Mobility Report: Renata Šoštarić at the University of Cambridge

I conducted my short-term mobility at the University of Cambridge (McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, George Pitt-Rivers Laboratory for Bioarchaeology) from May 27th till June 12th 2017. My hosts were Preston Miracle and Martin Jones and they made arrangements for my additional specialization in archaeobotany.

During my two weeks long stay in Cambridge I had several short individual courses. Jennifer Bates gave me basic introduction into potential, identification, sample processing, literature and reference collection of phytoliths. Cynthia Larbey organized short, intensive, individual course of parenchyma. We also analyzed small parenchyma sample I brought from Croatia. Margarita Gleba introduced me into textile and fibre analysis. Both, Cynthia Larbey and Margarita Gleba gave me possibility to join them in analyses of sample by SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) from different archaeological sites. It was very useful to see organization and position of the referent collections (phytoliths, seed, parenchyma and herbarium collection) for forming the similar reference collection in Zagreb the future.

Beside these activities I also visited several lectures and seminars (Marianne Hem Eriksen /University of Cambridge/ – The longhouse of Iron-Age Scandinavia: Death, commemoration, and infant deposition; Matthew Spriggs /The Australian National University/ – Second Leverhulme Lecture 2017- Different but similar? Neolithic colonisation processes on islands and continents compared; Miriam Cubas, /University of York/ – Early pottery in the Atlantic Coast of Europe: An approach from organic residue analysis; Tiago Hermenegildo /University of Cambridge/ – Field and forest: A stable isotope overview of resource use in ancient Amazonia), participated in lab meetings and met several experts for possible future collaborations.