BrainMap

Mr. Valentin Radu

Phd

Researcher - MUZEUL NATIONAL DE ISTORIE A ROMANIEI

Other affiliations

Associate professor - UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI (Romania)

Researcher

I have over 25 years of research experience in the field of archaeology. I worked in the research field of the archaeology, archaeozoology, archaeomalacology and paleoecology research, but also in related topics like food strategies of the prehistoric communities based on water resources, paleoeconomy of the human communities, as well as paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic reconstructions along with paleoecological and zoogeographical studies for different historical periods. My scientific interest is the reconstruction of the past through multidisciplinary approaches using scientific tools from different fields like archaeology, biology, biochemistry, physical anthropology, experimental archaeology, etc.

Web of Science ResearcherID: HZH-4646-2023

Curriculum Vitae (26/02/2024)

Expertise & keywords

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: Key expert

Coordinating institution: INSTITUTUL DE ARHEOLOGIE "VASILE PIRVAN"

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

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

Project website:

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.

Mapping the Prehistoric Waterscape from Southern Romania (7000-3000 cal. BC). Natural water supply and cultural water demand in the past Call name: P 4 - Proiecte de Cercetare Exploratorie, 2020
PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2020-2369 2021 - 2023

Role in this project: Project coordinator

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI (RO)

Affiliation: UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI (RO)

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

Abstract:

Investigations of the water in an archaeological context and searches for connections between natural water supply, natural hydrological conditions, and socio-cultural developments of human societies in the past is a real challenge for contemporary research. However, despite the apparent simplicity of water notion when we talk about human civilizations of the past, it had multidimensional connotations, which are transposed into various and differentiated elements of analysis (economic impact, hazards, human resilience, mobility, palaeoecologically niches, etc.). Thus, approaching a topic like the one proposed by the current project is difficult and challenging, involving complex multidisciplinary analyses, at the border of several disciplines (archaeology, geography, biology, etc.).

The project aim is to identify the complex interface between water and the human communities from Southern Romania for a period of 4000 years (7000-3000 BC). It will focus on the natural water availability, carrying capacity of environments, and aspects of variability in the hydrological system in correlation with human settlements location. We will take in consideration the adaptation and management strategies of different past societies, and the resilience or vulnerability of certain societies to hydrological hazards. Moreover, the project will address some side issues as the role of diet based on aquatic resources in life of the humans, and their palaeoeconomical impact in the target time span.

Recreating osseous artefacts and their uses in the activities of the prehistoric communities at the Lower Danube: experimentation design and its applications in archaeology Call name: P 2 - SP 2.1 - Proiect experimental - demonstrativ
PN-III-P2-2.1-PED-2019-1279 2020 - 2022

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA "VALAHIA" TARGOVISTE

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA "VALAHIA" TARGOVISTE (RO); INSTITUTUL DE ARHEOLOGIE "VASILE PIRVAN" (RO)

Affiliation: UNIVERSITATEA "VALAHIA" TARGOVISTE (RO)

Project website: http://www.eneolithicbonetools.ro/

Abstract:

The project aims, starting from the technological and functional concepts set out empirically in previous archaeological studies, to hopefully validate the technological transformation schemes of the raw materials and the functions attributed to the different prehistoric artefacts made from osseous materials, through analytical and experimental studies. Osseous materials were used by the prehistoric communities to manufacture weapons, tools and artistic objects. In this category are included bone, antler, ivory, teeth and shells, each with its own processing techniques that have to do with their mechanical properties and also with the specific cultural traditions of each community. The project will develop over five stages. During the first stage replicas of various osseous artefacts will be manufactured, following the technological transformation schemes identified by the direct study of key prehistoric archaeological assemblages on the northern bank of the Lower Danube. A second stage will be implemented by the use of these artefacts in various actions as indicated by the publications or as suggested by the morphology/typology of the pieces. The third stage will take place in the laboratory where the replicas will be analysed with two microscopes (digital and metallographic) at different time intervals, in order to be able to record the evolution of use-wear on the active front of these tools. During the fourth stage, all the observations made, accompanied by supporting images, will be uploaded on a database. The fifth and final stage will allow for the observations made on experimental replicas to be compared with the archaeological specimens in order to validate the existing hypotheses on the way they were manufactured and used by the prehistoric communities.

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.

