Projects

• Ljubljansko barje project

Links

• Documenta Praehistorica
• Neolithic Seminars

© Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana; Last update: 20.2.2006

Prof. Dr. Mihael Budja

tel: +386 1 241 15 70
email:miha.budja@ff.uni-lj.si

Professor Mihael Budja has a BSc in Archaeology from the University of Ljubljana (1976) and a Ph.D. from the Universities of Zadar and Ljubljana (1993). His doctoral research was concerned with archaeological conceptualisation of culture, space and time. He was a teaching assistant at the Department of Archaeology between 1984 and 1994, assistant professor between 1995 and 1999, associate professor between 2000 and 2005 and, since 2006 Professor at University of Ljubljana. He headed the Department of Archaeology for six years (2000-2006). He heads the research program of the Department of archaeology, The Archaeology, and he conducts the project Ljubljansko barje - archaeological landscape in flux. He is one of the co-organiser of the project Alpine Network for Archaeological Sciences, Culture 2000, and in cooperation with Dr. Xiaohong Wu (Peking University) he conducts the project The Early dynamics in Eurasian Palaeoeconomy - The Evidences of Food Production and Food Consumption in Prehistory. He is the editor of the journal Documenta Praehistorica and a member of the editorial boards of the journals The Holocene and Antaeus. He organizes The Neolithic Seminars, international research meetings continuously since 1994.

Professor Budja´s main research interests include hunter-gatherer and farming societies, Eurasian prehistory, the origins of agriculture, the long-term population history of Europe, encompassing archaeology, genetics and cultural identity, cosmology, ritual and social structures of late Mesolithic hunter-gatherers and Neolithic farmers in Eurasia, and landscape archaeology.

