People

Elisabetta Starnini is currently Associate Professor of Prehistory and Protohistory at the University of Pisa, where she has been working since 2018. She graduated in Humanities and specialized in Archaeology and History of Ancient Art in Genoa and holds a PhD in Prehistory of Mediterranean countries. Former research fellow at the “Ca’ Foscari” University of Venice (2008-2009), she has taught Prehistory and Protohistory and Archaeometry at numerous Italian universities: the University of Genoa (2001-2002), the University “Ca’ Foscari” of Venice (2005-2006), the University of Milan (2004-2005 and 2006-2007) and the University of Turin (2012-2017). Her main research interest deals with application of scientific methods in archaeological research, especially in the field of Prehistory, studying a broad variety of material records: lithic industries, ceramics, ornaments, and figurines. She has a long experience of archaeological and scientific research in Italy and abroad (Oman, Pakistan, Libya, Hungary, Greece) and she is author of over 300 printed works published in both Italian and foreign scientific journals. For over 20 years she has been carrying out archaeological and archaeometric research aimed at understanding the relationships between the Neolithic of Northern Italy, the Adriatic Basin, the Great Hungarian Plain and the Balkans through the characterization of the raw materials to identify their provenance and their circulation networks. During the recent years she has dealt with the Prehistory of the island of Lemnos and of the Mount Pindo (GR), in collaboration with the University of Thessaloniki (GR) and Ca ‘Foscari (Venice). She has been a member of the Research Unit of the S-P-HERITAGE project (2021-2023) that studies the response of human populations to changes in sea level, an interdisciplinary research project of the Department of Earth Sciences of the University of Pisa funded by the Italian Ministry for Research. She is now PI of the national research project PRIN2022 CHRONOS – The obsidian route in the central Mediterranean: diaCHRONic pathways and cultural connectiOnS (https://preistoria.cfs.unipi.it/ricerca/chronos/)

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Dipartimento di Civiltà e Forme del Sapere

Starnini, E., 2022 – In the beginning: Exploring integrity of anthropomorphic images in prehistoric Europe, in: Miniaci G. (ed.) Breaking Images. Damage and Mutilation of Ancient Figurines Multidisciplinary Approaches to Ancient Societies, Volume 2, Oxbow, pp. 53-65.

Efstratiou, N., Biagi, P., Starnini, E., Kyriakou, D., Eleftheriadou, A., 2022 – Agia Marina and Peristereònas: Two new Epipalaeolithic sites in the Island of Lemnos (Greece), Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology, 41982, pp. 1-34, article number JPLA-D-22-00002R2, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s41982-022-00118-8

Starnini, E., 2018 -The Figurines from the Early Neolithic Settlement of Mavropigi (Western Greek Macedonia) and their significance in the Neolithization process of Greece. Eurasian Prehistory, 14, pp. 1-98

Starnini, E. 2014 – Fired clay, plastic figurines of the Körös Culture from the excavations of the EarlyNeolithic sites of the Körös Culture in the Körös Valley, Hungary. Quaderni della Società per la Preistoria e Protostoria della Regione Friuli Venezia Giulia, n. 14, Trieste. 314 pp.

Starnini, E. 2008 – Material culture traditions and identity. In: D. Bailey, A. Whittle, D. Hofmann (eds.), Living Well Together.Settlement and Materiality in the Neolithic of South-East and Central Europe: 101-107. Oxbow Books, Oxford.

Niccolò Mazzucco (Florence, 1984) focuses on the study of the transition from foraging to agricultural systems in the Mediterranean and in the Near East, during the Holocene. His approach to the study of the so-called Mesolithic and Neolithic populations is based on a paleo-economic reading of the material record, and, in particular, of the stone flaked assemblages, through a technological and use-wear approach. Currently, he participates in numerous research and excavation missions, in the western Mediterranean (Spain, Italy) and in the Near East (Cyprus, Oman).

