Yannis Chatzikonstantinou

Education

• PhD Candidate in Prehistoric Archaeology and Osteoarcheology. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Department of Archaeology. Thesis title: The effect of fire on the human remains from Koumasa Asterousia tholos tomb B through macroscopic and analytical methods, 2019 - present 
• PhD Erasmus+ internship, Research Associate At VUB, Bioarchaeology Lab, Department of Archaeology and AMGC, Vrije Univeristeit Brussel, Application of analytical methods in archaeological bones, 2022
• MA in Prehistoric Archaeology. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Department of Archaeology (Excellent 9.97/10) MA thesis: Pyrotechnology and the effect of fire in the manipulation of the deceased in the Bronze Age Aegean through experimental approaches (Excellent 10/10),  2016-2019
• Postgraduate Erasmus+ in Human Osteology, Anatomy, Experimental Archaeology and Biological Anthropology. University of Sheffield, United Kingdom. Department of Archaeology, 2016-2017
• BA in History and Archaeology with a specialization in Archaeology and History of Art. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. School of Philosophy, Faculty of History and Archaeology, 2012-2016.

Research topic

My Ph.D. dissertation is about the effect of fire on human remains in Prehistoric Crete through macroscopic and analytical methods. My research interest is about deciphering the funerary practice of cremation and understanding the role of the fire in manipulating the deceased, focusing on three main goals: 1. Identification of the biological attributes of the people whose bodies were subjected to burning, 2. Examination of the taphonomy and macroscopic recording of the thermal alterations on the bone structure due to the burning, 3. Application of analytical methods to record the compositional and microstructural osseous changes of burned bones.

My Ph.D. research is funded by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation. The Research Committee of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki honored me with the Humanities Award of Excellence for my Ph.D. Candidates. I am a scientific member of the Technology and bio-anthropology of the use of FiRe on human remains in the Aegean project, supervised by Sevi Triantaphyllou, and a scientific collaborator of the Koumasa Archaeological Project, directed by Diamantis Panagiotopoulos, University of Heidelberg, Germany.

I am currently working in the Brussels Bioarchaeology Lab of VUB, supervised by Professor Christophe Snoeck, applying infrared measurements (FTIR-ATR), strontium, carbon, and oxygen analyses in archaeological bones from the Early Minoan (3rd millennia BC) cemetery of Koumasa, Crete.