Some recent publications

• BUDJA, Mihael. The traditional conceptualisation of archaeological stratigraphy and L. R. Binford's middle-range theory. In: JEZERNIK, Božidar, MURŠIČ, Rajko (eds.). Prejudices and stereotypes in the social sciences and humanities, (Etnološka stičišča, 5; 7), (Razprave Filozofske fakultete). Ljubljana: Znanstveni inštitut Filozofske fakultete, 1997, pp. 65-78. ISBN 86-7207-092-5
• BUDJA, Mihael. Landscape changes in the neolithic and copper ages in Slovenia: case study: the Ljubljansko Barje region. In: CHAPMAN, John, DOLUKHANOV Pavel (eds.). Landscapes in Flux: Central and Eastern Europe in antiquity, (Colloquia Pontica, 3). Oxford: Oxbow books, 1997, pp. 77-88. ISBN 1900188333
• BUDJA, Mihael. Clay tokens - accounting before writing in Eurasia. In: Mihael, BUDJA (ed.) Neolithic Studies 5, Documenta Praehistorica, 1998, Vol. 25, pp. 219-235. ISSN 1408-967X
• BUDJA, Mihael. The transition to farming in Mediterranean Europe - an indigenous response. In: Mihael, BUDJA (ed.) Neolithic Studies 6, Documenta Praehistorica, 1999, Vol. 26, pp. 119-141. ISSN 1408-967X
• BUDJA, Mihael. The transition to farming in Southeastern Europe: perspectives from pottery. In: Mihael, BUDJA (ed.) Neolithic Studies 7, Documenta Praehistorica, 2001, Vol. 28, pp. 27-47. ISSN 1408-967X, ISSN 1854-2492
• BUDJA, Mihael, MLEKUŽ, Dimitrij. GIS support in reconstructing Neolithic flood-plain dynamics : The Ljubljana Moor case. In: SLAPŠAK, Božidar (ed.). On the good use of geographic information systems in archaeological landscape studies : proceedings of the COST G2 WG2 (EUR, COST Action G2, 19708). Luxembourg: European Communities, 2001, pp. 117-126. ISBN: 92-894-0853-7
• BUDJA, Mihael. Neolithisation processes in Southeast Europe. In: GOVEDARICA, Blagoje (ed.). Gedenkschrift Alojz Benac. Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Kunste von Bosnien-Herzegowina, 2002, Sarajevo, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Heidelberg, Band 30, pp. 23-60. ISSN 0350-0020
• BUDJA, Mihael. Review of Slovenian prehistory: Neolithic and Eneolithic studies. In: GRAMMENOS, D.V. (ed.). Recent research in the prehistory of the Balkans, (Publications of the Archaeological Institute of Northern Greece, Nr. 3). Thessaloniki: Archaeological Institute of Northern Greece, 2003, pp. 182-204. ISBN 960-214-072-0
• BUDJA, Mihael. Symbolic systems in the context of transition to farming in Southeast Europe. Pottery and boundaries. In: NIKOLOVA, Lolita (ed.). Early symbolic systems for communication in Southeast Europe, (British Archaeological Reports: International Series, Vol. 1139). Oxford: Archaeopress, 2003, pp. 347-360. ISBN 1841713341
• BUDJA, Mihael. Transition to farming in the Balkans. In: BOGUCKI, Peter, CRABTREE, Pam J. (eds.). Ancient Europe 8000 B.C. to A.D. 1000: Encyclopedia of the Barbarian World. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003, 2003, Vol. 1, pp. 233-239. ISBN 0-684-31421-5/0684314215
• BUDJA, Mihael. Obre. In: BOGUCKI, Peter, CRABTREE, Pam J. (eds.). Ancient Europe 8000 B.C. to A.D. 1000: Encyclopedia of the Barbarian World. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003, Vol. 1, pp. 240-241. ISBN 0-684-31421-5/0684314215
• BUDJA, Mihael. Seals, contracts and tokens in the Balkans Early Neolithic: where in the puzzle. In: Mihael, BUDJA (ed.) Neolithic Studies 10, Documenta Praehistorica, 2003, Vol. 30, pp. 115-130. ISSN 1408-967X, ISSN 1854-2492
• NOVAKOVIĆ, Predrag, LOVENJAK, Milan, BUDJA, Mihael. Osemdeset let študija arheologije na Univerzi v Ljubljani. Ljubljana: Filozofska fakulteta, Oddelek za arheologijo, 2004. ISBN 961-237-077-X
• BUDJA, Mihael. The Neolithisation of the Balkans: where in the puzzle? In: LUCES, Alena, ZVELEBIL, Marek (eds.). LBK Dialogues: Studies in the formation of Linear Pottery Culture, (British Archaeological Reports: International Series, Vol. 1304). Oxford: Archaeopress, 2004, pp. 37-48. ISBN 1841716545
• BUDJA, Mihael. The Neolithisation of South-eastern Europe. In: KNUTSSON, Helena (ed.). Coast to coast – Arrival. Results and Reflection. Uppsala: Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, 2004, pp. 377-418. ISBN 91-973674-9-4, ISSN 1404-1215
• BUDJA, Mihael. The transition to farming and the 'revolution' of symbols in the Balkans. From ornament to entoptic and external symbolic storage. In: Mihael, BUDJA (ed.) Neolithic Studies 11, Documenta Praehistorica, 2004, Vol. 31, pp. 59-82, ISSN 1408-967X, ISSN 1854-2492
• BUDJA, Mihael. Despite many years... Current Anthropology, August-October 2004, Vol. 45, pp. 100-101. ISSN 0011-3204
• OGRINC, Nives and BUDJA, Mihael. Palaeodietary reconstruction of ancient humans: stable isotope approach. Chemical Geology, 2005, Vol. 208, pp. 103-116. ISSN 0009-2541
• BUDJA, Mihael. The process of Neolithisation in South-eastern Europe: from ceramic female figurines and cereal grains to entoptics and human nuclear DNA polymorphic markers. In: Mihael, BUDJA (ed.) Neolithic Studies 12, Documenta Praehistorica, 2005, Vol. 32, pp. 53-72. ISSN 1408-967X, ISSN 1854-2492
• BUDJA, Mihael. The transition to farming and the ceramic trajectories in Western Eurasia: from ceramic figurines to vessels. In: Mihael, BUDJA (ed.) Neolithic Studies 13, Documenta Praehistorica, 2006, Vol. 33, pp. 183-201 ISSN 1408-967X, ISSN 1854-2492
• MLEKUŽ, Dimitrij, BUDJA, Mihael, OGRINC, Nives. Complex settlement and the landscape dynamic of the Iščica floodplain (Ljubljana Marshes, Slovenia).In: Mihael, BUDJA (ed.) Neolithic Studies 13, Documenta Praehistorica, 2006, Vol. 33, pp. 253-271, ISSN 1408-967X, ISSN 1854-2492.
• BUDJA M. 2007. The 8200 calBP ‘climate event’ and the process of neolithisation in south-eastern Europe. Documenta Praehistorica 34: 191-201.
  