After graduating in Prehistoric Archaeology at the University of Florence in 2009, between the years 2010 and 2014 he carried out a PhD at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), thanks to a scholarship from the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC, Spain) (JAEpre program). After the doctorate, in 2015 he obtained a research grant from the Fondation Fyssen to carry out two years of postdoc at the UMR 7055 PréTech of the CNRS (France). Subsequently, in 2017 he obtained a one-year postdoc contract funded by the Université Paris Lumières. In 2018 he won the Marie Skłodowska Curie-Individual Fellowship (EU) call to carry out a research project at the Archaeology of Social Dynamics group at the CSIC (Spain). During 2020 he obtained a further postdoc contract within the Juan de la Cierva-incorporación program of the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain). From 2021 to 2024 he took service at the Department of Civilization and Forms of Knowledge of the University of Pisa, as part of the “Rientro dei Cervelli” Rita Levi Montalcini program. He is currently leading excavation projects of Mesolithic and Neolithic sites in Europe (MESApennines and PBM) and Near East (PrehistOman).

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Mineo, M., Gibaja, J.F., Mazzucco, N. (editors) (2023). The Submerged Site of La Marmotta (Rome, Italy): Decrypting a Neolithic Society. Oxbow Books. ISBN: 9781789258714

Mazzucco, N., Mineo, M., Arobba, D., Caramiello, R., Caruso Fermé, L., Gassin, B., … & Gibaja, J. F. (2022). Multiproxy study of 7500-year-old wooden sickles from the Lakeshore Village of La Marmotta, Italy. Scientific Reports, 12(1), 14976. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-18597-8

Mazzucco, N., Sabanov, A., Antolín, F., Naumov, G., Fidanoski, L., & Gibaja, J. F. (2022). The spread of agriculture in south-eastern Europe: new data from North Macedonia. Antiquity, 96(385), 15-33. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2021.32

Mazzucco, N., Ibáñez, J. J., Capuzzo, G., Gassin, B., Mineo, M. & Gibaja, J. F. (2020). Migration, adaptation, innovation: The spread of Neolithic harvesting technologies in the Mediterranean. PloS ONE, 15(4): e0232455. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0232455.

Mazzucco, N. & Gibaja, J.F. (2018). A palaeoeconomic perspective on the Early Neolithic lithic assemblages of the N–NE of the Iberian Peninsula. Quant. Int., 472(PartB): 236–245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2018.06.003

The main research focus of Salvatore Vitale (Lamezia Terme, 1976) lies in the Final Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Early Iron Age of the Aegean. He is particularly interested in ceramics and chronology; landscape, built environment, and spatial analysis; processes of cultural interaction and identity formation; and archeological theory, with an emphasis on Aegean societies and politics during the Minoan and Mycenaean Palatial periods. On these subjects, Salvatore Vitale has published a monograph, as well as articles in journals such as Hesperia, the Annuario of the Italian School at Athens, and Quaternary International, while other contributions have appeared in the widely circulated series AEGAEUM.

Salvatore Vitale completed his MA in Classical Literature and PhD in Classical Archaeology at the University of Pisa in 2001 and 2007. After his PhD, Salvatore Vitale held post-doctoral research fellowships at the Universities of Calabria and Cincinnati, as well as a fellowship (Borsa di Perfezionamento) at the Italian Archaeological School at Athens. In 2020, he obtained the habilitation as an Associate Professor for Archaeology (10/A1) in the Italian academic system (ASN).

In September 2022, Salvatore Vitale became a Researcher in Aegean Archaeology (RTDB, Civiltà Egee) at the Department of Civilizations and Forms of Knowledge at the University of Pisa. Previously, he taught subjects concerning Aegean and Mediterranean prehistoric and protohistoric archaeologies at the Universities of Milan, Pisa, and Salerno, and at the Italian Archaeological School at Athens. For several years, he also taught Greek and Roman Archaeology (Foundation Course, Humanities) at the University of Pisa.

