early Pastoralists. Searching for the origins of pastoral societies in the plains of East Africa
Project No: SONATA, UMO-2024/55/D/HS3/01454
Project lead: dr Piotr Osypiński
Project lead, institutional: Instytut Archeologii i Etnologii Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Project financing: National Science Centre, Poland
Keywords: Pastoral Neolithic, settlement patterns, chronology, adaptation strategies, Eastern Africa
Kontakt: p.osypinski(at)iaepan.edu.pl

 

Description:

 

In the Serengeti - a wildlife sanctuary of the African savannah - ancient humans other than hunter-gatherers are hard to find, hard to imagine. Yet discreet evidence on the walls of rock shelters and seemingly unnoticeable artefacts reflect the past presence of pastoralists in this landscape. The sites of the first communities known to archaeologists from the Pastoral Neolithic period, less than 5,000 years ago, can be counted on the fingers of one hand. They also mark the southernmost fringes of the early pastoral communities that migrated into East Africa from the north.

The preliminary survey we conducted in August 2024 paints a very different picture - there are many more sites of this type, both along the Mbalageti River and on the grassy plains around Sametu and Gol Kopjes. Studying these remains will help us to better understand the processes of migration southwards and the chronology of the spread of the first forms of food-producing economy in this part of the continent. In our project, we will also try to test the long-standing hypothesis about the environmental driver of these migrations in the middle Holocene, using our knowledge and experience in the study of early pastoralism on the Nile. This is the main aim of our project.

We have selected four sites in two ecological zones for excavation in order to trace possible differences between them. We intend to carry out extensive research to document not only small artefacts but also settlement remains - houses, hearths, storage facilities and perhaps burials. The excavations will be accompanied by studies of the use of the wider area - preferences for landscape forms, distance from water and mineral resources. Precise insights will be provided by aerial photographs and digital models of the sites now and in the past. To achieve this, we will use a drone combined with high precision satellite navigation (RTK GPS). This will not only streamline the data collection process but also make it safer for us archaeologists and, no doubt, for the animals of the Serengeti who are watching us closely. Our studies will pay particular attention to dietary issues, both through analysis of animal and plant remains. A modern methods workshop will enable us to study domesticated animals, herd structure and utilisation (meat and livelihoods, including milk yield) in much greater detail than before. In these analyses we will turn to molecular and genetic analyses - risky because they have not yet been used on East African material, but which offer the possibility of constructing a much better vision of early pastoral communities in their "non-human dimension" than before. In the search for plant remains, we will look at macro-remains, pollen, but also micro-residues on ceramic vessels and on the surface of stone querns.

In addition to the Principal Investigator responsible for stone tool analysis and fieldwork coordination, the research team will include specialists in archaeozoology, archaeobotany and ceramology, as well as an RTK GPS survey equipment operator. Research in the Serengeti cannot take place without close collaboration with Tanzanian researchers, who have been working for decades to build a prehistoric picture of human presence in the very cradle of our species. In addition to invaluable formal and logistical support, we will also jointly create an opportunity for the practical development of Pastoral Neolithic archaeology in northern Tanzania by inviting students from the University of Dar es Salaam to participate in field schools during the excavations.

The results of the research on ancient pastoral communities in the Serengeti will be presented both in a series of peer-reviewed articles and at international conferences. The popularisation dimension of the project includes a dedicated website and ongoing social media updates.

One of the shelters in Moru Kopies (Serengeti) with rock-paintings. Photo P.Osypiński

Men from the Maasai tribe near Serengeti. Photo: P. Osypiński

Landscape at the Neolithic settlement in Sametu (Serengeti). Drone photo F. Osypiński

Stone quern on the archaeological site in the Mbalagete Valley (Serengeti). Photo P. Osypiński

Project information

 

Research project’s title: Consensus and Power: Kingship and Political Culture in Crusader Jerusalem (1100–1192)
Project No: UMO-2025/57/B/HS3/01149; OPUS-29
Project lead: dr Tomasz Pełech
Project lead, institutional: Instytut Archeologii i Etnologii Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Project financing: Narodowe Centrum Nauki
Keywords: WKingship, Crusades, Crusader States, King of Latin Jerusalem, Practice of Rulership
Kontakt: t.pelech(at)iaepan.edu.pl

