Participation by projects

A millennium-long settlement crisis? In-depth archaeological and geoarchaeological studies of the final Stone Age and the Early Metal Age (2500 BC to 500 BC) in Eastern Baltic

(ongoing 2025-2029)

The project investigates a poorly understood period in Estonian prehistory marked by a significant decline in archaeological visibility between 2200 and 1200 BC. This find-scarce millennium, also reflected in southern Finland and northern Latvia, raises the question of whether a genuine settlement crisis occurred and what environmental or cultural factors may have driven it. The research combines archaeological and geoarchaeological methods to compile and analyse both existing and newly discovered data, aiming to build a statistically grounded and spatially explicit understanding of settlement dynamics during this time. Within the project, my role centres on location choice and environmental modelling, using spatial data and predictive frameworks to identify potentially suitable areas for settlement, assess environmental constraints, and guide future fieldwork toward the most promising locations for uncovering traces of this elusive period.

Estonian Roots: Centre of Excellence for transdisciplinary studies on ethnogenesis and cultural diversity

(ongoing 2024-2030)

The Estonian Roots Centre of Excellence supports a transdisciplinary initiative aimed at understanding the ethnogenesis and cultural dynamics of Estonians through a synthesis of archaeology, genetics, linguistics, and folklore. By integrating multiple lines of evidence, the project seeks to illuminate long-term processes of population formation, migration, and cultural transformation in the region. Within this framework, my work focuses on applying complexity science and an information-theoretical approach to the available data, helping to bridge diverse datasets and analytical traditions. This involves mapping the data, work on formal tools to trace patterns, assess informational structures, and explore emergent dynamics across disciplinary boundaries—ultimately contributing to a deeper and more integrated understanding of Estonia’s deep past.

PaleoMIX

(ongoing 2023-2025)

The PaleoMIX: Nurturing Heritage Science with Novel Bioarchaeological Methods in the Eastern Baltics project aims to bridge humanities and natural sciences by connecting experts from the Eastern Baltic and Western Europe to implement cutting-edge bioarchaeological research methodology for the study of tangible heritage. By establishing a Research-Innovation Hub on Tangible Heritage Studies at the University of Tartu, the project seeks to ensure sustainable handling of tangible heritage and improve access to the excellence of heritage sciences. As part of the project team, I am working the setup of the ARHUT data infrastructure and ensuring its seamless integration with other project activities.

Public delivery:

DISSINET

(2022-2026, involved till 2025)

The DISSINET project (Dissident Religious Cultures in Medieval Europe from the Perspective of Social Network Analysis and Geographic Information Systems) focuses on the study of religious dissent in medieval Europe. It is hosted at Masaryk University's Centre for the Digital Research of Religion.
I am researching the inquisitorial records utilising spatial and network analysis and exploring geographical aspects of inquisitional projects and dissident groups.

Public delivery:

EstTerra

(2022-2027, me in 2024)

The EstTerra project is about Estonia in 1100–1400: native society, traditions, and culture in the time of changes.

The interdisciplinary project, based on archaeological, written, and visual sources, studies processes and developments in Estonia during the transition from prehistory to the Middle Ages (1100–1400) with a focus on native society, traditions, and culture. The research concerns both continuity and post-crusade innovations – their character, extent, and origins. The project explores the medieval shift of power in Estonia from local rulers to European conquest. My role includes analyzing archaeological and historical data to better understand the processes and factors that contributed to this significant transformation in Estonian history.

DHH

(2017-2022)

I completed my PhD research at the University of Luxembourg's Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C2DH) Digital history and hermeneutics project. The central aim of the project was to form a “trading zone” between these different fields to explore how the emergence of digital research technologies and infrastructures impacts the practices of historical research. My PhD research focused on developing a conceptual framework of the spatial adaptive settlement systems in archaeology, based on complexity science methodology and socio-ecological systems framework. I explored long-term settlement formation using quantitative geography, complex systems, and archaeological data using statistical modeling, locational modeling (MaxEnt), machine learning, and agent-based modeling tools. I developed a workflow starting from empirical data, statistical and locational modeling (MaxEnt; SDMTune) based on it, and exploring the meaning of models with Agent-based models and their sensitivity analysis.

