Ana Barun

Ana Barun Coscia is a Ph.D. student in the anthropology department. Barun engages with diverse datasets including Pleistocene landscapes and cultural materials, to advance our understanding of the peopling of the eastern Adriatic coast during a critical period of transition that saw the spread of the earliest members of our species into Southeastern Europe. She is interested in measuring regional landscape variability expressed in the archaeological record through lithic raw material selection and procurement in order to draw conclusions to what specific sites were used for, if materials were being traded, and how prehistoric humans moved and settled in places in proximity to raw material sources. To learn more about Barun’s research and publications visit her webapge.

In Spring 2023, Barun received travel funding to conduct research through excavating the Neandertal archaeological site of Crvena Stijena, Montenegro to study lithic variability in this coastal area of the Balkans. Artifacts from here will allow the comparison of lithic assemblages from other Balkan sites to place undated and unexcavated sites into a proper sequence for regional analysis of chronological and cultural change, which is directly related to settlement patterns. Learn more in our featured article.

In Spring 2025, Ana received a CISS Summer mini-grant to support the standardization and statistical analysis of lithic assemblage data, both from published sources and newly acquired collections. This synthesis will identify patterns in tool diversity and inter-site relationships, allowing for a broader assessment of technological variability and diachronic change, particularly by contrasting Croatian Middle Palaeolithic Mousterian industries with Upper Palaeolithic blade-based technologies. Learn more in our featured article.