ICUB invites you to a double event: the 39th and 40th ArchaeoSciences Seminars, delivered by Dr. Arwa Kharobi and Dr. Kévin Salesse, from Masaryk University

The Research Institute of the University of Bucharest (ICUB) invites you to a double event: the 39th and 40th ArchaeoSciences Seminars. Guest speakers are Dr. Arwa Kharobi and Dr. Kévin Salesse from Masaryk University.

Dr. Arwa Kharobi will talk about “Buried Truths: Case Studies from Mesopotamia, Levant and Nile Delta” and Dr. Kévin Salesse will present the conference “Troubled Waters: Investigating Fish Consumption in Ancient Rome through Isotopes”.

The event will take place on Thursday, April 17, 2025, from 10:30 to 13:30, at the Botanical Garden “Dimitrie Brândză” of the University of Bucharest, 32 Șos. Cotroceni, Administrative Building, Bucharest.

She will present “Buried Truths: Case Studies from Mesopotamia, Levant and Nile Delta” talk. In this lecture, we journey in the Bronze Age cities from Urkesh, the Hittite capital in Syria, to Avaris, the Hyksos capital in Egypt, passing through Sidon on the Lebanese coast. Using a multi-faceted approach that integrates archaeothanatology, paleopathology, and dental anthropology, we uncover key phases of each settlement, providing insights into various aspects of past lifestyles, including diet, mobility, and social dynamics. At Urkesh, combining biological and archaeological data from skeletal remains in the funerary space reveals a diversity of burial practices potentially linked to biological and social status. These include jar burials, associations with fireplaces, and intentional animal deposits. In Avaris, the analysis of stress markers on dental and skeletal remains suggests early-life stress within a specific population segment. This has been suggested to be connected to socio-political changes and migration, as corroborated by isotope analysis and other archaeological evidence. These findings change the debates in Egyptology surrounding the origins of the Hyksos, which has long considered external investors in the region. At Sidon, our study examines weapon-associated burials to identify patterns beyond funerary traditions, investigating potential connections to occupation and elite status. The skeletal remains, likely belonging to high-status males of the warrior elite, were analysed using paleopathology, activity markers, stable isotope analysis, and non-metric dental traits. This research challenges the notion of warrior identity, questioning whether it represented a defined social status or a functional role within society.

The 40th ArchaeoSciences seminar, entitled “Troubled Waters: Investigating Fish Consumption in Ancient Rome through Isotopes”, presented by Dr. Kévin Salesse will take us on an intriguing journey through food histories in the Roman era. During the 1stand 2nd centuries AD, Rome sustained a population of one million through a carefully regulated food supply. While its inhabitants had access to a wide array of foodstuffs from across the Roman Empire and beyond, staple foods were primarily sourced from the city’s hinterland or regions with efficient transport links to the capital – at least, according to historical accounts. But what perspective does isotope bioarchaeology offer? In this presentation, we will synthesise current isotopic evidence on dietary practices in imperial Rome, particularly emphasising the consumption of aquatic resources. Though still relatively scarce, we will discuss the challenges and limitations of the available data, including concerns about baseline reliability and modelling approaches. These issues will be examined in light of newly obtained isotopic data from individuals interred in Region X of the Catacombs of Saints Peter and Marcellinus.

The event will take place according to the following schedule:

• 10:00–10:30 – Arrival of participants
• 10:30–10:40 – Intro to AS seminars
• 10:40–11:20 – ArchaeoSciences Seminar #39 – Dr. Arwa Kharobi
• 11:20–11:40 – Q&A session
• 11:40–12:00 – Coffee break
• 12:00–12:40 – ArchaeoSciences Seminar #40 – Dr. Kévin Salesse
• 12:40–13:00 – Q&A session
• 13:00–13:30 – Meet & Greet with the guest speakers over coffee in the pleasant setting of the botanical garden

Dr. Arwa Kharobi is a bioanthropologist with extensive field excavation experience in Syria, Kurdistan, Jordan, Morocco, France, Belgium, and Czech Republic. She applies archaeothanatology to maximise data collection in the field before shifting to laboratory analysis, where she focuses on dental anthropology and a multi-sampling, multi-method, non-destructive approach to study Bronze Age populations in the Levant, Mesopotamia, and the Nile Delta. Recently, she was awarded the Cobb Grant from The American Association of Biological Anthropology and is currently leading an experimental study on osteocalcin in ancient bones to examine stress as a biomechanical marker in human skeletons. Arwa teaches Human Osteology, Dental Anthropology, and Field Methods at Masaryk University, Department of Anthropology (Czech Republic). She also coordinates the Bioarchaeology Liaison Group within ARWA (The International Association for Archaeological Research in Western & Central Asia).

Dr. Kévin Salesse is a science-driven archaeologist specialising in biological anthropology and biogeochemistry. His research has significantly advanced our understanding of dietary behaviours, human migration patterns, and cultural interactions in the Roman world (including Roman catacombs and Pompeii), primarily through isotopic methods. As the principal investigator of the ongoing transMUtation project, funded by the prestigious MASH Junior grant, he is pioneering innovative bioarchaeological approaches (isotopic, paleoproteomic and microscopic methods) to the study of cremation practices in the Czech Republic and beyond. He currently leads the Isotope Laboratory at the Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University. Dr. Salesse is also the founder and director of IsoArcH, the world’s largest open-access standardised database for isotope research in bioarchaeology, fostering collaboration and data sharing across the discipline.

The University of Bucharest organises the event under the project “Regional Centre for Career Orientation and Counselling in Research – Bucharest-Ilfov – from Pre-University Education to Advanced Research” (SciResCareer), contract 760032/23.05.2023, funded under PNRR/C9/Investment “I10 – Establishing and financially supporting a national network of eight regional career guidance centres as part of the ERA TALENT PLATFORM.”

These seminars are an original initiative of the ArchaeoSciences Platform (ASp) within ICUB, designed to provide a space for professionals in archaeological sciences from around the world to share knowledge and insights on the latest issues, methods, and approaches in studying the past. They also offer Romanian students the opportunity to explore the interdisciplinary aspects of archaeology.