Davor Bulić, PhD, Principal Investigator

Associate Professor at the Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities, Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, where he teaches several courses in ancient archaeology and ancient history. He is a researcher at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Landscape Archaeology at the Faculty of Humanities in Pula. His research activities are focused on various aspects of Istria’s ancient past, including the broader Adriatic and Mediterranean context. His primary scientific interest lies in Roman rural architecture in Istria and its associated transformations of economic, social, and spiritual life, as well as the consequent changes to the landscape during the Early Roman and Late Antiquity periods in Istria.

Prof. Robert Matijašić, Phd

Tenured full professor at the Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities, Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, and the head of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Landscape Archaeology. His primary areas of interest include the economic history and archaeology of the Roman period in Istria, the Adriatic, and the Mediterranean, as well as other related topics. A collaborator on several domestic and international projects, he led a Croatian Science Foundation project focusing on landscape archaeology.Katarina Gerometta, PhD

Katarina Gerometta, PhD

Assistant professor at the Department of Archaeology, and researcher at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Landscape Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities, Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, where she teaches courses in geoarchaeology, methodology, landscape archaeology, and prehistory. Her research topics include human paleoecology, particularly in the fields of environmental and landscape archaeology, with a specialization in geoarchaeology. She has received training in archaeological micromorphology of soils and sediments through courses and workshops at universities in Pisa, London, Tübingen, and Cambridge. She has participated in numerous archaeological and geoarchaeological investigations in Croatia, Italy, Serbia, France, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Slovenia.

Prof. Fabian Welc, PhD

Director of the Institute of Archaeology at UKSW, head of the Department of Cultural Heritage Management, Landscape Archaeology, and Non-Destructive Archaeology. He is an archaeologist, geologist, and geophysicist by training, specializing in geoarchaeological research, with a particular focus on the impact of climate on ancient human cultures and civilizations during the Holocene. He specializes in non-invasive archaeological site investigations using ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and magnetic methods. He is the author and co-author of numerous publications on geoarchaeological research conducted both domestically and internationally. He has carried out geoarchaeological studies at numerous sites in Poland, Italy, Lithuania, Croatia, and Egypt.

Ana Konestra, PhD

She is a Research Associate at the Institute of Archaeology in Zagreb. Her scientific interests focus on ceramic materials, particularly their production and distribution in the northern Adriatic, approached from a multidisciplinary perspective and within the context of production landscapes. Her research also includes archaeological landscapes, specifically environmental changes and the organization of Late Antique rural areas in the eastern Adriatic. She has gained international experience as an external collaborator on a research project at the University of Macerata and during research stays in Rome and Bologna. She collaborates with domestic researchers and museum institutions on numerous projects involving material analysis and fieldwork. Additionally, through partnerships with the University of Bologna and Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw, she co-directs three field research projects.

Dolores Matika, MA

She completed her master’s degree in history at the Juraj Dobrila University of Pula and Archaeology at the University of Zadar. After graduation, she undertook a one-year professional training through the Erasmus+ internship program in the field of archaeobotany (identification of seeds/fruits, wood, and charcoal) at the Institute of Archaeology of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Ljubljana. She has participated in numerous terrestrial archaeological field investigations in Croatia and Slovenia, as well as underwater excavations in Croatia. Her research focuses on archaeobotany from terrestrial and underwater sites, particularly from the Roman period.

Kristina Gergeta Sotončić, MA

She is employed as a trainee curator-archaeologist at the Rovinj-Rovigno City Museum. In her previous work, she has been involved in cultural heritage protection as a member of the Conservation Department in Pula and has conducted field archaeological research, primarily in the Istrian region. She has furthered her expertise by participating in an international project with colleagues from France and through study stays in Aix-en-Provence and Rome. Her scientific interests focus on ancient architecture, with an emphasis on urban residential architecture and construction techniques used in the Roman period.