On December 6th (Friday), 2024, from 11.45 am, at the building of the National Archaeological Institute with Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (Sofia, Atanas Burov Square No 1), Dr. Marek Verčík from the Charles University at Prague, Czech Republic, and Dr. Pero Ardjanilev and Iliya Boshkovski from the Archaeological Museum of the republic of North Macedonia (Skopje) will hold a lecture on the large-scale international project “Frontier Studies”.

The event is part of the two-day lecture program “Archaeological Culture of the Republic of North Macedonia. Lectures of Macedonian Archaeologists and Museum Specialists Within the Frame of NAIM-BAS Academic Seminar” (December 5th – 6th, 2024).

The Archaeological Museum of the Republic of North Macedonia, in cooperation with Charles University in Prague and other partners from the Czech Republic and Germany, has been conducting a series of scientific studies in the Ohrid region for over seven years. These studies are part of the Frontier Studies research project. The primary aim of the international cooperation is to explain the dynamics of the habitation patterns concerning geological, environmental, and socio-cultural changes to address questions regarding the construction of the identities, emergence of proto-state structures, and centralization phenomena at the northern contact zone of the Aegean cultural koine between the Bronze Age and the Late Antiquity. As part of the project, archaeological and epigraphic prospection, aerial photography, satellite and LiDAR-based prospection, geological drilling in surrounding mountains (Pelister, Galičica, Jablanica) and wetlands (Studenčiško blato & Belčiško blato) and finally targeted exploratory excavations at selected sites have been carried out in the districts of Ohrid, Resen, Struga, Vevčani and Debarca.

The event is organized with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria and the Modern Scientific Equipment in Support of Science, Technology, and Culture – INFRAMAT.