Jonna Bügenburg is a geoarchaeologist whose work brings to INASIA a landscape-based perspective on human adaptation in the Palaeolithic. Her research connects sediments, raw materials, spatial patterns and environmental change to better understand how past human groups moved through, used and responded to their surroundings.
In the project, Jonna focuses on raw material provenance and landscape adaptation in Central Asia during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic, with particular attention to Kiik Kamar Cave in Uzbekistan. By combining geochemical and petrographic methods with spatial analysis and landscape reconstruction, she investigates where stone raw materials came from, how they were selected, and what this can reveal about mobility, technological choices and the use of the wider landscape.
Her work gives INASIA a crucial perspective on the relationship between people, resources and terrain. By tracing the geological origin of raw materials and placing archaeological evidence within reconstructed landscapes, Jonna helps the project explore how Palaeolithic groups navigated Central Asian environments and adapted their behaviour to local conditions.
Education & Research
Jonna holds an MSc in Archaeological Sciences and Human Evolution from the University of Tübingen, where she specialised in geoarchaeology, geochemistry and related archaeological sciences. Her Master’s research focused on reconstructing landscape development and human–river interactions at the Early Holocene site of Movila Lui Deciov in Romania. She also completed a BSc in Physical Geography at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, with a minor in geology and palaeoenvironment.
Before joining INASIA, Jonna gained research experience at the Senckenberg Institute for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment in Tübingen and at the Soil and Geomorphology Laboratory of Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. Her work focused on geoarchaeological and geochemical analyses, including sediment studies and laboratory-based investigations of environmental archives.
She has also participated in international archaeological and geoarchaeological field projects in Europe and South America, contributing to excavation, landscape survey geoarcheological research.
Link to ResearchGate