I am an anthropological archaeologist and bioarchaeologist interested in dynamics of culture change and cultural transmission processes in early prehistory. I received my Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and was a Senior Lecturer at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom until 2017, before joining Columbia University's Italian Academy to work as the PI of the NOMIS Foundation Project on migrations and mobility. Since 2021, I am a RTD-B at the Department of Environmental Biology at Sapienza University of Rome in Italy. My primary foci have been foraging and the first farming societies in the Balkans and in the eastern Mediterranean. I have written about various aspects of mortuary and corporeal symbolism, including the study of personal adornments and representational imagery, mortuary practices, social memory, and household archaeology in prehistoric periods. I am also interested in the integration of science-based methodologies and archaeological interpretation, primarily in relation to bioarchaeology, archaeothanatology, palaeodietary studies, and radiocarbon dating in conjunction with Bayesian statistical modeling.

My published volumes include Archaeology and Memory (2010) and Past Bodies: Body-Centred Research in Archaeology (2008), the latter co-edited with John Robb. My most recent monograph, Deathways at Lepenski Vir: Patterns in Mortuary Practice (2016), explores the role of mortuary data in reconstructing diverse practice-based rituals and perceptions of the living and dead body throughout the Mesolithic and Neolithic use of this iconic site of European Prehistory. Methodologically, the book provides a comprehensive case for the necessity of integrating archaeological and bioarchaeological data. Most recently I acted as the lead editor for two-volume Foraging Assemblages (2021), which represents the proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on the Mesolithic in Europe with over 120 contributions. I have conducted archaeological fieldwork at a number of Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic sites in Serbia, Montenegro, and Croatia, and participated in research projects in Italy, Hungary, Romania, Turkey, and Brazil.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowship, PI, “CUSP: Cementochronology Unravels Seasonality in Prehistory.” Awarded  2019. 

The Nomis Foundation: PI, “On the Move: Prehistoric Mobility and the Spread of Agriculture in Eurasia.” Awarded 2018, Featured in the New York Times

Books

Borić, D., Antonović, D. and Mihailović, B. (eds.) (2021). Foraging Assemblages. Belgrade and New York: Serbian Archaeological Society and the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America, Columbia University.

Borić, D. (2016). Deathways at Lepenski Vir: Patterns in Mortuary Practice. Belgrade: Serbian Archaeological Society.  

Borić, D. (ed.) (2010). Archaeology and Memory. Oxford: Oxbow Books.

Borić, D., and Robb, J. (eds.) (2008). Past Bodies: Body-Centered Research in Archaeology. Oxford: Oxbow Books.

Selected Articles

Cristiani, E. A. Radini, Zupancich, A., Gismondi, A., D’Agostino, A., Ottoni, C., Carra, M., Vukojičić, S., Constantinescu, M., Antonović, D., Douglas Price, T., Borić, D. (in press) Wild cereal grain consumption among Early Holocene foragers of the Balkans predates the arrival of agriculture. eLIfe.     

Borić, D., Cristiani, E., Hopkins, R., Schwenninger, J.-L., Gerometta, K., French, C.A.I., Mutri, G., Ćalić, J., Dimitrijević, V., Marín-Arroyo, A.B., Jones, J.R., Stevens, R., Masciana, A., Uno, K., Korzow Richter, K., Antonović, D., Wehr, K., Lane, C., and White, D. (2021). Neanderthals on the Lower Danube: Middle Palaeolithic evidence in the Danube Gorges of the Balkans. Journal of Quaternary Science (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jqs.3354).     

Ottoni, C., Borić, D., Cheronet, O., Sparacello, V., Dori, I., Coppa, A., Antonović, D., Vujević, D., Price, T.D., Pinhasi, R., and Cristiani, E. (2021). Tracking the transition to agriculture in Southern Europe through ancient DNA analysis of dental calculus. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 118(32):e2102116118.     

