Mgr. Lenka Varadzinová, Ph.D.

  lenka.varadzinova(at)ff.cuni.cz
  +420 221 619 614
  Academia

Lenka Varadzinová (Suková) studied Egyptology and Indian Studies (specialization in Hindi) (master’s programme) and Egyptology (doctoral programme) at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague. In April 2015, she defended her dissertation entitled The rock art of Northeast Africa: A case study of rock paintings from the Czechoslovak Concession in Lower Nubia. In 2003–2006, she worked in the Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures in Prague as Assistant Curator of the Department of Prehistory and Ancient History of the Near East and North Africa. Since 2007, she has worked as a researcher in the Czech Institute of Egyptology, investigating the cultural and social developments in northeastern Africa in the early and mid-Holocene. Alongside, she has been processing the epigraphic and archaeological documentation from the UNESCO-organised rescue campaign in Lower Nubia. In 2009, she began fieldwork in the Sudan, where she has directed an interdisciplinary exploration of prehistoric occupation in Jebel Sabaloka in central Sudan and participated in exploration of the Napatan and Meroitic palatial and temple complex at Usli in northern Sudan. Since 2020, she has been engaged as an expert in prehistory of northeastern Africa in the Shaqadud Project focused on cultural adaptations in non-aquatic environments of central Sudan in the early and mid-Holocene (Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague), and in the Biological anthropology and archaeothanatology in central Sudan (CNRS-InEE and University of Bordeaux, in collaboration with the National Museum in Prague).

 

RESEARCH INTERESTS

African prehistory and archaeology, social strategies and evolution, rock art

 

EDUCATION

2008–2015      Ph.D., Czech Institute of Egyptology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University

2002–2008        Mgr., Czech Institute of Egyptology and Institute of Indian studies, Faculty of Arts, Charles University

1997–2001        Bc., Institute of Indian studies, Faculty of Arts, Charles University

 

WORK EXPERIENCE

2007–                  Researcher, Czech Institute of Egyptology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University

2003–2006        Assistant Curator, Department of prehistory and ancient history of the Near East and North Africa, National Museum – Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures

 

RESEARCH PROJECTS (PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR)

2023–2025        Settlement and social networks of early Holocene hunter-gatherers of the Eastern Sahel: the case of Jebel Sabaloka in central Sudan, Czech Science Foundation (project no. 23-06488S)

2017–2019        Communities and resources in late prehistory of Jebel Sabaloka, central Sudan: from analysis to synthesis, Czech Science Foundation (project no. 17-03207S; co-PI: Petra Havelková, National Museum, Natural History Museum, Anthropological Department)

2009–2011      The Rock Art of Northeast Africa in the Context of Landscape and Archaeology, Grant Agency of Charles University (project no. 15009)

 

OTHER RESEARCH PROJECTS (SELECTION)

2020–                  Expert in the international project for Anthropologie biologique et Archéothanatologie au Soudan central, CNRS-InEE, University of Bordeaux and National Museum in Prague, dir. I. Crevecoeur and P. Brukner Havelková

2020–2024        Expert and project manager in the international Shaqadud Project: Alternative forms of cultural adaptation to mid-Holocene desiccation of North Africa, Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, dir. L. Varadzin

2013–2015        Expert in the PAPAVER: Centre for Human and Plant Studies of Postglacial Europe and Northern Africa, Faculty of Science, University of Southern Bohemia, České Budějovice, dir. J. Beneš

 

FIELDWORK AND FIELD TRIPS IN AFRICA

  • Kenya (2025; altogether 5 weeks)
  • Mauritania (2024, 2025; altogether 5 weeks)
  • Namibia (2024; altogether 3 weeks)
  • Sudan (2009–2023; altogether 72 weeks)
  • Libya (2010; altogether 4 weeks)
  • Egypt (2006–2010; altogether 14 weeks)

 

LEADERSHIP IN SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

2017–2025        Supervision of project teams with up to 15 members (see list of grant projects)

2009–2025        Supervision of field archaeological research with up to 15 members

 

TEACHING AND TRAINING

2017–                  University of the Third Age, Faculty of Arts, Charles University

2012–                  Archaeology of the Sudan, Egypt and Nubia, Archaeological theory and interpretation I (with M. Bárta), Czech Institute of Egyptology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University

2012–2023        Training of M.A. and Ph.D. students from Sudanese universities and junior staff of the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums (Sudan) in methods of field archaeological research and documentation during expeditions in the Sudan

 

ORGANIZATION OF SCIENTIFIC SYMPOSIA

2026                     Old finds, new frames: Recent research into the prehistory of north-east Africa, The 16th International Conference for Nubian Studies, Munich, Germany (7–12 August)

2024                     Biological anthropology insights into behavioral and cultural changes, 30th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists, Rome (28–31 August)