 

Description:

 

The events of the crusading movement have stimulated human imagination for centuries, resulting in numerous references in contemporary mass culture. The Crusaders could not have realised that many people around the world, almost ten centuries after the capturing of Jerusalem in 1099, would imagined the ideal king through the creation of Baldwin IV (played by Edward Norton) or the ideal queen as Sibylla (by Eva Green) in the movie of Kingdom of Heaven, directed by Ridley Scott. Even with this brief introduction, it is worth mentioning the fact that medieval Europe, with the Kingdom of Jerusalem as its outpost, was a world of kings, and that the presence of the Crusaders, and their survival for 200 years in the Holy Land, was marked by the establishment of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in December 1100, when Baldwin of Boulogne (1100–1118), the first of his name, was crowned king of Jerusalem.

However, what did this actually mean for those who wore the crown and those who did not? Therefore, the questions of what the essence of kingship was, what the ideological basis of this type of rulership was, and what abstract norms meant in practice are crucial to understanding the mechanisms of politics in the Middle Ages. The main aim of the project is to present the idea and practice of kingship in the Kingdom of Jerusalem between 1100 and 1192, i.e. from the reign of Baldwin I to the end of the reign of Guy of Lusignan (1186–1192). Thus, the chronological scope includes the taking of the royal title by the first Latin monarch in Jerusalem and the loss of the Holy City, which had its practical and ideological dimensions related to the reduction of the Kingdom of Jerusalem’s borders to the Levantine coast. This is because, it could be assumed that the loss of Jerusalem represented a clear milestone in the political life of the so-called Crusader states, and the idea of kingship, as well as the whole system of power in Outremer, needed to be reformulated

The project assumes the following research objectives: (1) to determine the impact of Jerusalem, and the monarchs’ ever-increasing emphasis on its sanctity, on the collective ideas about kingship in the Crusader states in the 12th c.; (2) to study the royal title(s), especially through the intitulatio of the charters produced by the chancery of the Kingdom of Jerusalem as the most comprehensive depiction of the king’s presentation; (3) to establish the key ideas in the kings of Jerusalem’s self-presentation: whether was it the imitatio Christi (the imitation of Christ)? (4) to indicate that the practice of royal power in the Kingdom of Jerusalem has never bore the character of the autocratic power, exercised against or without the will of the political elites, therefore, the Kingdom was never seen as the private property of the king and his lineage, who ruled not independently but within a framework defined by a political culture, which can be described as a rule by consensus. These research objectives of the project, although related to the currently dominant historiography of the Crusades and the broader strand of political history, have received little scholarly attention and need to be supplemented and verified.

The study will be based on a corpus of diplomatic sources (ca. 1100 documents), sphragistic, epigraphic, and numismatic materials supplemented by narrative sources, including the oeuvres of Fulcher of Chartres, Albert of Aachen, William of Tyre, and other sources describing the history of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which convey information about its political culture. Hence, although this source type is much later (ca. 13th c.), the legal treatises as the Assizes of Jerusalem, produced in the Crusader states, will be used as supplementary material.

The project rectifies an important gap in understanding of the political history of the medieval Europe, while undertaking a vital step towards future comparative research with using the case of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

 

 

Post-doctoral Fellowship in Aegean Middle Bronze Age lithics

 

 

We are seeking a highly motivated and experienced lithics expert for a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IAE PAS) in Warsaw.

 

 

The successful candidate will work under the “Minyans and Trojans in the Middle Bronze Age” project (MITAMBA), funded by the National Science Centre (Poland), and coordinated by Dr Christopher Hale.

 

 

MITAMBA examines Middle Bronze Age connectivity between central Greece, northern Greece, and the northeastern Aegean through different networks of production, consumption, and distribution. An interdisciplinary team will identify regionalisms, communities of practice, and patterns of interaction within a range of material culture to reveal new insights into an understudied region which has often only been considered in relation to the southern Aegean.

