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A joint project with Andreja Sironić, Ruder Bošković Institut, Croatia is dedicated to the question of mortar analyses of archaeological monuments in the Mediterranean climate regions. The project (2024-2025) is funded by Austria’s Agency for Education and Internationalisation (OeAD) and Croatian Ministry for Science and Education.

Archaeological monuments and sites along the Croatian coast hold valuable historical information, but also challenges in terms of accurate dating, especially those with a simple ground plan and without any (preserved) decoration. To address this challenge, our project proposes a comprehensive approach that combines archaeological and mortar radiocarbon analysis. While mortar analysis have been used to date individual monuments in Croatia, they had not been utilized in a larger study considering both archaeological and methodological aspects of radiocarbon dating. The area of the ancient city of Osor will serve as a prime example for the research. The project will focus on two main areas: Firstly, to characterize the mortar composition and identify any regional variations and secondly, to assess the state of mortar deterioration in relation to sea salt content and carbonate recrystallization. The project’s outcomes seek to establish a standardized methodology that can be applied to other similar monuments. By doing so, we hope to benefit also archaeological research and facilitate a broader discussion on archaeological monuments along the Mediterranean coasts.

A project “Osor beyond the myth”, in cooperation with Martina Blečić Kavur, University of Primorska, Slovenia, has taken on the task of creating a state-of-the-art study of a small ancient city employing a variety of disciplines from archaeology, geology and anthropology. The project is funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and Slovenian Research Agency. Over the three years (2023-2026), more than 20 researchers from Slovenia, Croatia, the USA and Austria will focus primarily on the question of how Osor determined the Adriatic shipping routes in the Iron Age and Roman times. Project results and news can be found on the project website.

The driving factor in the project is a demand for a combined approach that can actually do justice to the cultural, landscape and marine aspects of the site across the border between the land and the sea.

Archaeology is characterised by the fact that it uses science, engineering and innovation to increase our understanding of societies, civilisations and their development. Traditionally, the study of archaeology has revolved around artefacts and settlement remains in the landscape, which were arranged in typological tables based on evolutionary presumptions or observed through stratigraphy. In recent decades, these preoccupations became less important and absolute dating created the skeletons of past cultures. Interconnectedness and long-distance trade between communities became the focus of research and previously spatially limited cultural phenomena (in the cultural-geographic sense of the word) became intercultural actor’s embedder into networks of flow and exchange of tangible goods, knowledge concepts and religious practices. Observing the archaeological record of island communities, we have to document the changes and continuation of local identities and economic practices of past communities as reflected in their material culture, manipulation with material culture and the deceased, land-use and settlement organisation. This way, models can be created, which allow for a comparison with neighbouring regions – islands in the Mediterranean.

Mortar in the Mediterranean climate regions

How to analyse an entire city?

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