Tena Karavidović is a Research Associate at the Institute of Archaeology since 2025. She obtained her PhD in 2022 from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. During her doctoral studies, she received the Excellence Scholarship awarded within the Postgraduate Doctoral Study of Archaeology (FHSS Zagreb). Her doctoral thesis was completed within the Croatian Science Foundation project Iron production along the Drava River in Antiquity and the Middle Ages: creation and transfer of knowledge, technologies and goods – TransFER (IP–2016–06–5047), supervised by Dr Tajana Sekelj Ivančan, and carried out at the Institute of Archaeology. Her doctoral research focused on iron production technology and the relationship between natural and socio-economic factors that influenced the emergence, development and transformation of metallurgical processes during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages.
Her research interests include iron archaeometallurgy, geoarchaeology and landscape archaeology. She conducts her research from a diachronic perspective, with particular emphasis on the application of morphological analysis of archaeological material, archaeological experimentation, GIS-based spatial analysis, and analytical methods from the natural and technical sciences (mineralogical, geochemical and metallographic analyses). She develops her professional skills through multidisciplinary co-supervision and consultation during her doctoral and postdoctoral research, through active collaboration on projects carried out at the Institute of Archaeology, in cooperation with the Faculty of Science (Department of Analytical Chemistry) and the Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering (Division of Mineralogy, Petrology and Mineral Raw Materials), University of Zagreb, as well as through international scholarships, research stays and specialised workshops.
She has participated in several research projects at the Institute of Archaeology as a doctoral researcher, postdoctoral researcher and collaborator. Notable among these are the Croatian Science Foundation projects TransFER (Iron production along the Drava River in Antiquity and the Middle Ages: creation and transfer of knowledge, technologies and goods; IP–2016–06–5047; 2018–2022), KulturFER (Cultural landscapes of iron metallurgy in the Sava and Drava river basins during Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages; IP–2022–10–1846; 2023–2027) and SirAkt (Synergy of Diversities: Landscape Archaeology and Technological Traditions in Continental and Adriatic Croatia; 2024–2027), funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU (NPOO).
She is the author of several scientific papers and regularly presents her research at national and international conferences. She has served on the organisational and scientific committees of several international congresses and is co-editor of two conference proceedings volumes and one monographic publication.
She has led and participated in numerous systematic and rescue archaeological excavations covering periods from the Mesolithic to the Modern era, as well as in field surveys and remote sensing investigations in collaboration with academic institutions, museums and private archaeological companies. She is actively involved in dissemination activities of wider public interest, including public lectures, workshops and the development of museum exhibitions, among which The Secrets of Iron stands out.
She is a member of the Croatian Archaeological Society, the Centre for Experimental Archaeology, the Global p-XRF Network and CIPA Heritage Documentation (ICOMOS/ISPRS Committee for Documentation of Cultural Heritage).