BrainMap

Mihaela Golea

- INSTITUTUL DE ARHEOLOGIE "VASILE PIRVAN"

Researcher | PhD student

Expertise & keywords

Centre of Excellence for Climate and Societal Changes Call name: PNCDI IV, SP 5.6.1 - Centre de excelență, CoEx2024
PN-IV-P6-6.1-CoEx-2024-0042 2026 - 2030

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI (RO); INSTITUTUL NATIONAL DE CERCETARE - DEZVOLTARE PENTRU FIZICA SI INGINERIE NUCLEARA " HORIA HULUBEI " - IFIN - HH (RO); INSTITUTUL DE ARHEOLOGIE "VASILE PIRVAN" (RO); INSTITUTUL NATIONAL DE CERCETARE-DEZVOLTARE PENTRU FIZICA PAMANTULUI - INCDFP RA (RO); UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI (RO); ACADEMIA ROMANA FILIALA CLUJ (RO)

Affiliation:

Project website:

Abstract:

In the face of an unprecedented global climate challenge, the "Centre of Excellence for Climate and Societal Changes" (CECSC), aims to unravel the complex relationship between climate change and human behaviour. CECSC's interdisciplinary approach brings together experts from fields such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, geology, geography, sociology, psychology, history, archaeology, ethnology, and linguistics. The center's strategic plan is based on three key Research Directions. The first, “History and Culture”, evaluates long-term human responses to climate changes. The second, “Climatic Impact”, integrates observational data, paleoclimate reconstructions, and climate simulations to understand the interplay between climate change, societal impacts, and human behavior. The third, “Human Behaviour”, integrates findings from past climate adaptation behaviours with current practices to develop strategies for promoting pro-environmental behaviours. To support its research, CECSC is establishing a state-of-the-art isotope and geochemical laboratory, and developing and an AI tool that determine climate-related behavioural change determinants in individuals. Through its groundbreaking research and initiatives, CECSC aims to make significant contributions to the understanding and advancement of climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies, providing new knowledge of regional climate change at a ten-thousand-year time scale in the peri-Carpathian region.

First North Pontic Steppe Populations in the Balkans. A bioarchaeological outlook of Cernavoda I communities in the Lower Danube Basin (Romania) Call name: P 5.1 - Proiecte de Cercetare Exploratorie - Competiția 2023
PN-IV-P1-PCE-2023-1899 2025 - 2028

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI (RO)

Affiliation:

Project website: https://unibuc.ro/cercetare/promovarea-rezultatelor-cercetarii/proiecte-de-cercetare/proiecte-cu-finantare-nationala/bioarhsteppe/

Abstract:

In the Bărăgan Plain and Dobrogea regions, the evolution of the Gumelnița civilization was interrupted or at least drastically disrupted at the end of the 5th millennium BC. This period and the first half of the 4th millennium BC is known as one in which rapid climate changes took place (cool and drought) and which, for the SE area of Romania, led to essential challenges related to the resilience or vulnerability of certain societies in these extreme conditions. The first Eastern populations of Indo-European origin are the Cernavoda I, who settled in Dobrogea. They have adopted several elements of material and spiritual civilization from the Eneolithic communities, so archaeological research has captured at least an apparent continuity. The project proposes a complex analysis from a bioarchaeological point of view (animals and plants used for food or other purposes, animal paleoeconomy, anthropic pressure on landscapes, food, health and lifestyle, ritual practices etc.) of the period when the culture Cernavoda I is documented in SE Romania in the first half of the 4th millennium BC, a period known as transitory which marks the end of the Copper Age and the beginning of the Bronze Age. Aspects related to human adaptation strategies to rapid climate changes documented, their management, flexibility or vulnerability of these populations in crisis conditions will be researched for the first time in order to set up the lifestyle patterns of past humans.

Exploring the life of the first farmers in Dobrudja (6th millennium BC) Call name: P 5.1 - Proiecte de Cercetare Exploratorie - Competiția 2023
PN-IV-P1-PCE-2023-1547 2025 - 2027

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: INSTITUTUL DE ARHEOLOGIE "VASILE PIRVAN"

Project partners: INSTITUTUL DE ARHEOLOGIE "VASILE PIRVAN" (RO)

Affiliation:

Project website: https://iabvp.ro/pn-iv-p1-pce-2023-1547-explorarea-vietii-primilor-agricultori-din-dobrogea-mileniul-al-vi-lea-i-hr/

Abstract:

In recent years, infrastructure development in Romania (transport but also housing construction) have become more and more important, triggering extensive preventive/rescue excavations and surveys. One of the surprises during the rescue excavation at Palazu Mare Malu Alb site (Constanța county) in 2021 was the discovery in several archaeological complexes (a dwelling and several pits) of an extremely rich archaeological material, including pottery, fauna, flora and human remains, bone and stone tools, etc. The pottery material and their figurines, unprecedented for the Dobrudja area, the few 14C dates, ranging from 5700 – 5300 calBC, allow the outline of a new cultural picture, prior to the Hamangia culture, with the best analogies in the Late Early Neolithic (6000 – 5500 B.C.) and Early Middle Neolithic (5500 – 5000 B.C.) of the Balkan area. Such discoveries are unique, and their research in a project with an inter- and multidisciplinary approach is more than necessary.