Since 2009, Salvatore Vitale has been the director of the “Serraglio, Eleona, and Langada Archaeological Project” (SELAP), a research endeavor under the auspices of the Italian Archaeological School at Athens. Beginning in 2018, he has also played an important role in the “Еπιϕανειακή Έρευνα στο νησί της Κω – Kos Archaeological Survey Project” (KASP), a project of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Dodecanese, directed by Maria Michailidou in collaboration with Toula Marketou, Salvatore Vitale, and Calla McNamee. Within KASP, Salvatore Vitale is a co-director and a field director for the team of external archaeologists that collaborate in the project with the Ephorate of Dodecanese.

Since 2006 and 2015 respectively, Salvatore Vitale has also been a senior staff member in the Mitrou Archaeological Project (MAP) in Phthiotida and the Palace of Nestor Excavations (PONEX) at Pylos. Co-directed by Aleydis Van de Moortel and †Eleni Zahou (2004-2021) and by Aleydis Van de Moortel and Euthymia Karantzali (2021-present), MAP is a synergasia between the University of Tennessee and the Ephorate of Phthiotida and Evrytania, under the auspices of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Within MAP, Salvatore Vitale is the principal investigator for the study of Late Helladic IIA to Late Helladic IIIB ceramics. Co-directed by Sharon Stocker and Jack Davis (2015-present), PONEX is a project of the University of Cincinnati under the auspices of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Within PONEX, Salvatore Vitale directs the team conducting the study of Bronze Age ceramics.

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Vitale, S. 2018. Le classi ceramiche della “tradizione mista” a Kos nel Tardo Bronzo IA, (Archaeopress Publishing Ltd), Oxford. ISBN: 978 1 78491 886 6.

Vitale, S. (ed.). 2022. ΑΙΓΑΙΟΣ. Studi sul Mediterraneo antico presentati a Giampaolo Graziadio, in ΑΓΩΓΗ, Atti della Scuola di Specializzazione in Beni Archeologici, Università di Pisa 14-18, Pisa. ISBN: 978-88-3339-621-7.

Vitale, S., Stocker, S.R., and Davis, J.L. 2022. “The Destructions of the Palace of Nestor at Pylos and Its LH IIIA Predecessor as a Methodological Case Study,” in R. Jung and E. Kardamaki (eds.), Synchronizing the Destructions of the Mycenaean Palaces, (Mykenische Studien 36), Vienna, pp. 121-148. ISBN: 978-3-7001-8877-3.

Vitale, S., Marketou, T., McNamee, C., and Michailidou, M. 2022. “The Kos Archaeological Survey Project and the Site of Ayios Panteleimon in the Northeast Koan Region,” in ASAtene 99, pp. 108-142. ISSN: 0067-0081.

Vitale, S. and Van de Moortel, A. 2020. “The Late Helladic IIIB Phase at Mitrou, East Lokris: Pottery, Chronology, and Political Relations with the Palatial Polities of Thebes and Orchomenos/Glas,” in ASAtene 98, pp. 9-59. ISSN: 0067-0081.

McNamee, C. and Vitale, S. 2020. “Langada Revisited: Construction Practices, Space, and Sociocultural Identity in the Koan Burial Arena During the Mycenaean Palatial and Postpalatial Periods,” in J.M.A. Murphy (ed.), Death in Late Bronze Age Greece: Variations on a Theme, (Oxford University Press), New York, pp. 214-247. ISBN: 9780190926069.

Giovanni Boschian (Trieste, 1959). I am a Geoarchaeologist, which means that I apply methods of the Earth Sciences to Archaeology. I study how Hominin behaviour (Hominins: anatomically modern humans and their ancestors) was affected by environmental change between Pliocene and Ancient Holocene. I am deeply convinced that physical and cultural evolution are intimately connected, and must be studied within their environmental and social context. My research is strongly interdisciplinary and I consequently examine cultural remains together with traces cast by human activities in the archaeological record. By using sedimentology and soil science methods in cave and open-air site excavations, I propose hypotheses about settlement function and landscape use, or about peculiarities in Hominin behaviour.

