Staff profile

I am a computational and digital archaeologist specialized in agent-based modelling (ABM), GIS and 3D modelling. My main focus is past human–environment interaction across different regions including Europe and Siberia. Currently, I’m working on the ERC project “SSE1K: Science, Society and Environmental Change in the First Millenium CE”. In this project I am developing an agent-based model to investigate human–environment interactions in the Mediterranean.

Education

2019–2025 PhD in Archaeology, Leiden University (Leiden, The Netherlands)

2015–2017 MA in Archeology of North and Central Asia, Novosibirsk State University (Novosibirsk, Russia)

2011–2015 Bachelor’s degree in History, Novosibirsk State University (Novosibirsk, Russia)

• Human-environment interactions
• Agent-based modelling, GIS and 3D modelling
• Landscape Archaeology
• Archaeology of Europe and Siberia

• 2024: Workshop “Advances in modelling past human ecosystems”:
• 2024: Symposium on "Fire in Human Evolution":
• 2024: Internationale Graduiertentagung "Humans and the Landscape(s): An Everlasting Story of Mutual Interactions":
• 2022: Computational and Digital Archaeology Laboratory Series:
• 2021: Higher Seminar in Archaeology:
• 2021: Nick Ryan Bursary Award: The best paper presented at the Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA) conference

Journal Article

• Scales, Sources, and Simulations: Reviewing Studies on Human–Environment Interactions in the Mediterranean from 1000 BCE to 1000 CE
  
  Nikulina, A., Foxhall Forbes, H., & Lawrence, D. (2026). Scales, Sources, and Simulations: Reviewing Studies on Human–Environment Interactions in the Mediterranean from 1000 BCE to 1000 CE. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 33(4), Article 66. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-026-09805-0
• Drought, Conflict and the Use of Historical Data and Methodologies in Interdisciplinary Palaeoclimatic Research
  
  Foxhall Forbes, H., Fafinski, M., Halsall, G., Harland, J. M., Lawrence, D., Clarke-Neish, K., Foxhall, L., Abballe, M., Borroni, M., Lypiridou, I., Manolopoulou, V., Nikulina, A., Sypiański, J., & Fleitmann, D. (2026). Drought, Conflict and the Use of Historical Data and Methodologies in Interdisciplinary Palaeoclimatic Research. Climatic Change, 179(4), Article 73. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-026-04112-9
• On the ecological impact of prehistoric hunter-gatherers in Europe: Early Holocene (Mesolithic) and Last Interglacial (Neanderthal) foragers compared
  
  Nikulina, A., Zapolska, A., Serge, M. A., Roche, D. M., Mazier, F., Davoli, M., Pearce, E. A., Svenning, J., van Wees, D., Fyfe, R., MacDonald, K., Roebroeks, W., & Scherjon, F. (2025). On the ecological impact of prehistoric hunter-gatherers in Europe: Early Holocene (Mesolithic) and Last Interglacial (Neanderthal) foragers compared. PLOS One, 20(10), Article e0328218. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0328218