Maik Blättermann studied business management and geography. He is a doctoral fellow in research group A-I and is working with Anton Gass on a tandem project on geoarchaeological landscape reconstruction in Zhetysu, Kazakhstan, which will combine archaeological and geographical results in a single project. This will help improve our understanding of the history of Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age settlement and spatial utilization in the Zhetysu region of southeastern Kazakhstan and of the changes to the landscape and climate that took place in this period.

Friederike Fless is professor of Classical Archaeology at the Freie Universität Berlin. She has been director of the Excellence Cluster Topoi from October 2007 through February 2011. As of April 1, 2011, she was appointed President of the German Archeological Institute as the successor to Hans-Joachim Gehrke. Her current research focuses on the formation and transformation of the Roman frontier on the Crimea as well as the borders of the City of Rome and the walls of the city of Zeugma at the Euphrates.