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Mr. Vitalie Bârcă

Doctor

Senior Researcher I - ACADEMIA ROMANA FILIALA CLUJ

Researcher | Scientific reviewer | Entrepreneur | Consultant

Vitalie Bârcă is a Senior Researcher (CS I) at the Institute of Archaeology and Art History, Romanian Academy, Cluj-Napoca. His research focuses on the archaeology and history of the Sarmatian world in the North Pontic region and the Lower and Middle Danube, as well as the La Tène and early Roman periods in the Danubian region. He holds a PhD in History (2004, Babeș-Bolyai University) on indigenous and allochthonous populations in eastern Dacia. His interests include cross-cultural interaction between the Greco-Roman world and barbarian societies, frontier dynamics, and funerary practices. He has coordinated national and international research projects and participated in numerous archaeological excavations north of the Lower Danube. He is a long-standing member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Ancient History and Archaeology and Archaeology and Early History of Ukraine.

Web of Science ResearcherID: C-1823-2012

Curriculum Vitae (02/02/2026)

Expertise & keywords

Preservation by development of sustainable strategies for a better protection of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites from Romania Call name: P 4 - Proiecte de Cercetare Exploratorie
PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2016-0737 2017 - 2019

Role in this project: Key expert

Coordinating institution: ACADEMIA ROMÂNĂ - FILIALA IAŞI

Project partners: ACADEMIA ROMÂNĂ - FILIALA IAŞI (RO)

Affiliation: ACADEMIA ROMÂNĂ - FILIALA IAŞI (RO)

Project website: http://archaeoheritage.ro/project/

Abstract:

The main goal of the project is to identify and set up innovative models of good practices, adapted to the local cultural and social-economic specificities, for safeguarding and managing the Romanian UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Since 1972 UNESCO established a frame of protection for cultural and natural heritage (Convention concerning the protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage) and the “World Heritage List”, which it considers as having outstanding universal value. Romania has seven properties part of World Heritage List (one natural and six cultural sites). The reports concerning situation of the WHS in Romania are done periodically, but most are just a formality without any strategic development and sustainable management plans. We consider there is an acute necessity of a national report of evaluation of the UNESCO cultural sites in Romania. There is a significant discrepancy between the visibility and importance given to the sites included in the WHL. These problems could be prevented through better monitoring and management methods, while regional cooperation could be a driver for identifying the best ways to do so at a regional level. Protection of authentic heritage recognised by UNESCO was recently reconfirmed at the 39th Session of the World Heritage Committee in Bonn (2015). The project will deal with multi-disciplinary and multi-perspective approach, developing partnership networks between various institutions from Romania and abroad interested in the project field and transfer of good practices on maintenance, preservation and cultural heritage management, community participation and cooperation with local public administration in order to develop National Strategy and management plans supported by realistic action plans. Only a common and integrated approach will make it possible to enrich UNESCO standards of preservation and maintain the WHS status.

Orbis Romanus and Barbaricum – The nomad Barbarian world (the Sarmatians) around the province of Dacia and its relations with the Roman Empire. Call name: Projects for Young Research Teams - TE-2012 call
PN-II-RU-TE-2012-3-0216 2013 - 2016

Role in this project: Project coordinator

Coordinating institution: ACADEMIA ROMANA FILIALA CLUJ

Project partners: ACADEMIA ROMANA FILIALA CLUJ (RO)

Affiliation: ACADEMIA ROMANA FILIALA CLUJ (RO)

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

Abstract:

The extension of the Roman control north the Danube was a major mutation that led to changes in the habitat structure of the area. Thus, the Barbarian inhabitancy, including that of the nomad Sarmatians, in the regions nearby the Roman frontier suffered many and various cultural, economic and inhabitancy territory changes. The abandonment of Dacia and the penetration in these territories of other populations caused significant changes to the region habitat and the entire previous social structure. The study of the way that the Sarmatians interacted with the Roman civilisation is a less approached subject although contacts between the Roman world and the Sarmatians represented an important historical process in the subsequent evolution of human societies on the European territory. The novelty of this project consists in a complex approach of the theme from the view of the historical development in the region and the attempt to identify certain cultural patterns also applicable to the realities in the regions under analysis. The research of the subject would be carried out also from a modern anthropological and sociological view, which is also a new approach method of archaeology. The expected impact implies for the first time the unitary approach of the nomad world in this region, which is a zone of interaction between several civilisations, but also a region linking the north of the Black Sea to Central Europe.

