Mia
Lempiäinen-Avci
Areas of expertise
Biography
- Title of Docent in archaeobotany in 2025 (University of Turku)
- PhD in archaeobotany in 2019 (University of Turku)
- I am an audited forensic botanist.
Between 2016 and 2019, I worked as an archaeobotanist at the Archaeological Museum of the University of Stavanger, Norway, where I participated in large-scale excavations and environmental analyses. For most of my career, I have worked as a grant-funded researcher in projects supported by the Academy of Finland and several private foundations.
My current position is as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Biodiversity Unit, University of Turku, and a Research Coordinator in the Human Diversity Consortium at the same university. My research affiliations also include the Department of Archaeology (University of Turku), the Department of Archaeology (University of Tartu, Estonia), the Archaeological Museum (University of Stavanger, Norway), and the Niedersächsisches Institut für Historische Küstenforschung (Germany).
Teaching
- Archaeobotany course at the University of Tartu in Estonia (2025->).
- Archaeobotany course at the University of Turku for geology students (2012-2021).
- I supervise Master's theses and review them.
Research
My research focuses on the history of economic plants, cultivation, agriculture and biodiversity. My research spans from Neolithic to the Middle Ages, approached through both archaeology and archaeobotany. Geographically, my work spans Fennoscandia and the Baltic region, with additional comparative studies in Greece and Italy. I employ a wide range of analytical methods, including genetic and isotopic analyses, to investigate the history of cultivation and plant use in Finland, Estonia, and Norway. My studies have examined plant remains from Neolithic wetland sites, medieval rural villages and graves, diet and consumption patterns at archaeological sites, wood species used in medieval sculptures and coffins, waterlogged plant material from shipwrecks, and botanical evidence in forensic investigations.