Deniz Kaya, PhD

Deniz Kaya was born in Sofia. In 2005, she obtained her Bachelor's degree in Anthropology from San Jose State University, USA. She studied Anatolian archaeology and art history at Bilkent University in Ankara, where she earned a Master’s degree. In 2021, she received a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Notre Dame, USA. Her research interests focus on social relationships and organization in prehistoric societies, as well as bioarchaeological methods of analysis. Since 2016, she has participated in excavations in Bulgaria, Turkey, the USA, and the Caribbean.
She has been part of the team studying the prehistoric salt-production and urban center at Provadia-Solnitsata since 2014. For her archaeological work, she has received the ISLA Grant 4 on several occasions. She also participates in a Bulgarian-American project investigating the salt trade routes from Provadia-Solnitsata.