Photo of Cveček, Sabina

Sabina Cveček, PhD

Visiting Scholar, Field Museum

Anthropology, Archaeology

Pronouns: She/her

About

My interdisciplinary research explores the socio-political organization of non-state societies in eastern Mediterranean prehistory from socio-cultural anthropological perspectives. Based on a qualitative, controlled comparison of archaeological and ethnographic material, I aim at uncovering shared patterns and drawing new insights into prehistoric social organization. My research interests comprise household and socio-political organization, kinship, gender, and cross-cultural perspectives. I am the author of Çukuriçi Höyük 4: Household Economics in the Early Bronze Age Aegean (2022).

 

I am a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellow at the Field Museum of Natural History and the Austrian Academy of Sciences (2023–2026). I hold PhD in socio-cutlural anthropology from the University of Vienna, Austria (2021). Previously, I was a junior researcher at the University of Vienna (2016–2020), visiting researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle/Saale, Germany (2019), and an IFK_Junior Fellow at the International Research Center for Cultural Studies in Vienna (2020/21).

Selected Grants

2023 - European Commission, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowship, X-KIN: Exploring patterns of prehistoric kinship from socio-cultural anthropological perspectives, PI

2023 - Gerda Henkel Foundation, So close, yet so far: Contextualizing non-biological relations in Anatolian and Balkan Neolithic from socio-cultural anthropological perspectives, PI

2020 - Austrian Academy of Sciences, Post-DocTrack Fellowship, Households at the dawn of the Bronze Age: Anthropological contextualizations of local social organization within the Aegean basin, PI

2016 - Austrian Academy of Sciences, DOC-team Fellowship, The Role of Households at the Dawn of the Bronze Age: Contextualizing Social Organization, PI

Selected Publications

Books

Cveček, Sabina

2022          Çukuriçi Höyük 4: Household economics in the Early Bronze Age Aegean, Oriental and European Archaeology 25, Austrian Academy of Sciences Press. https://doi.org/10.1553/978OEAW87332

 

Refereed Journal Articles

Cveček, Sabina

2023          No Place Like Home for Metalworkers: Household-based Metal Production at Early Bronze Age Çukuriçi Höyük and Beyond, History and Anthropology. https://doi.org/10.1080/02757206.2023.2248169

Cveček, Sabina and Christoph Schwall

2022          Ghost Children: Delayed Personhood and Culture-Specific Models of Infancy in Western Anatolia, Praehistorische Zeitschrift 97(2), 544–570. https://doi.org/10.1515/pz2022-2044

Cveček, Sabina

2020          Throwing their Weights around? Anthropological Perspectives on Commodity and Gift Exchange at the Dawn of the Early Bronze Age in Western Anatolia, Ägypten und Levante/Egypt and the Levant 30, 283–300. http://doi.org/10.1553/AEundL30s283

 

Book Chapters

Cveček, Sabina and Barbara Horejs

2021        A View from Çukuriçi: Multiple, Co-Existing Models of Socio-Political Organization in Early Bronze Age Western Anatolia. In: Akkaş, I.; Karakoç, M. (Eds.), Anadolu’da Ethnoarkeoloji Araştırmaları: Prehistorik Dönem’den Günümüze Kadar. Ethnoarchaeological Studies in Anatolia: From the Prehistoric Period to the Present; Istanbul: Duruk Publishing, 466–496.

 

Conference Proceedings

Cveček, Sabina and Stephanie Emra

2021        Rhythms of Seasonal ‘Taskscapes’ at Early Bronze Age Çukuriçi Höyük, In: Rom, I.; Turner, D.; Filioglou, D.; Slim, F.; Beld, Y. van den (Eds.), Breaking Boundaries: Connecting the Aegean Bronze Age: Proceedings of the 3rd Scapecon Conference, TMA Supplement 2. The Tijdschrift voor Mediterrane Archeologie (Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology), 42–49.

Professional Leadership

Co-Chair (2023-2026), Archaeology and Gender in Europe (AGE) network of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA)

Notable Honors

2022, Elected Fellow, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland

2021, Best PhD Thesis, University of Vienna, Vienna School of Social Sciences

Education

Ph.D. Department for Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna, Austria, 2021. Thesis Title: Households at the dawn of the Bronze Age: Anthropological contextualizations of local social organization within the Aegean basin. Adviser: Prof. Dr. Andre Gingrich.
M.A. Department for Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna, Austria, 2015.
B.A. Department for Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2012.

Professional Memberships

Since

2023   SAA – Society for American Archaeology, Member

2023   AIA – American Institute of Archaeology, Member

2022   RAI – Royal Anthropological Institute, Elected Fellow

2021   AAA – American Association of Anthropologists, Member

2021   EAA – European Association of Archaeologists, Member

2020   SIEF – International Society for Ethnology and Folklore, Member

2016   EASA – European Association of Social Anthropologists, Member

Selected Presentations

2023   X-KIN: Exploring Patterns of Prehistoric Kinship from Socio-Cultural Anthropological Perspectives, American Anthropological Association (AAA) Annual Meeting 2023, November 15–19, Toronto, Canada.

2023   Kinship from Cross-Cultural Perspectives: A Mixed Methods Approach to the Seemingly Quantitative Issue, European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) Annual Meeting 2023, August 30–September 2, Belfast, United Kingdom.

2023   Matrilineal/Patrilineal: Diversities within a Single Kinship Model, Kiel Conference 2023 – Scales of Social, Environmental and cultural Change in Past Societies, March 13–18, Kiel, Germany.

2022   Egalitarian, Hierarchical, or Heterarchical Society? Competition and Sharing at the Dawn of the Bronze Age in Western Anatolia, European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) Annual Meeting 2022, July 26–29, Belfast, United Kingdom.

2022   Kinship and Relatedness in Socio-Cultural Anthropology: Yesterday and Today, WAC-9: World Archaeology Congress, July 3–8, Prague, Czech Republic.

2021   Tiny world and Neolithic society: New insight from the house model of Platia Magoula Zarkou/Western Thessaly, Greece, (with Eva Alram-Stern), European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) 2021, September 6 –11, Kiel, Germany (virtual).

2021   Mr. or Mrs. Smith? Metalworking as Gendered Craft in (pre)History?, SIEF 2021: International Society for Ethnology and Folklore, June 19–24, Helsinki, Finland, (virtual).

2021   Ghost Children: Fluid Identities of Children in Prehistoric western Anatolia (with Christoph Schwall), Theoretical Archaeology Group, TAG-Turkey III, May 6–9, Ankara, Turkey (virtual).

2020   Negotiation and Interaction in EBA Çukuriçi Höyük: Differing Solutions to Competing ‘Scapes' with the Beginning of Rising Inequality (with Stephanie Emra),  Scapecon 2020. No (E)Scape? Relational Archaeology in the Aegean Bronze Age, September 22, 29, and October 6, Groningen, Netherlands (virtual).

2020   Toxic Households: Arsenical Copper Production at the Centre of the House, Royal Anthropological Institute, Anthropology and Geography: Dialogues Past, Present and Future, September 14–18, London, United Kingdom (virtual).

2018   Social Dynamics at the Dawn of the Bronze Age: Archaeo-anthropological Insights from Western Anatolia (with Maria Röcklinger), VANDA: Vienna Anthropology Days, September 19–21, Vienna, Austria..

2017   Two EBA Trade Models between Anatolia and Aegean in late Early and Middle Bronze Age: Some Analyses of Finds through Cross-Cultural Comparison, Graduate Archaeology at Oxford, March 10–11, Oxford, United Kingdom.