Dr Petra Vaiglova

Petra Vaiglova is a biomolecular archaeologist focused on exploring the impact of human–animal interactions on ancient landscapes. She is currently developing new ways of extracting chemical signatures from animal teeth to reconstruct the environments in which the animals lived and understand how their lives were impacted by past societies. Her research has contributed knowledge on a range of diverse topics, from the development of farming in Neolithic Greece and Bronze Age China, to the settling of hyper-arid environments during the Byzantine period in the Southern Levant.

During her doctorate studies, Petra was a Clarendon Scholar at the University of Oxford and a Pre-doctoral Fellow at the Malcolm H. Wiener Laboratory for Archaeological Science in Athens. She subsequently worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Haifa, the University of Connecticut, Washington University in St Louis, and Griffith University.

Petra currently serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Archaeological Science. She is particularly keen about statistical reform and has been active in training students and other researchers in moving from statistical significance to more informative estimation science.

Petra enjoys sharing her passion for archaeology and science with the wider public. She gave an invited TEDx talk 'An archaeologist’s view: how connectivity drove our human past’ and was featured on the Science ANU outreach video 'What is the SHRIMP Lab?' She was also spotlighted in a blog post titled 'Meet Petra: Enthusiasm for Archaeology, Open Science, and Better Statistics' on the statistical reform website: thenewstatistics.com.

Supervision:

Petra is currently supervising two students in the Masters of Archaeological and Evolutionary Science (Advanced) program:

Oscar Balla (expected completion: October 2024)
Johanna Evans (expected completion: October 2025)

Teaching:

Current courses:
ARCH3042/6042 Scientific Dating in Archaeology and Palaeoenvironmental Studies (full course)
ARCH8032 Introduction to Archaeological and Evolutionary Science (full course)
ANTH1002 Culture and Human Diversity: Introducing Anthropology (one unit)
ARCH1111 Archaeology Uncovered (one unit)

Previous courses:
BIAN3014 Research Design and Analysis in Biological Anthropology (full course)

Research funding:

2022 New Researcher Grant, Griffith Arts, Education, and Law Group • $20,000 (AUD)
Chief Investigator on project "A new method for understanding how human–animal interactions impacted past environments."

2022 Early Career Researcher Grant Development Award, Griffith Centre for Cultural and Social Research (GCSCR) & Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution (ARCHE) • $6,000 (AUD)
Chief Investigator on project: "New high-resolution technique for investigating human–wild boar interactions."

2022 Early Career Research Support Award, Society for Archaeological Science • $500 (USD)
Chief Investigator on project: "New high-resolution technique for investigating human–wild boar interactions."

2017 Integrated Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Haifa • ILS 80,000
Research fellowship for project: "Using stable isotopes to reconstruct the environment in the Negev Desert during the Byzantine times."

2015 Malcolm H. Wiener Predoctoral Research Fellowship for Archaeological Science, American School of Classical Studies at Athens • $40,000 (USD)
Research fellowship for project: "Understanding Aegean Neolithic Farming using Multiple Isotopes."

2012 Clarendon Fund, Oxford University Press • £68,300 (GBP)
Research studentship for project: "Neolithic agricultural management in the Eastern Mediterranean: new insight from a multi-isotope approach."

2014 Steering Committee Studentship Grant, Natural Environmental Research Council, British Geological Survey • £8,280 (GBP)
Co-Investigator (with Prof Amy Bogaard and Prof Julia Lee-Thorp) on project: "A multi-isotope approach to animal management and mobility at Neolithic Makriyalos and Koufovouno, Greece."

Research collaborations:

Türkiye ‘Spatial Analysis of State Agropastoral Economies’; funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation; with John Marston, Boston University; David Meiggs, Rochester Institute of Technology; Ethan Baxter, Boston College, USA.

Iran – ‘Life of Early Neolithic Boars at Asiab’, Early Neolithic (with Pernille Bangsgaard, Center for GeoGenetics, Denmark; Lisa Yemonas and Tobias Richter, University of Copenhagen, Denmark; Hojjat Darabi, Razi University, Iran)

DPhil (PhD) and MSc in Archaeological Science, University of Oxford, U.K. 
BA (Hons) in Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Canada.