The main motivation of this project is to reconstruct the life of the first human communities that arrived on the territory of Dobrudja in the Neolithic period, to define the culture of the oldest Neolithic period in Dobrudja, to create a complex and complete cultural picture, which is only possible through multidisciplinary and, especially, interdisciplinary research of the archaeological material (pottery, fauna, flora, human bones, stone and bone tools, etc.) discovered in the Palazu Mare Malul Alb site.

Multidisciplinary platform for integrative and systematic research of tangible and non-tangible cultural heritage and identities in Romania Call name: P 1 - SP 1.2 - Proiecte complexe realizate in consorții CDI
PN-III-P1-1.2-PCCDI-2017-0686 2018 - 2021

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI (RO); INSTITUTUL DE ARHEOLOGIE "VASILE PIRVAN" (RO); INSTITUTUL NATIONAL DE CERCETARE - DEZVOLTARE PENTRU FIZICA SI INGINERIE NUCLEARA " HORIA HULUBEI " - IFIN - HH (RO); UNIVERSITATEA "ALEXANDRU IOAN CUZA" IASI (RO); UNIVERSITATEA DE VEST TIMISOARA (RO); INSTITUTUL NATIONAL DE CERCETARE - DEZVOLTARE PENTRU FIZICA MATERIALELOR BUCURESTI RA (RO); INSTITUTUL NATIONAL DE CERCETARE - DEZVOLTARE IN INFORMATICA - ICI BUCURESTI (RO); UNIVERSITATEA OVIDIUS (RO); UNIVERSITATEA DIN ORADEA (RO)

Affiliation: INSTITUTUL DE ARHEOLOGIE "VASILE PIRVAN" (RO)

Project website: http://patcultro.unibuc.ro

Abstract:

The present project represents an original approach, from an inter-, pluri-, multi- and transdisciplinary perspective of the 6th domains - Patrimony and cultural identity. Through the structure of the consortium, the management of the project, the objectives proposed by the component projects, through the synergies and complementarities obtained, undoubtedly presents a high degree of feasibility, being a sophisticated, integrative and exhaustive approach for Romania. Its results will have an impact both on the national and international scientific communities, but also on the broad public, contributing through the proposed activities to the consolidation, development, and improvement of the RDI system in our country, and indirectly to the training of the future specialists from the Romanian research.

The final goal of the project is to create a complex interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary platform for integrated and systematic research of tangible and non-tangible cultural identities and heritage in Romania.

The consortium that will implement this complex project is coordinated by the University of Bucharest (CO-UB), in partnership with the "Vasile Parvan" Institute of Archeology of the Romanian Academy (P1-IAB), the National Institute for Research and Development for Physics and Nuclear Engineering " Horia Hulubei "(P2-IFIN-HH)," Al. I. Cuza "University of Iasi (P3-UAIC), West University of Timisoara (P4-UVT), National Institute of Research and Development for Material Physics (P5-INCDFM), the "Ovidius" University of Constanta (P6-UOC) and the University of Oradea (P7-UO). The way of geographic distribution at the level of Romania ensures a good regional representation of the legal entities represented within the consortium in this project. The combination of five universities and three national research institutes is the ideal combination to support and implement such a complex project.

Bio-mapping of the Past Animal and Vegetation from the Romanian Prehistory Call name: P 4 - Proiecte de Cercetare Exploratorie
PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2016-0676 2017 - 2019

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: INSTITUTUL DE ARHEOLOGIE "VASILE PIRVAN"

Project partners: INSTITUTUL DE ARHEOLOGIE "VASILE PIRVAN" (RO)

Affiliation: INSTITUTUL DE ARHEOLOGIE "VASILE PIRVAN" (RO)

Project website: http://bio-mapping-prehistory.ro

Abstract:

The project Bio-mapping of the Past Animal and Vegetation from the Romanian Prehistory (BioMapPrehist) proposes a new approach regarding Romanian Prehistory (c. 40000-650 cal.BC) from the bioarchaeological perspective, based on an interdisciplinary integration of the zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical data available.

