Anastasia Cholakova is a research fellow at the National Institute of Archaeology with Museum – Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, holding a position at the Department of Classical Archaeology. She obtained MA in Archaeology (second subject – History) from Sofia University ‘St. Kliment Ohridski’, with a specialization in archaeology of Roman period and Late Antiquity. Her doctoral project ‘Networks of distribution at the margins of the Empire – late antique glass vessels from the Lower Danube region’ (PhD degree in 2016), as a Marie Curie ESR at the Institute of Archaeology – University College London, was funded by NARNIA (New Archaeological Research Network for Integrating Approaches to Ancient Material Studies) Initial Training Network coordinated by the University of Cyprus. This project combined conventional archaeological artefact study and scientific compositional analysis of late antique glass, aiming at archaeologically and historically meaningful interpretation of the analytical data.
Anastasia Cholakova has steady academic interests in ancient glass studies and archaeometry, with various publications in these fields. Furthermore, the broader focus of her research is on the aspects of interaction between society and raw materials in antiquity, including a particular emphasis on metal production technologies, their anthropological significance and identification in the archaeological record.
Selected publications:
- Cholakova, A., Rehren, Th., Gratuze, B., Lankton, J., 2017. Glass coloring technologies of late Roman cage cups: two examples from Bulgaria. Journal of Glass Studies 59, 117-133.
- Cholakova, A., Rehren, Th, Freestone, I., 2016. Compositional identification of 6th c. AD glass from the Lower Danube. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 7, 625-632.
- Cholakova, A., 2007. Metallurgical production in the earliest site period of Nicopolis ad Istrum. Bulletin of the National Institute of Archaeology 39 (Sofia), 163-184 (in Bulgarian).