Dr Andrea Czermak
Project title: Seeking Seasonality in the Archaeological Record (PI: Professor Rick Schulting)
In this project, we examine how seasonal resource availability influenced prehistoric human adaptation. Specifically, we focus on the impacts on diet, mobility, settlement patterns, and social structures, including gender roles and socioeconomic inequality, particularly in relation to resource storage. We employ time-resolved isotope analyses of human and dog teeth to investigate sub-annual dietary changes, prioritising Northern Europe due to its pronounced seasonal resource availability and well-preserved remains. Key aims include identifying seasonal dietary variations in prehistoric hunter-gatherers and their dogs, linking shifts in diet with mobility and stress markers in dentine and developing models to predict isotopic outcomes of seasonal diets.
Research interests:
Detection and reconstruction of stress and crisis events, subsistence strategies and mobility in times of social and climatic changes in historical and prehistoric times.
Methods: Stable isotope analyses of teeth and bones, sequential dentine microsampling, proteomics, fluorescence microscopy
Geographical areas:
Europe (Germany, France, Spain, Latvia, Sweden, UK), Asia (Siberia, China) and South America (Chile)
Education:
2012 PhD in Anthropology at the Faculty of Biology, Ludwig Maximilian University Munich
2003 Diploma in Biology, Ludwig Maximilian University Munich (Main subjects: Anthropology and Human Genetics, Cell Biology, Neuroscience, and Pharmacology & Toxicology)
Publications:
(*Corresponding author)
Tian H., Olivé-Busom J., Czermak A., Schulting R.J. (2025): “Sequential dentine δ13C and δ15N analysis of Islamic burials from medieval Al-Andalus”. Journal of Archaeological Science. JASC24-357 [accepted].
Velte M., Czermak A., Grigat A., Neidich D., Trautmann B., Lösch S., Päffgen B., Harbeck M. (2023): "Tracing early life histories from Roman times to the Medieval era: weaning practices and physiological stress”. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 15: 190. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-023-01882-6.
Velte M., Czermak A., Grigat A., Haas-Gebhard B., Gairhos A., Toncala A., Trautmann B., Haberstroh J., Päffgen B., von Heyking K., Loesch S., Burger J., Harbeck M. (2023): Between Raetia Secunda and the Dutchy of Bavaria: Exploring Patterns of Mobility and Diet. PLoS ONE 18(4): e0283243. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0283243.
Fernández-Crespo T., Schulting R., Czermak A., Ordoño J., Lorenzo J.I.; Rodanés J.M. (2022): The “post-weanling’s conundrum”: Exploring the impact of infant and child feeding practices on early mortality in the Bronze Age burial cave of Moro de Alins of northeastern Iberia through stable isotope analysis. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 14: 196.
Henderson R, Zarina G., Czermak A., Schulting R.J., Henderson P., Zagorska I., Legzdiņa D., Lee-Thorp J. (2022): Life histories at stone age Zvejnieki based on stable isotope profiles of tooth dentine. Journal of Archaelogical Science: Reports 44: 103496.
Vegh E., Czermak A., Marquez-Grant-N., Schulting RJ. (2021): Assessing the reliability of microbial bioerosion features in burnt bones: A novel approach using feature-labelling in histotaphonomical analysis. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 37: 102906.
Czermak A.*, Fernández-Crespo T., Ditchfield P., Lee-Thorp J. (2020): An anatomically sensitive method for sequential dentine microsampling and age-alignment for stable isotope analyses of human teeth. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 173(4): 776-783.
Czermak A.*, Schermelleh L., Lee-Thorp J. (2019): Fluorescence screening of collagen preservation in tooth dentine. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 532: 109249. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2019.109249.
Lee C.-Y., Lin K.-C., Chen J.; Czermak A. (2020): Dietary history of two human individuals at the Yingpanshan site, Sichuan Province, revealed by carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of serial samples of dentinal collagen. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 30(4): 565–574.
Fernández-Crespo T., Snoeck Ch., Ordoño J., de Winter N., Czermak A., Mattielli N., Lee-Thorp J., Schulting R.J. (2020): Multi-isotope evidence for the emergence of cultural alterity in Late Neolithic Europe. Science Advances 6(4): aay2169. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aay2169.
Czermak A.*, Schermelleh, Lee-Thorp J. (2018): Imaging-assisted time-resolved dentine sampling to track weaning histories. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 28 (5): 535-541. doi: 10.1002/oa.2697.
Fernández-Crespo T., Czermak A., Lee-Thorp J., Schulting R.J. (2018): Infant and childhood diet at the passage tomb of Alto de la Huesera (north-central Iberia) from bone collagen and sequential dentine isotope composition. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 28 (5): 542-551. doi: 10.1002/oa.2659.