Exploitation strategies of the animal environment at the last hunter-gatherers and the first farmers north of the Danube (7.200-5.000 B.C.) Call name: Projects for Young Research Teams - RUTE -2014 call
PN-II-RU-TE-2014-4-0519 2015 - 2017

Role in this project: Key expert

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA "VALAHIA" TARGOVISTE

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA "VALAHIA" TARGOVISTE (RO)

Affiliation: UNIVERSITATEA "VALAHIA" TARGOVISTE (RO)

Project website: http://www.eneolithicbonetools.ro/

Abstract:

The profound climatic changes and the need to identify solutions for the survival of mankind represent major topics of debate in the contemporary society. We must know that even since its beginnings, the modern mankind has been faced with climate changes some of them radical, which have left their mark on the strategies related to the exploitation and the management of the environment, specifically the animal one, and have been reflected in the types of economic practices. By this project proposition, we shall try to analyse, quantify and compare the effects of a nearly “purely climatic” phenomenon and the effects of a mostly human-driven process and to provide an integrated image on the ways in which the animal environment was exploited by the prehistoric communities, at the transition from hunter-gatherers to farmers-breeders (7.200 B.C. – 5.000 B.C.), identifying and comparing different eco-cultural models developed in the northern Danube area. The investigations will cover two priority domains: of biodiversity evolution (e.g., taxonomic richness; magnitude of fauna turnover) and of correlative human societal transformations, especially in fauna management and techniques of exploitation. Among others, the objectives of our project include the identification of the modifications intervened in the relation between the domain covered by this project and the way in which it has been reflected in the paleo-economy, habitat, social or spiritual organization.

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: Key expert

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.

Human and environment co-evolution patterns in the wetland area of Balta Ialomitei Call name: Exploratory Research Projects - PCE-2011 call
PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0982 2011 - 2016

Role in this project: Key expert

Coordinating institution: Muzeul Naţional de Istorie a României

Project partners: Muzeul Naţional de Istorie a României (RO)

Affiliation:

Project website: http://arheologie-bordusani.org

Abstract:

For a long time the archaeological research in Romania and in other countries of Central Europe remained confined within the limits of studies based strictly on stratigraphy and typology of the various artefacts disconnected from their contexts. Thus, general ideas have been spread about, often misconceptions and the lack or scarcity of complex multidisciplinary studies was significant, especially considering that the conceptual content of the research has not evolved.

In such conditions the project aims, for the first time in Romania, to define the characteristics of the relations between human communities and the natural environment, in the Danube area of “Balta Ialomitei”, on several chronological levels from Neo-eneolithic period, the La Tene epoch and the Middle Ages up to present, through a comprehensive interdisciplinary diagnostic, allowing to highlight the framework of the linked evolution of man and his environment. Therefore, we propose to identify all areas of human activities in the context of landscape elements to be reconstructed in detail performing complex multi proxies analysis and to understand their dynamics in the broader conceptual framework of the social space approach, very little addressed until present by the Romanian archaeological research.

The relevance is the use of innovative concepts and methodologies for archaeological research in Romania associated with complex studies on a specific natural environment.

Re-constructing the identities: facts, places, peoples, animals and objects of the invisible past Call name: Exploratory Research Projects - PCE-2011 call
PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-1015 2011 - 2016

Role in this project: Key expert

Coordinating institution: MUZEUL NATIONAL DE ISTORIE A ROMANIEI

Project partners: MUZEUL NATIONAL DE ISTORIE A ROMANIEI (RO)

Affiliation: MUZEUL NATIONAL DE ISTORIE A ROMANIEI (RO)

Project website: http://prehistoric-identities.ro/

Abstract:

The problem of `who we are’ was always central to the interest of the peoples.For archaeologists and historians this problem is often intimately related to questions of `who were the people of the past,our ancestors’ an inquiry which incited their imagination and knowledge of the past 200 years.Various scientific disciplines helped to discover an important part of the past but the degree of documentation is different from one historical period to another.Some of them,as it is the prehistory,are lacking in certain segments of information.In these circumstances,the archaeologists have built an often distorted picture of the prehistory.That is why in this project we propose a interdisciplinary approach for an important segment of prehistory(Eneolithic),in terms of identities.The subject is original and has not been addressed until now in Romania.The project aims to identify some socio-biological aspects of the Eneolithic communities,grouped into five levels of analysis:the identity of place (where they lived),macro-identity of communities (where they lived),the biological identity(who are they),the material dimension of identity-artifacts(what they built,used and produced) and the reflected identity by other elements (what they preferred to collect,eat and use,why and how).Combinatorial analysis of data obtained from these four levels of study will allow us to answer questions about `who are those people’ and to identify the multiple identities of these past human populations

