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With a prestigious fellowship
Dr Justyna Orłowska, a member of the Team for Traceology Research and Residue Studies at the NCU Faculty of Historical Sciences has been awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship, one of the most competitive grant programmes in Europe, funded under the Horizon Europe.
Dr Justyna Orłowska's 24-month project, entitled VISION (Advanced Microscopic Techniques to Reveal Hunter-Gatherer-Fishers' Macrolithic Tool Functions in the Central European Plain), will be carried out at the renowned DANTE – Diet and Ancient Technology Laboratory at Sapienza University of Rome under the supervision of Prof. Emanuela Cristiani, in close cooperation with dr habil. Grzegorz Osipowicz, NCU Prof.
The aim of the project is to reconstruct the functions of macrolithic stone tools used by hunter-gatherer communities of the early Holocene in the Central European Lowlands. Thanks to the use of advanced microscopic analyses, residue studies and spatial analyses, it will be possible to reconstruct the everyday practices of raw material processing and camp organisation from thousands of years ago.
The key research material will be unique Mesolithic sites from Paliwodzizna 29 and Ludowice 6 – exceptional and unique camps in Poland used by hunter-gatherer communities for many millennia (both sites were studied as part of grants from the National Science Centre led by dr habil. Grzegorz Osipowicz, NCU Prof.).
The initial analyses of macrolithic artefacts from the aforementioned sites, conducted, among others, during research internships carried out by dr Justyna Orłowska at the DANTE laboratory as part of the 'Mobility for Staff' programme (Initiative of Excellence – Research University), have already yielded promising results and confirmed the enormous research potential of these collections.
The implementation of the VISION project opens a new stage in the development of traceological research at the Nicolaus Copernicus University, introducing advanced microscopic techniques and integrated residue analyses to the study of macrolithic tools, which have rarely been subjected to such comprehensive research to date. The combination of traceology, archaeobotany, physicochemical analyses and spatial studies will create an innovative, interdisciplinary research framework, allowing for a multifaceted reconstruction of the functions of artefacts and economic practices of early Holocene communities.
MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships are among the most prestigious research career support programmes in Europe. The programme is aimed at researchers with a doctoral degree who wish to conduct research abroad and acquire new skills, including in an interdisciplinary environment. More about the programme
