Interests and methodology of research

Dr Jelena Živković is an archaeologist specialising in the Medieval, Ottoman, and Early Modern periods of the Balkans, the Eastern Mediterranean, and Arabia. Her research integrates archaeological and materials science approaches in studies of ceramics, with a focus on petrographic, chemical, and isotopic analyses of ceramics and glazes. She studies cultural changes initiated with the Ottoman conquest and Islamisation via ceramic production technologies, connectivity among artisans, and transfer of knowledge within communities of practice. Furthermore, she explores the craft organisation of ceramic workshops in urban and rural economies, the traditions of glazing technologies, and the impact of industrialisation on traditional ceramic craftsmanship.

Education

2020 – PhD in Islamic Archaeology, University College London

PhD thesis: Archaeology of Ottomanisation in the Middle Danube region: technological perspectives on pottery production in Belgrade between the 14th-17th centuries

2014 – MA in Archaeology of the Arab and Islamic World, University College London

2011 – MA in Archaeology, Belgrade University

2010 – BA in Archaeology, Belgrade University

Employment

2024 – Research Associate, The Institute of Archaeology

2019 – Postdoctoral Fellow, The Cyprus Institute STARC

Languages

English

Participation in projects

(2019-2024) Byzantine and Ottoman ceramic workshops in the Eastern Mediterranean, funded by A.G. Leventis Foundation (PI Prof. Thilo Rehren).

(2014-2016) Late Islamic ceramics from al-Ain (UAE) funded by Zayed University (PI Timothy Power).

(2009-2011) Židovar silver treasure funded by UCL Institute of Archaeology (PI Thilo Rehren).

Memberships

• European Association of Archaeologists (ЕАА)
• International Association for the Study of Arabia (IASA)

International conferences

Main session organiser:  Shared roads of intertwined communities: shaping points of contact and divide in Islamicate societies at the 31st EAA Annual Meeting (2025); Potting traditions of medieval and post-medieval Eastern Mediterranean at the 2nd International Congress on Archaeological Sciences in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East (2022)

Session co-organiser: Multiple scales in the manifestations of the Islamic at the 30th EAA Annual Meeting (2024)

Conference papers

EAA Annual Meetings (2014, 2021-2024)

International Congress on Archaeological Sciences in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East (2019, 2022)

Congress AIECM3 on Medieval and Modern Period Mediterranean Ceramics (2021, 2024)

Seminar for Arabian Studies (2015, 2024)

International Conference on Byzantine and Medieval Studies (2023)

Global Islamic Archaeology Showcase (2020)

International Association for Ottoman Social and Economic History (2017)

World Archaeology Congress (2016)

Post-Medieval Archaeology Congress (2016)

International Symposium on Archaeometry (2016)

European Meeting on Ancient Ceramics (2015)

Bibliography

Papers in scientific journals

Živković, J., Carvajal López, J., Biezeveld, I. & Döpper, S. in press. The production of Bahlā Ware in the context of Late Islamic Oman. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 54.

Thamnopoulou, A. & Živković, J. in press. The Trikala ceramic workshop: exploring a production centre of Ottoman Greece. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

Živković, J., Raptis, K.T. & Slambeas, P. 2024. From Thessaloniki to Selânik: the long continuity of urban ceramic production in the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 16, 146. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-024-02055-9

Kelepeshi, C. & Živković, J. 2024. Reassembling the pieces, reassessing the picture: an analytical study of medieval pottery (mid. twelfth–sixteenth c.) from Polis Chrysochous, Cyprus. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 16, 8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-023-01909-y

Živković, J., Bikić, V., Georgakopoulou, M. & Carvajal López, J. 2021. Archaeology of craft and artisans in the Ottoman Empire: a case of ceramic production in Belgrade during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 13, 63. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-021-01306-3

Živković, J., Bikić, V., Carvajal López, J. & Georgakopoulou, M. 2021. Ceramic production on the Middle Danube frontier: Belgrade in the 14th and 15th centuries. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.102809

Živković, J., Power, T., Georgakopoulou, M. & Carvajal López, J. Defining new technological traditions of Late Islamic Arabia: a view on Bahlā Ware from al-Ain (UAE) and the lead-barium glaze production. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 11, 4697–4709 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00807-6

Živković, J., Bikić, V. & Georgakopoulou, M. 2017. Archaeology of consumption in Ottoman urban centres: the case study of Iznik ware from the Belgrade Fortress in the 16th and 17th centuries. Post-Medieval Archaeology 51, 1. https://doi.org/10.1080/00794236.2017.1290490

Edited volumes

Carvajal Lopez, J., Živković, J., Al Jawabra A. & Lababidi, R. 2021. Islamic heritage in three peninsulas: Qatar, Iberia and the Balkans. In Walker, B., Insoll, T. and Fenwick, C. (eds.) Oxford Handbook of Islamic Archaeology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199987870.013.31

Živković, J., Rehren, Th., Radivojević, M., Jevtić, M., & Jovanović, D. 2014. XRF characterisation of Celtic silver from the Židovar treasure, Serbia. In Pernicka, E. and Schwab, R. (eds.) Under the Volcano: Proceedings of the International Symposium on the Metallurgy of the European Iron Age held in Mannheim, Germany: 20-22 April 2010. Rahden/Westf.: Verlag Marie Leidorf, pp.157-175.

Databases

Živković, J. 2025. Macroscopic, petrographic, and chemical data on ceramics from the Paphos Gate site in Nicosia, Cyprus. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14742972

Živković, J., Carvajal López, J. C., Döpper, S., & Biezeveld, I. 2024. Bahla ware from Central Oman: Petrological and chemical information of bodies, chemical information of glazes [Data set]. DIGITAL.CSIC. http://doi.org/10.20350/DIGITALCSIC/16704