Mariya Ivanova is lecturer in Prehistoric Archaeology at the University of Heidelberg and research fellow at the German Archaeological Institute. She has participated in field projects in Turkey and in southeast and central Europe. She is author of Fortified Settlements in the Balkans, in the Aegean and Western Anatolia, c.5000 2000 BC and has published articles in Prahistorische Zeitschrift, the Oxford Journal of Archaeology and Eurasia Antiqua.