Bisserka Gaydarska currently works in the Scientific Daring team for Historic England. She completed her MA in Archaeology at Sofia University before winning a PhD in Archaeology at Durham University. She has been a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow for three projects and a Research Assistant on a further three projects.
Dr. Gaydarska’s research centres on the integration of archaeological theory and scientific analysis with materials from the Neolithic and Chalcolithic of Central, South-East and Eastern Europe. Her research themes span landscape archaeology, site-based interpretations, household assemblages and the study of specific finds categories, such as figurines. She has made major contributions to the sub-field of fragmentation in archaeology, especially with Bulgarian assemblages from Dolnoslav, Varna and Durankulak. Her academic research on gender archaeology is also related to her work in the public domain, as co-chair of “Archaeology and Gender in Europe”. She has made recent ground-breaking contributions to prehistoric urbanism in her work on “Early urbanism in Europe. The Trypillia megasites of the Ukrainian forest-steppe” (2020). She has also co-authored the Cambridge Elements book on “Megasites in prehistoric Europe” (2022).
Recent publications:
- Gaydarska, B., & Chapman, J. 2022. Megasites in Prehistoric Europe: Where Strangers and Kinsfolk Met (Elements in the Archaeology of Europe). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009099837;
- Gaydarska, B., Millard, A., Buchanan, B. & Chapman, J. (2023) “Place and time at Trypillia mega-sites: towards a new synthesis of analyses and social theory”. Journal of Urban Archaeology 7: 115 – 146;
- Gaydarska, B., Rebay-Salisbury, K., Ramírez Valiente, P., Fries, J., Hofmann, D., Augereau, A., . . . Harris, O. (2023). “To Gender or not To Gender? Exploring Gender Variations through Time and Space”. European Journal of Archaeology, 1-28. doi:10.1017/eaa.2022.51;
- Coltofean-Arizancu, L., Gaydarska, B., Plutniak, S., Mary, M., Hlad, M., Algrain, I., Vandevelde, S., Pasquini, B., Janežič, P., Stamataki, E., Sengeløv, A., and Wouters, B. 2023. “Harassment, assault, bullying and intimidation (HABI) in archaeology: a Europe-wide survey”. Antiquity 97(393), pp. 726–744. doi:10.15184/aqy.2023.58;
- Gaydarska, B. 2023 “There is method in the madness – or how to approach fragmentation in archaeology”. In Sörman, A., Noterman, A. A. & Fjellström, M. (eds.) Broken bodies, places and objects: new perspectives on fragmentation in archaeology. London: Routledge, 103 – 123;
- Chapman, J and Gaydarska, B. 2023. “The meaning of deliberate figurine fragmentation: Insights from the Old and New Worlds”. In Miniaci, G. (ed) Breaking Images: Damage and Mutilation of Ancient Figurines. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 14-50.
- Fries, J.E., Gaydarska, B., Ramírez Valiente, P., Rebay-Salisbury, K. 2023. “Feminist Archaeology”. In: Nikita, T. Rehren – E. (Hrsg.), Encyclopedia of Archaeology. Amsterdam.