BrainMap

Mrs. Mihaela Asăndulesei

Dr.

Scientific Researcher III - UNIVERSITATEA "ALEXANDRU IOAN CUZA" IASI

Researcher

I am Scientific Researcher III in the Department of Social Sciences and Humanities, Interdisciplinary Research Institute, "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University from Iași. I completed my doctoral studies in the field of history in 2017. I was a member of several research projects with national funding (2014-2022) and during my doctoral studies I also benefited from two scholarships . The main areas of research addressed are: ethnoarchaeology, toponomastics, cultural anthropology of salt and interdisciplinary research methods in archaeology. I am directly interested in the complex analysis of existing relationships between natural resources, archaeological data, historical data and the behavior of human communities, but also in the comparative study between historical, toponymic, linguistic information and the information resulting from my own ethnographic investigations.

Curriculum Vitae (23/06/2023)

Expertise & keywords

Settling Selection Patterns and Settlement Layout Development in the Chalcolithic Cucuteni Culture of Northeastern Romania Call name: P 1 - SP 1.1 - Proiecte de cercetare pentru stimularea tinerelor echipe independente
PN-III-P1-1.1-TE-2019-2232 2020 - 2022

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA "ALEXANDRU IOAN CUZA" IASI

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA "ALEXANDRU IOAN CUZA" IASI (RO)

Affiliation: UNIVERSITATEA "ALEXANDRU IOAN CUZA" IASI (RO)

Project website: https://www.archaeolandscapes.ro/

Abstract:

Although there is a long history of research concerning the last great Eneolithic civilisation of Old Europe, the Cucuteni-Trypillia cultural complex, at only a handful of sites has archaeological research completed a comprehensive planimetric image. This makes it impossible to determine a typological evolution of the internal organization of Cucutenian sites, both diachronically, across the three great phases of the culture (A, A-B and B), and spatially, from Southeastern Transylvania to the Republic of Moldova, and towards the steppes of Ukraine. Accordingly, many essential behavioural aspects of Cucutenian communities, in certain environmental conditions, are far from understood.

A number of recent integrated non-invasive investigations have introduced into the scientific circuit novel and original research directions in support of the theory whereby the internal spatial organization of the circular mega-sites from the Rep. of Moldova and Ukraine has its origins in Northeastern Romania. Thus, the main objective of the project proposed is to further develop and refine this theory. As such, the generalisation and integration of non-invasive prospecting methods — LiDAR, aerial photography, earth resistivity, magnetometry, and their integration through GIS — represents a feasible alternative for this purpose. These complementary investigation methods will be applied for a number of case studies from different chronological phases, located in the Moldavian Plateau on different landforms types, emphasis being put on the conjoint use of the datasets obtained from each technique.

Among the innovative characteristics of this project are the considerations on the intra-site spatial organization, the typology of the fortification systems, the confirmation of the existence of ritual or delimitation ditches, and of the presence of habitations outside the delimited/fortified areas.

The Ethnoarchaeology of Salt in the Inner Carpathian area of Romania Call name: P 4 - Proiecte de Cercetare Exploratorie
PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2016-0759 2017 - 2019

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA "ALEXANDRU IOAN CUZA" IASI

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA "ALEXANDRU IOAN CUZA" IASI (RO)

Affiliation: UNIVERSITATEA "ALEXANDRU IOAN CUZA" IASI (RO)

Project website: http://ethnosalro.uaic.ro/ethnosalro3/

Abstract:

The Inner-Carpathian area of Romania has the highest potential of Europe for ethnoarchaeological research on the preindustrial civilisation of salt. This area harbours some of the most representative and best preserved European archaeological sites related to the continuous exploitation of rock salt and salt-spring brine from ca. 3500 BC until present. Archaeological investigations revealed a prehistoric technique of salt exploitation unique in the world — the so-called “trough technique”. Aside from this, the communities of this area still maintain traditional behaviours related to the exploitation of salt springs and salt outcrops. An ethnoarchaeological investigation of this still living phenomenon creates the premises for a complex understanding of the exploitation of salt in pre- and proto-history, opening new lines of interpretation and issuing new hypotheses. If Romania is the only country in Europe in which preindustrial exploitation of salt is still being carried out on a wide scale, Transylvania and Maramureș are the centrepiece in this regard. The central scope of the project is to produce a complete ethnoarchaeological referential on salt, based on complex interdisciplinary research. Continuing two previous projects (cf. ethnosal.uaic.ro and ethnosalro.uaic.ro), this project will produce, both in terms of the integrated methodology and of the area covered, the world's first ever ethnoarchaeological research on salt, in one of the richest saliferous regions of the world. The implementation of this project will open unexpected opportunities to capitalise the ethnoarchaeological potential of other resilient areas in emergent or even developed countries. The complete ethnoarchaeological referential provided by this project will have an appreciable impact on scientific paradigms in the fields of world archaeology and ethnoarchaeology.