Borić, D., Cristiani, E., Pravidur, A., Marić, A., and Whallon, R. (2021). Osseous tools and personal ornaments from the Epigravettian sequence at Badanj. Glasnik Zemaljskog muzej Bosne i Herzegovine. 10.21203/rs.3.rs-209080/v1

Nava, A., Fiorin, E., Zupancich, A., Carra, M. L., Ottoni, C., Di Carlo, G., Vozza, I., Brugnoletti, O., Alhaique, F., Grifoni Cremonesi, R., Coppa, A., Bondioli, L., Borić, D., and Cristiani, E. (2021). Multipronged dental analyses reveal dietary differences in last foragers and first farmers at Grotta Continenza, central Italy (15,500–7000 BP). Scientific Reports 11: 4261. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82401-2     

Biagi, P., Starnini, E, Borić, D., and Mazzucco, R. (2020). Early Neolithic settlement of the Po Plain (northern Italy): Vhò and related sites. Documenta Praehistorica 47: 192–221.

Borić, D., (2019). Lepenski Vir Chronology and Stratigraphy Revisited. Starinar LXIX/2019: 9–60. https://doi.org/10.2298/STA1969009B

Borić, D., Borovinić, N., Đuričić, Lj., Bulatović, J., Gerometta, K., Filipović, D., Allué, E., Vušović-Lučić, Z., and Cristiani, E. (2019). Spearheading into the Neolithic: Last Foragers and First Farmers in the Dinaric Alps of Montenegro. European Journal of Archaeology 22(4): 470–498.

Borić, D. and Cristiani, E. (2019). Taking Beads Seriously: Prehistoric Forager Ornamental Traditions in Southeastern Europe. PaleoAnthropology (Special Issue: Early Personal Ornaments) 2019: 208–239.  doi:10.4207/PA.2019.ART132 http://paleoanthro.org/media/journal/content/PA20190208.pdf

Cramp, J. E., Ethier, J., Urem-Kotsou, D., Bonsall, C., Borić, D., Boroneanț, A., Evershed, R., Perić, S., Whelton, H., and Ivanova, M. (2019). Regional Diversity in Subsistence Among Early Farmers in Southeast Europe Revealed by Archaeological Organic Residues. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 286. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.2347.

Stratton, S., Griffiths, S., Kogălniceanu, R., Simalcsik, A., Morintz, Al., Ştefan, C. E., Dumitraşcu, V., Bronk Ramsey, C., Nehlich, O., Beaven, N., Borić, D., and Whittle, A. (2019). The Emergence of Extra-mural Cemeteries in Neolithic South-East Europe. A Formally Modelled Chronology for Cernica, Romania. Radiocarbon 61(1): 319–346. [corresponding author] https://doi.org/10.1017/RDC.2018.34

Borić, D., Higham, T., Cristiani, E., Dimitrijević, V., Nehlich, O., Griffiths, S., Alexander, C., Mihailović, B., Filipović, D., and Allué, E. (2018). High Resolution AMS Dating of Architecture, Boulder Artworks and the Transition to Farming at Lepenski Vir. Scientific Reports 8: 14221. DOI:10.1038/s41598-018-31884-7    

Borić, D., Hanks, B., Šljivar, D., Kočić, M., Bulatović, J., Griffiths, S., Doonan, R., and Jacanović, D. (2018). Enclosing the Neolithic World: A Vinča Culture Enclosed and Fortified Settlement in the Balkans. Current Anthropology 59(3): 336–346. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/697534

Cristiani, E., Radini, A., Borić, D., Robson, H. K., Caricola, I., Letizia Carra, M., Mutri, G., Oxilia, G., Zupancich, A., Šlaus, M., Vujević, D. (2018). Dental calculus and isotopes provide direct evidence of fish and plant consumption in Mesolithic Mediterranean. Scientific Reports 8: 8147 DOI:10.1038/s41598-018-26045-9.