 

 

Responsibilities:

• Conduct comparative research on lithic assemblages of the Middle Bronze Age Aegean, with a focus on central Greece, northern Greece, and/or the northeastern Aegean basin.
• Publish research findings in peer-reviewed journals and present at conferences or workshops.
• Contribute to the development of MITAMBA’s research design and methodology.
• Compare results and collaborate with the MITAMBA team and their datasets.
• Participate in fieldwork, as needed.
• Contribute to the project's outreach activities, such as public lectures.

You will have freedom to direct your own research emphasis within MITAMBA’s scope, but would be expected to examine a range of networks or regionalisms represented within lithic tools from the target regions. Possible avenues of emphasis include (but are not limited to) provenance investigations of exploited raw materials, identifying imports, mapping the distribution of tool types and materials, investigations of production practice, comparative use-wear analysis, or experimental archaeology.

 

 

 

Requirements:

• A PhD in archaeology obtained within the last seven years. Applicants who are finishing their PhDs are eligible, as long as they obtain the degree no later than by the start of the fellowship.
• Experience in the study of Aegean Bronze Age lithics, preferably proven by publications.
• A publication record concerning the Aegean Bronze Age.
• Expertise in the macroscopic characterization, chemical or petrographic analysis, technology and use-wear analysis, and/or experimental archaeology related to lithics.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Good communication and interpersonal skills in English.

 

 

 

Preferred:

• Already secured access to relevant assemblages will be a significant advantage.
• Knowledge of network analysis as it relates to archaeology.
• Demonstrated experience with archaeological fieldwork in Greece.

 

 

 

What we offer:

• Two years of full-time employment with a monthly salary of ca. 9,770 PLN gross (ca. 2,285 EUR before tax, according to current exchange rates).
• A flexible start date within 2025-mid 2026.
• National Health Insurance for the duration of the employment.
• A work space in Warsaw, including your own desk, laptop, and monitor.
• Funds to conduct fieldwork, sampling, analysis, research trips, participation in conferences, and payment of open-access fees.
• Access to equipment such as a stereo microscope and a petrographic microscope. IAE PAS also houses a state-of-the-art scanning electron microscope, and can facilitate access to a pXRF.
• Support for permit applications to the relevant Ephoria of Antiquities and the Hellenic Ministry of Culture to handle material and conduct analyses under the auspices of the Polish Archaeological Institute at Athens.
• Support in applying for grants from Polish, European Union, and international sources for future projects.
• A stimulating research environment with a growing number of Warsaw-based Aegean Bronze Age specialists. In addition, the IAE PAS is home to renowned international lithic experts on siliceous rocks and flint mining from the Central European Paleolithic and Bronze Age, including an extensive study collection.

 

 

 

To Apply:

Send your CV, a cover letter, the names of two references, and a writing sample to Dr Christopher Hale (c.hale@iaepan.edu.pl).

 

The cover letter should describe your research interests and experience, and explain why you are a good fit for MITAMBA.

 

The writing sample should be a publication or other piece of relevant scholarly work that you have authored or co-authored.

 

The deadline for applications is June 14^th 2025.

Archaeological Excavations in Wolin – Join the Team!

The Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IAE PAN) and Aarhus University invite you to take part in archaeological excavations starting on July 7 in Wolin, at the site of an early medieval port near the Silver Hill. The work is part of two projects supported by the Aarhus University Foundation and the Salling Foundation.

The excavations will run until August 31 and take place from Tuesday to Saturday. We welcome students, PhD candidates, and archaeologists—both experienced and those just beginning their archaeological journey.

 

To apply, please email: w.filipowiak@iaepan.edu.pl

 

 

We provide:

• accommodation,
• a light lunch and dinner,
• a unique atmosphere in a place with over a thousand years of history!

We prefer participants who can stay as long as possible—the minimum stay is two weeks.

 

 

The excavation site will be open to visitors!

We invite everyone to spend a summer day immersed in the history of the Slavs and Vikings. Visit the excavation site and see the thousand-year-old harbor with your own eyes, stroll through the reconstructed medieval town at the Slavs and Vikings Centre, explore the Regional Museum, and finish your visit with a panoramic view of modern-day Wolin from the look-out tower.