Historical Archaeology Research Group

Reichenau

About us

Innsbruck is home to one of the few chairs for Historical Archaeology in the German-speaking world. The Historical Archaeology Research Group focuses on the last roughly 1,500 years of human history.

We do not practice Historical Archaeology primarily as an epoch-defined discipline, but rather as a methodological mindset: through the critical synthesis of material, written, and visual sources, we explore past lifeworlds from the Early Middle Ages to the present day in (Central) Europe. Global perspectives are just as relevant to our work as local research.

Interdisciplinary cooperation with sister disciplines—such as history, empirical cultural studies, material sciences, or geoinformatics—is just as important to us as close collaboration with individuals, communities, and heritage institutions in the regions where we conduct our research.

We understand Historical Archaeology as a critical study of the past that can provide well-founded food for thought for today’s challenges, while remaining fully aware of the social responsibility of our research and its impact on contemporary society.

Our research foci

  • Social archaeology of historical and contemporary power relations and inequalities
  • Identity formation and material space
  • Historical cultures of death and burial / Historical Thanatoarchaeology
  • Conflict archaeology
  • Archaeology and sensitive heritage of modern mass violence and persecution
  • Historical-archaeological methodology (integrated historical source analysis, heritage sciences, geoinformatics)
  • Critical archaeology
  • Community archaeology

Team

  • Barbara Hausmair (Professor of Historical Archaeology, Head of Research Group)
  • M. Bianca D’Anna  (Post-Doc, project TAGS)
  • Stefanie Heim (University Assistant, PhD candidate, project Function and Meaning of Medieval and Early Modern Cemetery Chapels in the Eastern Alps)
  • Michael Hölzl (project member, project KLANG2)
  • Florian Messner (Post-Doc, Project-PI, project KLANG2)
  • Paul A. Moser (student assistant, project TAGS)
  • Jennifer Portschy (PhD candidate, IFK/ÖAW-DOC project “Bioarchaeological Approaches to Childhood, Motherhood and Infant Care in Early Medieval Upper Austria”/ bioarchaeologist, project MIDO-STEIN)
  • Harald Stadler  (Professor of Medieval and Modern Archaeology (retired), project associate, project KLANG2)
  • Tommy Theine (PhD canidate, project TAGS)
  • Zoltan Tüttö (student assistant, project TAGS)

 

Projects

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