Dr. Efthymia Nikita is a bioarchaeologist studying human skeletal remains from prehistoric to post-Medieval contexts, shedding light on health and disease, diet, activity, demography and other important aspects of life in the past. She has worked across the Mediterranean, with a primary focus on the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa.

Most recently, a central theme in Nikita’s research has been past mobility. She has explored patterns of human movement in the prehistoric Aegean and Byzantine Mediterranean and recently secured funding for a meta-analysis of mobility and its impact in Hellenistic and Roman times. She is increasingly committed to integrating human skeletal data with archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological evidence as well as historical evidence in order to form a more well-rounded view of the past. In addition, she is engaged in refining the available osteoarchaeological methodology for the study of commingled remains, biodistances, and activity markers.

Nikita earned a BA in Archaeology from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and a PhD in Biological Anthropology from the University of Cambridge. She is an Assistant Professor in Bioarchaeology at the Science and Technology in Archaeology and Culture Research Center (STARC), The Cyprus Institute.

Prior to her appointment at STARC, she held post-doctoral posts at the Fitch Laboratory of the British School at Athens and the Malcolm Wiener Laboratory of Archaeological Sciences of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, as well as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship at the University of Sheffield.

Her research has resulted in over 70 articles and book chapters, including the textbook ‘Osteoarchaeology: A Guide to the Macroscopic Study of Human Skeletal Remains’ (2017), published by Elsevier, which received an honorable mention at the Association of American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence (PROSE Awards). She is currently co-Editor in Chief for the second edition of the Encyclopedia of Archaeology (Elsevier), as well as Associate Editor for the Journal of Archaeological Science and Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences.

UPDATE

In June 2022, Nikita published Bare Bones, an open-source textbook introducing children to Osteoarchaeology, which she co-authored.