This interdisciplinary project aims to provide a new way of learning from the past about strategies used in the South-Eastern part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to overcome social tensions as a potential legacy of intercultural dialogue in the present European context. It will explore how in the multilingual imperial space of intensive cultural exchange and economic mobility the interethnic and social tensions were shaped by (trans)-intercultural communication and practices, both from above and from below. It focuses on accounts of plural belongings and hybrid identities that are geographically grounded, socio-economically situated and embedded in cultural and linguistic practices manifested by multilingualism and intercultural competence of social scripts and behaviour. The project will cover spatially and regionally confined patterns of interaction in the Croatian part of Istria, and the cities of Pula and Zadar under direct Habsburg influence and in the cities of Rijeka and Zagreb, politically bound to the Hungarian part of the Empire during the period 1870-1918. The main strains of research will focus on uncovering discourses produced through three social spaces, those of institutions (administration and education), associations (cultural, sport), and those visible in everyday life, through consumption practices and tourism. The analyses will encompass social practices in different domains of life, symbolic system (focusing on language) and the use of artifacts, or material life. The specific objective is to provide a contrastive reading of Austro-German, Italian and Slavic sources illuminating both the established discourses of knowledge production, emanating from imperial centres of Vienna and Budapest, and the counter-discourses, and their reception by common people in the periphery.

The proposed project is aimed at archaeological research of four cave sites in the Lim Channel, Istria, where previous small-scale excavations and field survey documented human habitation during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene. It is expected that this work will provide data for understanding a number of important issues regarding behavioral and possibly biological aspects of human groups during a time when Late Glacial hunter gatherers were forced to change and adapt to a changing environmental and other pressures. Presence of Mousterian artefacts at one of the sites, and Upper Paleolithic tool types at another suggests two populations (i.e. Neandertals and anatomically modern humans) were present in the region during the Late Pleistocene. Data from the proposed excavations may provide a basis to test some of the highly debated questions regarding the relation of biological population to behavioral aspects (e.g. whether Neandertals or anatomically modern humans were responsible for Early Upper Paleolithic, is there a sharp distinction in behavior and anatomy between these groups etc. Furthermore, at one site early Mesolithic is documented, while at another Late Mesolithic is present, allowing similar issues regarding behavior and other aspects to be tested, including issues related to the transition to Neolithic (agricultural) lifestyle. A comparison of data between all four sites could provide us with a basis for testing of issues related to changing life ways, land use, movement patterns, site use, biological aspects (similarities and differences), contact zones, mobility, continuity, etc. at times of changing climatic and environmental conditions and thus help us to understand this crucial time period, in particular, and how humans respond to such changes, in general. Results from the project will also provide a basis for development of archaeology–based tourism and thus directly benefit the local community and Croatian economy in the long run.

Svrha ovog projekta jest istražiti kompleksan set bioloških, društvenih i kulturnih promjena i procesa koji su se odvijali na području Hrvatske između ranog neolitika i kasnog brončanog doba (6000.-1000. god. pr. Kr.) kroz sveoubuhvatno multi- i interdisciplinarno istraživanje ljudskih bioloških ostataka koje kombinira klasične arheološke i bioarheološke metode s najsuvremenijim tehnikama kao što su analize stabilnih izotopa i drevne DNA, radiološke i geometrijsko-morfometrijske analize, radiokarbonsko datiranje i mikroCT skeniranje. Istraživanjem će biti obuhvaćeno 20 prapovijesnih arheoloških nalazišta iz svih krajeva Hrvatske s 400 kostura (300 kosturnih i 100 paljevinskih ukopa). PASTLIVES projekt će obraditi slijedeća istraživačka pitanja: a) populacijska kretanja, demografija i društvena organizacija; b) populacijska genetika; c) prehrana i opće zdravlje; d) namjerno nasilje i sukobi. Spomenuta pitanja biti će proučavana kroz korištenje dva glavna pristupa: a) regionalni, i b) temporalni, tj. projekt će uvidjeti postoje li regionalne i kronološke razlike u određenim biološkim pokazateljima kao što su prosječna životna dob, očekivani životni vijek, prehrana i opće zdravstveno stanje između proučavanih prapovijesnih populacija. Uz to, dobiveni podaci usporedit će se na temelju spola te dobnih i socijalnih skupina kako bi se provjerilo je li neka od ispitivanih kategorija bitno utjecala na kvalitetu života analiziranih osoba. Kako bi se dobio još bolji uvid u istraživane fenomene rezultati dobiveni ovim istraživanjima usporedit će se sa sličnim podacima iz Mađarske. Predloženi pristup će omogućiti bolje razumijevanje i dobivanje jasnije slike o različitim aspektima prapovijesnog života (i smrti) kao što su populacijska struktura, pogrebne prakse i običaji, pojava nasilja, prehrana, mobilnost i seobe na području Hrvatske ali i u širem europskom kontekstu.