Roman versus barbarian identity – the phenomenology of acculturation. The case of Roman Dacia and the adjacent barbarian world Call name: Exploratory Research Projects - PCE-2012 call
PN-II-ID-PCE-2012-4-0210 2013 - 2016

Role in this project: Key expert

Coordinating institution: ACADEMIA ROMANA FILIALA CLUJ

Project partners: ACADEMIA ROMANA FILIALA CLUJ (RO)

Affiliation: ACADEMIA ROMANA FILIALA CLUJ (RO)

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

Abstract:

The present research project is focused on the phenomenology of acculturation on two main entities that at the first sight may look in a complete opposition to each other: The Roman Empire and the barbarians beyond the Roman borders.

In the light of new technologies in the field or archaeology and informational devices and programs nowadays the acculturation phenomenology is one of the most requested disciplines in order to understand what actually has happened with the transformation of various historical and ethnical entities from Prehistory to present times.

If for the other areas of the former Roman Europe such a topic is under full research approaches (Germany, Great Britain, France) in Romania this project will be a premiere as nobody else has tried, so far to look deeper at the details revealed by archaeological evidence and different categories of artefacts coming from sites placed on the both sides of the Roman frontier of Dacia (2nd -3rd centuries AD).

The fortunate situation of Romania, to have a part of its territory in the Roman Empire and the other part left to be inhabited by various ethnical groups is an extreme advantage for this project to establish general and specific patterns of acculturation phenomenology not only in regards for the border of Roman Dacia but also to compare with other similar situations in Roman Europe.

Defensive strategies and cross border policies. Integration of the Lower Danube area in the Roman civilization Call name:
CNMP 91-010 Contract, 2007-2010 2007 - 2010

Role in this project: Partner team leader

Coordinating institution: MUZEUL NATIONAL DE ISTORIE A ROMANIEI

Project partners: MUZEUL NATIONAL DE ISTORIE A ROMANIEI (RO); UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI (RO); INSTITUTUL DE ARHEOLOGIE "VASILE PIRVAN" (RO); DIGITAL DOMAIN S.R.L. (RO); ACADEMIA ROMANA FILIALA CLUJ (RO)

Affiliation: ACADEMIA ROMANA FILIALA CLUJ (RO)

Project website: http://www.strateg.org.ro

Abstract:

The project aims at developing an integrated IT system for the collection, analysis, valorization and elevation of the results of archeological research in the Roman provinces covered by the Romanian territory.

The project we submit has three constitutive elements: the research proper on the Roman frontiers (the limes of the Roman Empire), the research integration in an efficient inter-institutional framework and the presentation of the results to both the specialist and general public, that will be attracted through a series of popularizing activities.

The research supposes:

a) the field research phase - obtaining modern measurements (topographic, radar and GPS) of the objectives targeted by the project, as well as their photographs.

b) data processing, that means: 1) assembling a maps, epigraphic, photographic, bibliographic and topographic archive; 2) recording this archive on a digital format, accessible on line

c) the analysis of the data obtained and the presentation of the results in specialized works on a classic format and on line, in seminaries or optional courses at the Faculty of History (Bucharest). Obtaining a series of ample analyses that will be published in the Centre'smonographical series

Prehistoric mining in Transylvania. Archaeological and geological study Call name:
CNCSIS 2004 - 2006

Role in this project: Key expert

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI (); UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI ()

Affiliation: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI ()

Project website:

Abstract:

From the Roman denarius to the Euro. The Roman coinage in Dacia – The pattern of financial ascension to the Roman Europe (2nd – 4th C CE) Call name:
CNCSIS 2004 - 2006

Role in this project: Key expert

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI (); UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI ()

Affiliation: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI ()

Project website:

Abstract:

The aristocracy of the Iron Age from Transylvania in the 1st millennium BCE Call name:
CNCSIS 2005 - 2005

Role in this project: Key expert

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI ()

Affiliation: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI ()

Project website:

Abstract:

Metallurgical paleotechniques within the Central – European context. A case study of the workshops from Transylvania in the 1st millennium CE Call name:
CNCSIS 2005 - 2005

Role in this project: Key expert

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI ()

Affiliation: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI ()

Project website:

Abstract:

Ethnical, cultural and historical interferences in Transylvania Call name:
RO-4096/2001-2002 2000 - 2002

Role in this project: Key expert

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI ()

Affiliation: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI ()

Project website:

Abstract:

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