Anja Frank

The project “Towards a new European Prehistory (RISE II)” is a large 6-year cross-disciplinary project lead by Professor Kristian Kristiansen at Gothenburg University (Sweden), and in which Professor Karin Margarita Frei is co-PI and leads the Sr part of the project that deals with Bronze Age Denmark and the Mediterranean. The RISE II is supported by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond in Sweden. The project investigates the big transformations in European Prehistory between the end of the Mesolithic until the Iron Age by combining ancient DNA, isotopic tracing, historical linguistic and archaeology to investigate migration and mobility and to determine how new migrating groups interacted with existing populations. Part of this project utilises Sr isotopes to constrain the movement of prehistoric individuals, by comparing the Sr isotope ratio of their respective teeth and/or petrous bone to modern environmental Sr values (baselines). Anja Frank uses her expertise in environmental sciences and geochemistry to map and constrain variations in environmental Sr ratios within the Mediterranean (Greece and Spain) to establish regional reference baselines suitable for archaeological provenancing. This postdoc project is housed at the National Museum of Denmark and acts as a collaborative partner of the “Tales of Bronze Age People” project.