• MLEKUŽ, Dimitrij, BUDJA, Mihael, PAYTON Robert and BONSALL, Clive: “Mind the Gap”: Caves, Radiocarbon Sequences, and the Mesolithic–Neolithic Transition in Europe — Lessons from the Mala Triglavca Rockshelter Site – Geoarchaeology: an International Journal 32(3), 2008, 398-416.
• BUDJA M., MLEKUŽ D. 2008. Settlements, landscape and palaeoclimate dynamics on the Ižica floodplain of the Ljubljana Marshes. Documenta Praehistorica 35: 45-54.
  
• MLEKUŽ D., BUDJA M., PAYTON R. BONSALL, C. and ŽIBRAT GAŠPARIČ A. 2008. Reassessing the Mesolithic\Neolithic ‘gap’ in Southeast European cave sequences. Documenta Praehistorica 35: 237-251.
  
• ŠOBERL L., ŽIBRAT GAŠPARIČ A., BUDJA M. and EVERSHED R. Early herding practices revealed through organic residue analysis of pottery from the early Neolithic rock shelter of Mala Triglavca, Slovenia. Documenta Praehistorica 35: 253-260.
  
• BUDJA M., MLEKUŽ D. 2008. The Ižica floodplain and 'pile-dwellings' in prehistory. Arheološki vestnik 59, 459-370.
• BUDJA M. 2009. Early Neolithic pottery dispersals and demic diffusion in southeastern Europe. Documenta Praehistorica 36: 117-137, DOI: 10.4312/dp.36.7
• WENINGER B. et. al 2009. The Impact of Rapid Climate Change on Prehistoric Societies during the Holocene in the Eastern Mediterranean. Documenta Praehistorica 7-59, DOI: 10.4312/dp.36.2
• BUDJA M. 2010. The archaeology of death: from ‘social personae’ to ‘relational personhood’. Documenta Praehistorica 37:43-54. DOI: 10.4312/dp.37.4
• BUDJA M. 2010. The neolithisation of south-eastern Europe: from Y-chromosome dispersals to ceramic figurines. In  D. Gronenborn, J. Petrash (eds.), Die Neolithisierung Mitteleuropas. The Spread of the Neolithic to Central Europe.Internationale Tagung, Mainz 24. bis 26. Juni 2005. RGZM – TAGUNGEN. Band 4. Verlag des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz.  Mainz: 107-139
• BUDJA  M. and Mlekuž D. 2010. Lake or floodplain? Mid-Holocenesettlement patterns and the landscape dynamic of the Ižica floodplain (Ljubljana Marshes, Slovenia). The Holocene 20(8): 1269–1275
• BUDJA M. 2011. In search of past identities. Documenta Praehistorica 38:46-59. DOI: 10.4312/dp.38.4
• BUDJA M. 2011. Early neolithic pots and potters in Western Eurasia. In M. Dizdar (eds), Panonski prapovijesni osviti. Zbornik radova posvećenih Korneliji Minichreiter uz 65. obljetnicu života. Institut za arheologiju, Zagreb, 31-67.