Mathieson, I., S. Alpaslan Roodenberg, C. Posth, A. Szécsényi-Nagy, N. Rohland, S. Mallick, I. Olade, N. Broomandkhoshbacht, O. Cheronet, D. Fernandes, M. Ferry, B. Gamarra, G. González Fortes, W. Haak, E. Harney, E. Jones, D. Keating, B. Krause-Kyora, I. Kucukkalipci, M. Michel, A. Mittnik, K. Nägele, M. Novak, J. Oppenheimer, N. Patterson, S. Pfrengle, K. Sirak, K. Stewardson, S. Vai, S. Alexandrov, K. W. Alt, R. Andreescu, D. Antonović, A. Ash, N. Atanassova, K. Bacvarov, M. Balázs Gusztáv, H. Bocherens, M. Bolus, A. Boroneanţ, Y. Boyadzhiev, A. Budnik, J. Burmaz, S. Chohadzhiev, N. J. Conard, R. Cottiaux, M. Čuka, C. Cupillard, D. G. Drucker, N. Elenski, M. Francken, B. Galabova, G. Ganetovski, B. Gely, T. Hajdu, V. Handzhyiska, K. Harvati, T. Higham, S. Iliev, I. Janković, I. Karavanić, D. J. Kennett, D. Komšo, A. Kozak, D. Labuda, M. Lari, C. Lazar, M. Leppek, K. Leshtakov, D. Lo Vetro, D. Los, I. Lozanov, M. Malina, F. Martini, K. McSweeney, H. Meller, M. Menđušić, P. Mirea, V. Moiseyev, V. Petrova, T. D. Price, A. Simalcsik, L. Sineo, M. Šlaus, V. Slavchev, P. Stanev, A. Starović, T. Szeniczey, S. Talamo, M. Teschler-Nicola, C. Thevenet, I. Valchev, F. Valentin, S. Vasilyev, F. Veljanovska, S. Venelinova, E. Veselovskaya, B. Viola, C. Virag, J. Zaninović, S. Zäuner, Ph. W. Stockhammer, G. Catalano, R. Krauß, D. Caramelli, G. Zariņa, B. Gaydarska, M. Lillie, A. G. Nikitin, I. Potekhina, A. Papathanasiou, D. Borić, C. Bonsall, J. Krause, R. Pinhasi, and D. Reich (2018). The Genomic History of Southeastern Europe. Nature 55: 197–203. doi:10.1038/nature25778.     

Cristiani, E., Radini, A., Edinborough, M., and Borić, D. (2016). Dental calculus reveals Mesolithic foragers in the Balkans consumed domesticated plant foods. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 113(37): 10298–10303.  

Gurova, M., Andreeva, P., Stefanova, E., Stefanov, Y., Kočić, M., and Borić, D. (2016). Flint raw material transfers in the prehistoric Lower Danube Basin: An integrated analytical approach. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 6: 422–441. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.12.014

Cristiani, E., and Borić, D. (2016). Harpoons from Odmut, Montenegro: Contextual, Technological and Use-Wear Analyses. Quaternary International 423: 166–192. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2015.11.010     

Borić, D., and Griffiths, S. (2015). The living and the dead, memory and transition: Bayesian modelling of Mesolithic and Neolithic deposits from Vlasac, the Danube Gorges. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 34(4): 343–364. DOI: 10.1111/ojoa.12063

Borić, D., French, C.A.I., Stefanović, S., Dimitrijević, V., Cristiani, E., Gurova, M., Antonović, D., Allué, E.A., and Filipović, D. (2014). Late Mesolithic lifeways and deathways at Vlasac (Serbia). Journal of Field Archaeology 39(1): 4–31. DOI 10.1179/0093469013Z.00000000070

Šljivar, D. and Borić, D. (2014). Context is everything: Comments on Radivojević et al. Antiquity 88 (342): 1310–1315. http://antiquity.ac.uk/ant/088/ant0880001.htm

Borić, D., and Price, T.D. (2013). Strontium isotopes document greater human mobility at the start of the Balkan Neolithic. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110(9): 3298–3303. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1211474110

Cristiani, E., and Borić, D. (2012). 8500-year-old garment embroidery from the Late Mesolithic site of Vlasac (Serbia): Technological, use-wear and residue analyses. Journal of Archaeological Science 39: 3450–3469. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2012.05.016