Non-destructive approaches to complex archaeological sites. An integrated applied research model for cultural heritage Call name: Joint Applied Research Projects - PCCA 2013 - call
PN-II-PT-PCCA-2013-4-2234 2014 - 2017

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA "ALEXANDRU IOAN CUZA" IASI

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA "ALEXANDRU IOAN CUZA" IASI (RO); ACADEMIA ROMÂNĂ - FILIALA IAŞI (RO); ARHEO MANAGEMENT SRL (RO)

Affiliation: UNIVERSITATEA "ALEXANDRU IOAN CUZA" IASI (RO)

Project website: http://arheoinvest.uaic.ro/research/prospect/

Abstract:

The assertion of the new paradigms in the archaeological research during the second half of the last century, paved way to new means of analysis of natural and anthropical inhabited in times past, on local or regional level. Their profound and inherently interdisciplinary nature was emphasized by numerous collaborations between archaeologists and scientists from other field of research, many of them designed to underline the interdependence relationship of mankind towards the environment.

Presently, within the scientific milieu dedicated to archaeology, it is universally accepted that the archaeological sites are more than ever being endangered by the natural factor, but, more importantly by the human factor. As a result of their activity, archaeologists are nowadays fully aware of this real problem, aknowledging the necessary use of new investigation methods borrowed from archeometry. A wise management of the national cultural patrimony aligned to the concept of CRM-cultural resources management, intensely used and applied worldwide, forces the scientific community to employ modern techniques of analyzing the archaeological sites, which can be a non-destructive pattern of research suited for all historical cycles.

In other words, the main objective of this project aims at developing and implementing a functional model of applied research based on integrating and improving of non-destructive techniques, while understanding and valuing the complexity of prehistoric archaeological sites.

The choice in limiting the research area at the eastern part of Romania, the Moldavian Plateau, lies in the incredibly rich archaeological potential, which was, until now, rather unequally and insufficiently investigated. This territory, marked by a complex landscape, with diverse forms of relief arranged into a natural and organic geographical unit, represented an auspicious frame for the presence and development of human communities; as a result there is an uninterrupted habitation starting with the dawn of human civilization, from early paleolithic (approximately 700.000 BC – 120.000 BC) until present time.

We consider that deciphering and analytical interpretation of the geo-systemic balance from the area through a careful selection of a few prehistoric sites, that are going to be attentively researched using topographic and archaeological cartography, aerial photography, the analysis of spectral images, terrestrial tridimensional scanning and geo-physics prospections (magnetometry with cesium steams and fluxgate, GPR-ground penetrating radar technology, soil resistivity and electrical tomography) is essential. The unified interpretation of results obtained through GIS, using specific analysis, will decisively contribute to the perception of settlements landscape, as well as to understanding the mechanisms of occupying the land in Prehistory, and obviously offer precious data regarding the relantion between human-environment, inherently to any appropriate interdisciplinary archaeological study.

In direct connection with the ideas mentioned above, we will consider the identification, evaluation and monitoring the endangered sites, either by natural or human factors, based on the same unified research model, made up of methods and principles also mentioned above. Moreover, a careful examination of the geomorphological and morphometric features and especially of the dynamics of the erosive processes only completes the obtained information body, which will represent the basis of a predictive model based on coherent and relevant information for this type of research. During the final stage of the project, we will focus on developing a strategy of revaluation and tourism management, mainly in the virtual medium for the prehistoric archaeological sites.

The Ethnoarchaeology of Salt Springs and Salt Mountains from the extra-Carpathian zone of Romania Call name: Exploratory Research Projects - PCE-2011 call
PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0825 2011 - 2016

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA ALEXANDRU IOAN CUZA IASI

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA ALEXANDRU IOAN CUZA IASI (RO)

Affiliation: UNIVERSITATEA ALEXANDRU IOAN CUZA IASI (RO)

Project website: http://ethnosalro.uaic.ro/

Abstract:

This ethnoarchaeological project on salt – a primordial reference of humanity – represents a world premiere approach from the methodological perspective and as spatial extension. Starting from an original Romanian study of 1992, it continues the researches carried on by a Franco-Romanian team since 2003 and those within a Romanian Idei CNCSIS (2007-2010) exploratory project. This approach was tested on the eastern Sub-Carpathian area of Romania, with impressive results. The extension of the researches to the whole extra-Carpathian area is justified by the exigencies specific to a saturated model. Unlike the previous project, the researches take into account – besides salt springs – salt mountains/cliffs; the correlations between their exploitations are thus systematically analyzed for the very first time in the world. The research has as purpose two main axes: identifying salt springs and salt mountains/cliffs and the adjacent archaeological vestiges, and ethnological investigations through spatial analysis. These data modelled and interpreted in all dimensions, corroborated with the available ancient and medieval sources, will constitute a solid referential (valorising a unique situation in Europe) anywhere in the world where there are archaeological traces of salt exploitation, but not followed by current non-industrial practices. The researches will underline the universal invariants, without omitting the idiographic behaviours.

FILE DESCRIPTION	DOCUMENT
List of research grants as project coordinator or partner team leader
Significant R&D projects for enterprises, as project manager
R&D activities in enterprises
Peer-review activity for international programs/projects