Public delivery:

Sikk, K., 2023. Exploring environmental determinism with Agent-Based simulation of settlement choice, in: Seuru, S., Albouy, B. (Eds.), Modeling Human-Environment Interactions in and beyond Prehistoric Europe, Themes in Contemporary Archaeology. Springer International Publishing, Cham.
Sikk, K., 2022a. Spatial adaptive settlement systems in archaeology. Modelling long-term settlement formation from spatial micro interactions. University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg.
Sikk, K., 2022b. Hunting for emergences in stone-age settlement patterns with agent-based models, in: Fickers, A., Juliane Tatarinov (Eds.), Digital History and Hermeneutics. De Gruyter, pp. 43–64. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110723991-003
Sikk, K., 2018. Virtuaalsed agendid minevikku ennustamas. Tutulus : Eesti arheoloogia aastakiri 2018, 58,59.
Sikk, K., Caruso, G., 2024. Framing settlement systems as spatial adaptive systems. Ecological Modelling 490, 110652. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2024.110652
Sikk, K., Caruso, G., 2020. A spatially explicit agent-based model of central place foraging theory and its explanatory power for hunter-gatherers settlement patterns formation processes. Adaptive Behavior 28, 377–397. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059712320922915
Sikk, K., Caruso, G., Rosentau, A., Kriiska, A., 2022. Comparing contemporaneous hunter-gatherer and early agrarian settlement systems with spatial point process models: Case study of the Estonian Stone Age. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 41, 103330. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.103330
Sikk, K., Kriiska, A., Johanson, K., Sander, K., Vindi, A., 2020a. Estonian Stone Age settlement sites: a dataset. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3775415
Sikk, K., Kriiska, A., Johanson, K., Sander, K., Vindi, A., 2020b. Environment and settlement location choice in Stone Age Estonia. EJA 2.

LIFE Mires of Estonia

(2015-2021)

The LIFE Mires Estonia Project aimed to secure the most favorable conservation status for wetlands, especially mires and priority habitats protected under the EU Habitats Directive. The project focuses on the restoration and conservation of various habitats and species in multiple sites, such as Alam-Pedja, Agusalu, Ohepalu, Tudusoo, Sirtsi Nature Conservation Areas, and Lahemaa National Park.
Key objectives of the project include raising public awareness, developing methodologies and guidelines for mire habitat restoration, and involving volunteers in mire restoration activities.
My role in the project was to carry out archaeological surveys in wetlands, which resulted in the mapping of several battle areas from WW II and the discovery of an Iron Age iron melting site close to the Sirtsi restoration area.

Public delivery:

TARA

(2012-2014)

Information system for managing archaeological find collection, excavations, archives, maps, and photos metadata. I was the technical architect and project manager of the project, with the first version of it developed by Wiseman, now Trinidad Wiseman.

AAC

(2012-2014)

The Archaeology, Authority, and Community (AAC) project aimed to better understand the dynamics of power, authority, and community in archaeological contexts. The work was carried out on border areas of Estonia and Latvia with Russia and, in addition to very good connections created, provided anecdotal stories in the worsening political climate (absolutely not with project members). My role in this project was as a digital archaeology specialist, working on data infrastructure, site and literature databases, geography, and web presentations.

Delivery

Laenuvaatlus

(2007-2008)
The best of early startups I was involved in, the project provided a platform for loan conditions evaluation and asking for comparative loan offers from multiple providers. We were ready for launch in September 2008, but those who remember know what happened then. This gave me a boost of motivation to go back to University to study for a while, with archaeology being my discipline of choice.

Web development

(2007-2017)
This includes a lot of (close to 100?) small-scale web development projects I have carried out, with vast majority of which are happily obsolete already. I am not elaborating further on it on this web page.

GreipCRM

(2002-2005)

GreipCRM was an early PHP-based MVC architecture data management platform for setting up customer management systems developed at Uptime. As the technical visionary and lead developer, I was responsible for the design and implementation of the platform, ensuring its adaptability and functionality for a wide range of customer management needs.