BEHIND PREHISTORIC TECHNOLOGY: THE ENEOLITHIC HARD ANIMAL MATERIAL INDUSTRY FROM SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE Call name: Projects for Young Research Teams - TE-2011 call
PN-II-RU-TE-2011-3-0133 2011 - 2014

Role in this project: Key expert

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA VALAHIA DIN TARGOVISTE

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA VALAHIA DIN TARGOVISTE (RO)

Affiliation:

Project website: http://www.eneolithicbonetools.ro/

Abstract:

The project aims to carry out a completely original study for the Romanian prehistorical archeology - concerning the way in which the hard animal material industry reflect the environmental exploitation strategies and the extent to which cultural attitudes influence these strategies - on the basis of well preserved and contextually integrated archeological material. Animal bone materials were used by the prehistoric communities to manufacture weapons, tools and artistic objects. In this category are included: bone, antler, ivory, teeth and shells, each with its own special processing techniques that have to do with their mechanical properties and also with the specific cultural traditions of each community. Within this study, pursuing four stages - raw matter acquisition, typology, technology, traseology - our main goals will be to identify the equipments’ makeup, the function of the objects and their integration in the activities, the technical and economic means needed to obtain them and, in the end, by comparing the sites, to identify the possible cultural markers and to check if the cultural models emitted so far on the assimilation of an exploitation model pertaining to a certain culture are veridical. The technical-functional determinations of the animal bone tools will be established based on the correlation of the experimental results with the study of the micro and macro stigmata, with the functional analogies/ethnographic comparisons and the archeological data.

Prestige and Power. Romanian Museums’ Antique Items of Trade. Non-metallic adornments, with an archaeometrical study regarding the origin of amber beads Call name:
91-019/2007, 2007 - 2010

Role in this project: Key expert

Coordinating institution: MUZEUL NATIONAL DE ISTORIE A ROMANIEI

Project partners: MUZEUL NATIONAL DE ISTORIE A ROMANIEI (RO); INSTITUTUL NATIONAL DE CERCETARE DEZVOLTARE PENTRU STIINTE BIOLOGICE (RO)

Affiliation: MUZEUL NATIONAL DE ISTORIE A ROMANIEI (RO)

Project website: http://http//www.romanit.ro

Abstract:

Archaeological Researches and Prospecting with Optoelectronic resources Call name:
contract 69/CP/II 2007 - 2009

Role in this project: Key expert

Coordinating institution: INSTITUTUL NATIONAL DE CERCETARE-DEZVOLTARE PENTRU OPTOELECTRONICA INOE 2000 INCD

Project partners: INSTITUTUL NATIONAL DE CERCETARE-DEZVOLTARE PENTRU OPTOELECTRONICA INOE 2000 INCD (); MUZEUL NATIONAL DE ISTORIE A ROMANIEI (); INSTITUTUL DE CERCETARI ECO.MUZEALE TULCEA ()

Affiliation: INSTITUTUL NATIONAL DE CERCETARE-DEZVOLTARE PENTRU OPTOELECTRONICA INOE 2000 INCD ()

Project website: http://carpo.inoe.ro/pagini/proiect.html

Abstract:

CARPO is a project addressed to the 2nd module from “CAPACITIES” Program and defines an complex activities with high necessities related to match Romanian research branch – more precise in archeology, conservation and museum studies on scientific principles – with the one form E.U. countries and to obtain a real and efficient window to transfer technology and know-how. The partnership creates a thematic network with emphasizing, valorization and protection aim of the cultural heritage in different regions (with archaeological pieces that correspond, form the typological variability and conservation point of view) to the durable development context of the local community that will suppose the massive and rapid grow of the anthropology intervention pressure in the territory. A high complexity domain, profound multidisciplinary, relative poor extended in Romania and undoubtedly uneven in its components, at the same time uneven activated in different regions of the country. More, it has a huge social impact for the urbanism and field organization perspective of the local community level.

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