2022                     Crafting identities through ceramic practice. Global histories on the origins of pottery technology among foragers, The 9th World Archaeological Congress, Prague (3–8 July)

2008                     Bahariya Workshop, Faculty of Arts, Charles University (9–10 December)

 

SPECIAL INSTITUTIONAL DUTIES

2007–                  Archive administration (Nubia and Sudan), Czech Institute of Egyptology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University

 

EXPERT ASSESSMENTS

2021–                  Reviews of monographs for publishing houses in the Czech Republic

2018–                  Reviews of grant projects at Grant Agency of the University of Southern Bohemia, České Budějovice

2012–              Peer-reviews of manuscript for Czech and international archaeological journals

 

MEMBERSHIP IN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES

2023–              Elected member, International Commission of the Later Prehistory of Northeastern Africa, Poznań, Poland

2020–              Member, Society of Africanist Archaeologists (SAfA), Houston, Texas, USA

2018–                  Member, Sudan Archaeological Research Society (SARS), London, United Kingdom

 

MAJOR INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS

2018–                  Ass. Prof. Isabelle Crevecoeur, biological anthropology of African prehistoric populations, CNRS, University of Bordeaux, France

2018–                  Prof. Stanley H. Ambrose, AMS radiocarbon dating with high resolution, isotope analyses and palaeoecology in the Sudan, Dept. of Anthropology, Univ. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA

2018–                  Prof. Dorian Q Fuller, archaeobotany in the Sudan, Inst. of Archaeology, University College London, United Kingdom

2016–                  Prof. Ikram Madani, botany and ethnobotany in the Sudan, Dept. of Botany, Faculty of Science, University of Khartoum, Sudan

2015–                   Ass. Prof. Elena A. A. Garcea, prehistoric pottery in the Sudan, Dept. of Letters and Philosophy, University of Cassino, Italy

2012–                  Prof. Abbas Mohammed-Ali, prehistory of the Sudan; Universities of Khartoum and Dongola, Sudan

 

EXHIBITIONS

2007–2025        Authorship and co-authorship of 8 exhibitions in the Czech Republic and Egypt

 

PUBLICATIONS

  • Author of 2 scientific monographs
  • Co-editor and co-author of 3 scientific monographs and edited volumes
  • Author of 68 scientific studies and reports
  • Co-author of 3 popular-scientific volumes
  • Outstanding publication achievements: co-authorship of studies in Nature Communications (in press), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A., Journal of Archaeological Sciences: Reports, American Journal of Biological Anthropology, Antiquity and Quaternary Science Reviews

 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Monographs

  • Suková, L. 2011. The Rock Art of Lower Nubia (Czechoslovak Concession). Prague.
  • Suková, L. 2011. The Rock Paintings of Lower Nubia (Czechoslovak Concession). Prague.

 

Edited volumes

  • D’Ercole, G., Garcea, E.A.A., Varadzin, L., Varadzinová, L. (eds). 2024. Early Pottery Technologies among Foragers in Global Perspective: Cultural Transformations through Material Practice. Springer.
  • Strouhal, E. et al. 2020. Wadi Qitna and Kalabsha-South: Late Roman – Early Byzantine Tumulus Cemeteries in Egyptian Nubia, Volume II. Anthropology. Prague (annotated edition of unpublished manuscript, edited by L. Varadzinová and P. Havelková).
  • Bárta, M., Bareš, L., Krejčí, J., Mohamed Megahed, Varadzinová, L. (eds). 2019. Created for Eternity: The Greatest Discoveries of Czech Egyptology. Prague.
  • Dospěl, M., Suková, L. (eds). 2013. Bahriya Oasis: Recent Research into the Past of an Egyptian Oasis. Prague.

 

