Sonja Kačar

Dr. Sonja Kačar is a prehistoric archaeologist and Research Fellow at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAI), specializing in lithic analysis. She currently conducts her JESH-funded project on Balkan-Adriatic social interactions during the Early Neolithic under Prof. Barbara Horejs and Dr. Michael Brandl, following her Irish Research Council fellowship at University College Dublin.

Her academic qualifications include:

• Diploma in Philosophy and Archaeology (2008) from the University of Zagreb
• MA in Prehistoric Archaeology (2012) from the University of Toulouse II
• PhD (2019) from the University of Toulouse and University of Zagreb (joint supervision)

Her research centers on Southeast European prehistory with emphasis on lithic analysis and technological innovations during the transition from hunter-gatherer to farming societies. She employs holistic approaches to Neolithisation processes across the Upper Palaeolithic to Chalcolithic periods, integrating archaeological theory, environmental change studies, and experimental methods to investigate social networks and cultural migrations throughout the Mediterranean and Balkan regions.

Her major recognitions include:

• Irish Research Council Fellowship (2021-2023) for research on Southeastern Europe's last hunter-fisher-gatherers
• JESH Grant for current Early Neolithic social interactions project

Dr. Kačar has secured significant research funding for projects examining cultural transitions in prehistoric Southeast Europe, including co-directing excavations at Konjevrate (2018) and Jakasova (2023) in Croatia. Her fieldwork spans over a decade of international collaboration as a lithic specialist across rescue archaeology and academic excavations.

She operates within the ÖAI's Research Group "Prehistoric Phenomena", contributing to interdisciplinary investigations of prehistoric phenomena through active participation in international research networks and excavation projects focused on the Adriatic and Balkan regions.