My research background broadly spans the Neolithic and Bronze Age of Anatolia, the Aegean and Eastern Europe, with a particular focus on ancient technology, spheres of exchange and technological transfer, palaeodiet, and the transition to farming. I am co-director of the excavations at the Copper Age site of Avren in Bulgaria and lead the DFG-funded project „Food cultures: Interdisciplinary studies of early farming, food technology and palaeodiet in Southeastern Europe“. In Food Cultures I collaborate with bioarchaeologists to explore the relationship between palaeodiet, food technology and the spread of farming in Southeastern Europe. The project integrates archaeological studies with organic residue analysis of ceramics, identification of plant microfossils preserved on stone artefacts, and analysis of high-resolution intra-enamel carbon and oxygen isotope profiles of domestic herbivore teeth. I have been teaching European Prehistory at the University of Heidelberg since 2006 at both the graduate and undergraduate levels and on variety of topics including prehistoric technology, agricultural origins, pottery, archaeology of violence, and archaeological theory.
