News from the Field 2023

city of Prishtina, capital of Kosova. He was accompanied by his wife, Sylvia, who co-directed their research project from 2018 to 2021. The project, Regional Archaeology in the Peja and Istog Districts of Kosova (RAPID-K), is an intensive survey focused on the western portions of the country. He was also accompanied by his son, Danny, who attended the American School of Kosova. Danny played for his neighborhood soccer club, Flamurtari. While in Prishtina, Mike managed to lay the groundwork for publication of the RAPID-K survey.

In September he organized and co-chaired a session on Balkan prehistory at the annual meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) in Budapest, Hungary. Later that month, he hosted a study season in Prishtina, which brought in specialists from across Europe to analyze RAPID’s pottery and chipped stone. The resulting report is on the publication schedule for the Museum press. Chapters are being written by graduate students Erina Baci and Zhaneta Gjyshja.

In November, Mike spoke at an international conference on Balkan archaeology hosted by colleagues in Prishtina.

In April, he was a guest speaker at the Austrian Institute of Archaeology in Vienna. The year culminated in the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the University of Michigan and the Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Sport of Kosova, outlining an additional four years of archaeological fieldwork in the country, this time focused on excavation. All in all, Mike had a very productive sabbatical, but he is also excited to be back home in Ann Arbor, directing UMMAA.

Serbia

Graduate student Iride Tomažič spent her summer finishing the field portion of her dissertation. In May she excavated at the archaeological site of Crna Bara Prkoš. There, with the help of her Serbian collaborators and fellow U-M graduate student Drosos Kardulias, she excavated two test pits, cleared the profile, did LIDAR of the site, and collected samples for her dissertation. After the successful field season at Crna Bara Prkoš, she joined the ongoing excavations at Rabe Anka Siget in June.