The main motivation of the project is the absence from Romania of the large integrated databases regarding past fauna (e.g. molluscs, fish bones, reptiles, birds, mammals) and vegetation (e.g. seeds, charcoal, pollen) discovered in archaeological contexts, an indispensable tool in modern research. In these circumstances, we will try to realize a complex integrated analysis of the interaction between society, environment, and biodiversity in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene on the Romanian actual territory. This chronological range was a critical period in the evolution of humanity, which gradually turned from hunter-gatherer communities into farmers-breeders communities. The target period begins with the Upper Paleolithic period, continues with Mesolithic, Neolithic, Eneolithic, Bronze Age, and it ends with the First Iron Age (Hallstatt).

The project is designed to provide a higher-resolution picture of the faunal and vegetal evolution for a more than 40000 years, in correlation with human communities from the target area, and their food preferences, environmental resources management, and particular adaptive strategies.

The primary objectives of the project is the development of a complex analytical instrument for national and European researchers, based on bioarchaeological data and valorize the national cultural heritage, but also the integration of statistical GIS methods, in order to know the fundamental evolution and distribution of fauna and flora (and implicitly human consumption, paleoeconomy, food procuring strategies, key-events that affect the human diet) from geographically (horizontal) and chronologically (vertical) perspective.

Echoes of the past reflected in the present ... An attempt to reconstruct the Neolithic society through experimental archeology Call name: Joint Applied Research Projects - PCCA 2013 - call
PN-II-PT-PCCA-2013-4-2302 2014 - 2017

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: MUZEUL NATIONAL DE ISTORIE A ROMANIEI

Project partners: MUZEUL NATIONAL DE ISTORIE A ROMANIEI (RO); UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI (RO); S&S PROIECTARE SRL (RO)

Affiliation: MUZEUL NATIONAL DE ISTORIE A ROMANIEI (RO)

Project website: http://www.mnir.ro/index.php/echoes-of-the-past-reflected-in-the-present/

Abstract:

This project represents an original approach, from an interdisciplinary approach, of one of the key eras of Romania’s history – the Neolithic (ca.7000-3700 B.C.). This period represented a turning point in the evolution of mankind, comparable on a historical scale only with the industrial revolution of the late XVIIIth century, which modified the very essence of human society, thus allowing all subsequent progress. This is the moment of those fundamental discoveries, like agriculture, pasturing, pottery and metal works and of great transformations of man kind’s habits, like the appearance of the first sedentary settlements and later on the of the kernels of proto-urban life appear. Unfortunately a research of the Neolithic with all its material and spiritual aspects represents a far greater challenge when compared with other historical eras (like the greek-roman era, the byzantine period, the middle-age etc.), due especially to the lack of complementary sources of information (written sources, oral information, direct observations). In these circumstances, only the data obtain through archeological diggings can help understanding these prehistoric communities and their material creation, but just in a limiting way. This is the reason why we propose an interdisciplinary approach of the Romanian Neolithic, based on the synergic involvement of some diverse fields, like archeology, archeozoology, archeoichtiology, anthropology, geology, architecture, petrography, topography, chemistry, etc., which would offer a background knowledge composed of contemporary archeological discoveries, doubled by studies of experimental archeology that would allow a scientific validation of some of the existing theories and concepts. Thus, experimental archeology transforms into a very strong research instrument, able to complete the Neolithic knowledge base. This subject in original and unique, never being approached again in Romania. The project aims at starting from the archeological data from the Neolithic, in order to recreate, by the means of the experimental archeology, all the elements that create the material culture of these communities (pottery, houses, figurines, tools made by flint, horn, shells, bone, metal, etc. Also the project shall study the functional dimension of these objects, that will be tested in various Neolithic activities (agriculture, gathering, wood chopping, house building, tools and objects crafting, etc.). All the resulting products shall be interdisciplinary analyzed, as well as all the archeological artifacts, after which a comparative study shall be made. Furthermore, the project aims at (re) building a Neolithic settlement at a 1:1 scale, with all its specific buildings and artifacts, thus creating a true, Archaeodrom like, science park which will comprise a museum and a research base. This shall represent an economical product, with a strong experimental and eloquent character, based upon the collaboration between the research institutions that make up this consortium and the business environment, which will both contribute to the implementation of the „education through research” concept by allowing both initial and continuous forming of human resources (students, master and PhD candidates), and also shall represent an extremely valuable cultural product, able to be integrated in the national touristic circuit. In the same time, the construction of this scientific park in a rural environment, in an economically disadvantaged area, will contribute both to a socio-economic development of the host community and to a significant rise in educational opportunities for the youth of this community. This approach of the research process can be considered a new technique of cultural marketing, yet to be applied in Romania, at least for the Neolithic archeological discoveries.

FILE DESCRIPTION	DOCUMENT
List of research grants as project coordinator or partner team leader
Significant R&D projects for enterprises, as project manager
R&D activities in enterprises
Peer-review activity for international programs/projects