Mariya Antonosyan
Main Focus
Dr. Mariya Antonosyan is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department
of Archaeology MPI-GEA, in her research she is using traditional
zooarchaeological methods combined with novel proteomics and stable isotope
techniques to explore human-animal interactions, human subsistence economy and
their dwelling environments during key transitional periods of deep history.
She currently leads ‘TRANSArmenia’ project, that aims to investigate human-environment interactions in some key transitional periods of human history: shift to settled lifestyle, rise of social hierarchies, growth of urban centers, emergence of states, and the expansion of empires in the territory of modern Armenia.
Mariya is also engaged in other projects focusing on late
Pleistocene faunal ecology and its relation to climate change and early human expansion
in north America.
Curriculum Vitae
Mariya received a B.Sc.
in Biochemistry and an M.Sc. in Zoology and Conservation from Yerevan State
University, Armenia. In 2021 she completed her Ph.D. in molecular biology in
the Institute of Molecular Biology, National Academy of Sciences of Armenia. Her
Ph.D. dissertation was the first study to apply bulk bone metabarcoding genetic
method to reconstruct Middle to Upper Palaeolithic faunal diversity in the
Caucasus region.
As part of doctoral
research she gained wider experience of working at different lab facilities
such as L. Hirszfeld Institute in Wroclaw, Poland (2018), and Swedish Museum of
Natural History, Stockholm (2019). Her research primarily focused on ancient
and modern DNA research which also ignited her interest in diverse application
of biomolecular proxies, particularly for answering critical question of human
ecology and evolution.
Since 2016, Mariya is
actively involved in the organization of archaeological excavations of Palaeolithic
Karin Tak cave and management of the fossil data collection. Since 2020 she is
leading excavations in Chalcolithic Yeghegis-1 rock shelter in the frames of
TRANSArmenia project.
In 2019 Mariya was
awarded a Best Young Scientist Youth Award by Ministry of Education, Science,
Culture and Sport of Armenia and an excellence Fellowship for PhD research by
the Foundation for Armenian Science and Technology.
Since 2022 Mariya is a Scientific staff representative of the MPI of Geoanthropology in the Human Sciences Section of the Max Planck Society.
Selected Journal
Articles
Antonosyan,
M., Seersholm, F. V., Grealy, A. C., Barham, M., Werndly, D., Margaryan, A.,
Cieślik, A, Stafford, T.W., Allentoft, M.E., Bunce, M., Yepiskoposyan, L. 2019.
Ancient DNA shows high faunal diversity in the Lesser Caucasus during the Late
Pleistocene. Quaternary Science Reviews, 219, 102-111.