First North Pontic Steppe Populations in the Balkans. A bioarchaeological outlook of Cernavoda I communities in the Lower Danube Basin (Romania)
Project title: First North Pontic Steppe Populations in the Balkans. A bioarchaeological outlook of Cernavoda I communities in the Lower Danube Basin (Romania)
Acronym: BioArhSteppe
Project code: PN-IV-P1-PCE-2023-1899
Contract: 77PCE/2025
Funding line: P4 – Fundamental and frontier research. Exploratory research projects (PCE)
Financial support: Executive Unit for Financing Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation (UEFISCDI)
Implementation period: 36 months (01/07/2025 – 30/06/2028)
Coordinating institution: University of Bucharest, ArchaeoScineces Division of the Research Institute of the University of Bucharest (ICUB)
Project description:
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.
Objectives:
Our proposal is a triple multi-analytical approach (archaeology, bioarchaeology, and molecular archaeology) that will focus on the faunal and vegetal background at the end of Eneolithic (Copper Age or Chalcolithic) in southeaster Romania with a particular focus on food chain, paleoeconomy, anthropogenic pressure on landscapes, paleoclimtic impact, human diet, health, mobility and lifestyle characteristic of the Cernavodă I culture.
Deliverables:
- Online database of available data, project website, theoretical analysis, statistical approach, and quantification models, reports.
- Geo-spatial database, maps, sites evolution models, sample database, field & labs reports, statistical data.
- Bioarchaeology database -anthropology, archaeozoology, vegetation-, field & labs reports, statistical data.
- Stable isotopic database, field & labs reports, statistical data.
- Minimum 6 articles in Web of Science/Scopus/CNCS A indexed journals, minimum 14 presentation at national or international conferences, 2 workshop/seminar an 1 volume regarding the topics tracked by the project
Members:
| Project director | grade/responsible | Public profile |
| Valentin Radu | researcher/archaeozoology | https://www.brainmap.ro/public-profile-899956 |
| Members | ||
| Adrian Bălășescu | researcher/archaeozoology | https://www.brainmap.ro/adrian-balasescu |
| Cătălin Alexandru Lazăr | researcher/archaeology | https://www.brainmap.ro/catalin-alexandru-lazar |
| Mihaela Cristina Iacob | PhD student /anthracology | https://www.brainmap.ro/mihaela-cristina-iacob |
| Ana García-Vázquez | postdoctoral student/stable isotopes analyses | https://www.brainmap.ro/ana-garcia-vazquez |
| Sandu Gabriel Vasile | postdoctoral student / physical anthropology | https://www.brainmap.ro/sandu-gabriel-vasile |
| Petra Coman | Master student / stable isotopes analyses | https://www.brainmap.ro/petra-coman |
| Mihaela Golea | PhD student/carpology | https://www.brainmap.ro/mihaela-golea |
| Aurélien Tafani | postdoctoral student / stable isotopes analyses | https://www.brainmap.ro/aurelien-tafani |
| Bogdan Radu Manea | PhD student/archaeology | https://www.brainmap.ro/bogdan-radu-manea |
| Florin Vlad | researcher/archaeology | https://www.brainmap.ro/public-profile-82236241 |
| Sebastian-Valeriu Dumitrescu | PhD student/ archaeology and stable isotopes analyses | https://www.brainmap.ro/sebastian-dumitrescu |
Results:
Scientific report 2026
Scientific report 2027
Final scientific report BioArhSteppe 2025-202
Contact
University of Bucharest
Panduri Street 90, Bucharest, Sector 5, postal cod 050663, Romania
Tel. 004021.307.73.02
Fax 004021.313.17.60
e-mail: office@g.unibuc.ro
Project director: Dr. Valentin Radu, email: valentin.radu@icub.unibuc.ro
Project officer: Oana Ciortan, email: oana.ciortan@cdi.unibuc.ro










