BAKOTA Project

14/08/2025

Some new research by Duffy and his Kiel colleagues: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adu0323 And coverage of the work in Science! https://www.science.org/content/article/ancient-europeans-resisted-inequality-5000-years

The introduction of farming, including plow agriculture, did not lead to greater or sustained inequalities in southeastern Europe.

20/06/2025

This week we celebrate the University of Michigan's conferral of a doctoral dissertation and to the completion of journey. Heartfelt congratulations to Dr. Györgyi M. Parditka!! We are so proud!!!

10/05/2023

Recent work by the Körös Consortium at the Bronze Age tell site Békés-Várdomb. See coverage here! https://www.cluster-roots.uni-kiel.de/en/fieldwork-and-activities

05/08/2022

The Körös Consortium had a great season in June working at the Vésztő-Mágor site! See our team's conservation efforts and Duffy's research into plough agriculture here:

Research and restoration campaign in Vésztő-Mágor (HU): Tracing social inequality with charred grain

28/11/2021

Thanks to all for a fabulous (rain free!!) season.

28/11/2021

Having caught up with the unprocessed finds from the Békés 103 excavation, Györgyi and Laci joined the other ‘elders’ to finish collection of the Big Open on the last day.

28/11/2021

BAKOTA superstars Gyorgyi Parditka and Laci Paja also dropped by the Vésztő panzio, bringing three unexcavated cremation urns from the 2019 (pre-pandemic!) excavation at Békés 103. Once again, the Georgia and Kiel students stepped up to painstakingly micro-excavate the Bronze Age urns from the second millennium BC after they had inventoried all the finds from the Big Open.

28/11/2021

Taking our Obi buckets to the 'Big Open'....

28/11/2021

At Békés Várdomb, we focused on three things—magnetometry south of the tell, shovel testing suspicious lidar anomalies in the woods, and surface collection of what Duffy for some reason seemed to be calling “The Big Open”. Our first line of attack was to deploy the courageous students of University of Georgia Athens and Kiel University with Obi buckets to the deep plowed fields. They were buttressed by the indefatigable D.Riebe and B. Ridge and we collected the w***o out of it. The only time we stopped was to take a team photo next to the only tree within about 2 kilometres. There may have been cheesy biscuits involved.

28/11/2021

We began with stop at Vésztő-Mágor to check integrity of the exposed strata at the covered, tell excavation exhibit. Walls have been collapsing and we’re very lucky to have brought in conservators Jerrod Seifert and Ashley Lingle from Cardiff University to help us navigate how to keep the exhibit stable long term.

28/11/2021

Several members of the Körös Consortium (KRAP, BAKOTA, PIPP, and CASP) descended on Vésztő in mid-November 2021 to continue fieldwork and other ongoing projects in the region. Dani Riebe continued her work at the Csökmő tell and Billy Ridge continued with his Copper Age based dissertation. Both helped the Körös Regional Archaeological Project and the BAKOTA project turn their focus on a new comparative tell study trying to understand the timing and collapse of population aggregations on the Great Hungarian Plain (Békés-Várdomb sites pictured over lidar data below).