In October Geoff (Senior Zooarchaeologist on COEXIST) travelled to Romania to assess the potential of faunal collections stored at the Vasile Pârvan Institute of Archeology (Bucharest) and the Museum of Human Evolution and Technology in Paleolithic, Targoviste. COEXIST is collaborating with Dr. Cornel Pop (Columbia College, Vancouver, Canada) who has previously worked in the Romania Palaeolithic, Dr. Adrian Balasescu (Institute of Archeology) and Professeur Cârciumaru (Museum of Human Evolution and Technology in Paleolithic).
Together we assessed the collections stored in Bucharest and Targoviste and through correlation with both published and site archive reports were able to identify the layers that would be of potential interest for the COEXIST project. Geoff focused mainly on material from Cioarei Borosteni and selected 60 samples from this sites for ZooMS to assess the species representation and overall representation. During the visit he also selected and sampled bone material from layers at Cioarei Borosteni and Nandru Spurcată to obtain new, high resolution radiocarbon dates, which will be processed and analysed by our PhD student Frankie Tait in collaboration with Dr. Helen Fewlass (University of Bristol). Results of the ZooMS pilot study and radiocarbon dates are expected early in 2025 with a further research trip to Romania with Geoff and Cornel in spring 2025.