Studies

  • Kapustka, K., Varadzin, L., Zavřel, J., Varadzinová, L. 2025. Variability Within Quartz Lithic Collections: Creativity Shaped by the Characteristics of the Challenging Raw Material., Lithic Technology 51(2): 118–134.
  • Kapustka, K., Winiarska-Kabacińska, M., Madani, I. M., Pauknerová, K., Varadzin, L., Varadzinová, L. 2026. Wood or Soil? A Functional Analysis of Neolithic Rhyolite Gouges from Central Sudan Using Experimental Archaeology and Use Wear Study. African Archaeological Review (2026).
  • Martin, N., Thibeault, A., Varadzinová, L. et al. 2025. Enamel–dentine junction morphology reveals population replacement and mobility in the late prehistoric Middle Nile Valley. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A. 122(15): e2419122122.
  • Řídký, J., Zavřel, J., Varadzinová, L. et al. 2025. First conclusions on early-middle Holocene ground (sand)stone production in the Eastern Sahel: view from the Shaqadud site complex (north-west Butana, Sudan). Journal of Archaeological Sciences: Reports 62: 104991.
  • Varadzinová, L., Unger, J., Černý, M., Varadzin, L. 2024. Prehistoric rock art of Jebel Shaqadud, north-western Butana (Sudan). African Archaeological Review 41: 47–69.
  • Hošek, J., Hošková, K., McCool, J.-P., Varadzinová, L. et al. 2024. Fossil spring records from central Sudan reveal paleoenvironmental and settlement dynamics in the Eastern Sahel during the last 30 ka. Quaternary Science Reviews 334: 108928.
  • Garcea, E. A. A., D’Ercole, G., Varadzin, L., Varadzinová, L. 2024. Four thousand years of pottery technology by foragers in the Jebel Sabaloka, Middle Nile Valley (Sudan). In: G. D’Ercole, E. A. A. Garcea, L. Varadzin, L. Varadzinová (eds), Early Pottery Technologies among Foragers in Global Perspective: Cultural Transformations through Material Practice, 87–115. Springer.
  • Varadzinová, L., Varadzin, L., Ambrose, S. H. 2023. New radiocarbon dates for postglacial reoccupation of the Sudanese Nile. Quaternary Science Reviews 302: 107953.
  • Brukner Havelková, P., Crevecoeur, I., Varadzin, L., Ambrose, S.H., Tartar, E., Thibeault, A., Buckley, M., Villotte, S., Varadzinová, L. 2023. Patterns of violence in the pre-Neolithic Nile Valley. African Archaeological Review 40(4): 597–619.
  • Varadzinová, L., Varadzin, L., Brukner Havelková, P., Crevecoeur, I., Garcea, E.A.A. 2022. Archaeology of Holocene hunter-gatherers at the Sixth Nile Cataract, central Sudan. Bulletin d’archéologie Marocaine 27: 101–118.
  • Varadzinová, L., Jakoubek, M. 2022. On Food, Pots, Gender, Iron, and Archaeological Theory: Interview with Professor Randi Haaland. African Archaeological Review 39: 113–132.
  • Varadzin, L., Varadzinová, L. et al. 2022. The Shaqadud Archaeological Project (Sudan): exploring prehistoric cultural adaptations in the Sahelian hinterlands. Antiquity 97(391): E2.
  • Varadzinová, L., Varadzin, L. 2020. The first notes on the second Khartoum Mesolithic cemetery at Jebel Sabaloka (Sudan). Archaeologia Polona 58: 121–133.
  • Garcea, E. A. A., D’Ercole, G., Sterba, J. H., Dunne, J., Manning, K., Gillard, T., Evershed, R. P., Varadzin, L., Varadzinová, L. 2020. Technological variability in foragers’ pottery productions at the early-mid Holocene site of Sphinx, western bank of Jebel Sabaloka, Sudan. Quaternary International 555: 110–125.
  • Kapustka, K., Lisá, L., Bajer, A., Buriánek, D.,  Varadzin, L., Varadzinová, L. 2019. Gouges: Iconic Artifact of the Early Neolithic Period in Central Sudan. African Archaeological Review 36: 505–534.
  • Sůvová, Z., Varadzinová, L., Cílek, V., et al. 2018. The production and consumption of ostrich eggshell beads at the Mesolithic site of Sphinx (SBK.W-60), Jebel Sabaloka: view from Trench 2 (2012). In: M. Honegger (ed.), Nubian Archaeology in the XXIst Century, 195–202. Leuven.
  • Varadzinová, L. 2017. The rock art of Northeast Africa: Methodological achievements and perspectives of further research. Journal of African Archaeology 15: 234–255.
  • Varadzin, L., Varadzinová, L., Pacina, J. 2017. From holes to huts: reconstructing an extinct type of architecture at the Sixth Nile Cataract. Antiquity 91: 589–604.
  • Suková, L., Varadzin, L., Bajer, A., Lisá, L., Pacina, J., Pokorný, P. 2015. Tracing Post-depositional Processes at Mesolithic Occupation Sites in Central Sudan: View from the Site of Sphinx (SBK.W-60) at Jebel Sabaloka. Interdisciplinaria archaeologica: Natural Sciences in Archaeology VI: 133–150.
  • Suková, L., Varadzin, L. 2012. Preliminary report on the exploration of Jebel Sabaloka (West Bank), 2009–2012. Sudan & Nubia 16: 118–131.
  • Suková, L. 2011. The “Venus” of Jebel Uweinat (SE Libya). Sahara 22: 117–124.

 

Complete list of publications and further information is available at:

Websites:            Academia.edu                   Publication profiles:        ORCID 0000-0001-7060-8597

                               Researchgate                                                                    SCOPUS 57462069000

Updated 30.4.2026

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