After my studies in Geological Sciences at the University of Trieste (Italy), I worked for a few years as freelance geoarchaeologist( excavation experience acquired since I was fifteen proved very useful). I was then hired by the University of Pisa as technical officer, then as lecturer and finally associate professor; first at the Department of Archaeological Sciences until its programmed death, and then at the Department of Biology. I have been Beaufort Visiting Scholar at St. John’s College in Cambridge (UK), and I currently collaborate with the Palaeo-Research Institute of the University of Johannesburg (South Africa).

I participate in fieldwork in South Africa, at the Paranthropus robustus site of Drimolen (about 1.8 million years) and in the Acheulian settlement of Amanzi Springs (500-200 k-years), where I work on geoarchaeological and behavioural issues. Within the THOR (Tanzania Hominin Origins Research) Project, I collaborate with Dar es-Salaam,  Perugia, Florence and Rome Universities in the study of the Ndutu and Naisiusiu Beds at Olduvai Gorge and of the fossil footprints of Australopithecus afarensis of Laetoli (Tanzania).

In Eastern Europe, I collaborate with colleagues of the Universities of Zagreb, Zadar and Pula (Croatia) in the study of Upper Pleistocene and Early Holocene sites, with special focus on the transition from Neandertals to Anatomically Modern Humans.

More to the east, I participate in the Georgian-Italian Lagodekhi Archaeological Project with the University of Venezia, Tbilisi Ilia University, and the Lagodekhi Archaeological Museum, about geoarchaeological aspects of Late Copper and Early Bronze Age settlements.

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Herries, A.I., Arnold, L.J., Boschian, G., Blackwood, A.F., Wilson, C., Mallett, T., Armstrong, B., Demuro, M., Petchey, F., Meredith-Williams, M., Penzo-Kajewski, P., Caruana, M.V. 2022. A marine isotope stage 11 coastal Acheulian workshop with associated wood at Amanzi Springs Area 1, South Africa. Plos one 17(10), e0273714. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273714

Gerometta, K., Boschian, G., 2022. Herders and caves in Croatia− New geoarchaeological evidence from cave sediments. Vjesnik Arheološkog muzeja u Zagrebu 55(1), 9-41. https://doi.org/10.52064/vamz.55.1.1

Martin JM, Leece AB, Neubauer S, Baker SE, Mongle CS, Boschian G, Schwartz GT, Smith AL, Ledogar JA, Strait DS, Herries AI. Drimolen cranium DNH 155 documents microevolution in an early hominin species. Nature Ecology & Evolution. 2021 Jan;5(1), 38-45. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-01319-6

Herries, A.I., Martin, J.M., Leece, A.B., Adams, J.W., Boschian, G., Joannes-Boyau, R., Edwards, T.R., Mallett, T., Massey, J., Murszewski, A. and Neubauer, S., 2020. Contemporaneity of australopithecus, paranthropus, and early homo erectus in South Africa. Science, 368(6486), p.eaaw7293. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaw7293

Kvavadze, E., Boschian, G., Chichinadze, M., Gagoshidze, I., Gavagnin, K., Martkoplishvili, I. and Rova, E., 2019. Palynological and archaeological evidence for ritual use of wine in the Kura-Araxes Period at Aradetis Orgora (Georgia, Caucasus). Journal of Field Archaeology, 44(8), 500-522. https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2019.1669254

Cristiana Petrinelli Pannocchia is currently an archaeologist at the Department of Civilization and Knowledge at the University of Pisa.

She specialised in typological-technological and functional analyses of lithic artefacts, which she applies to various sites and periods to investigate issues of identity and social diversity.

She is particularly interested in how we can apply the ” chaîne opératoire” concept to the different artefacts to uncover the lifeways and the cultural and traditional traits of the earliest farmers in Europe.

She held her PhD at the University of Pisa (2004-2007), with research focused on the traceological investigation of neolithic chipped stone artefacts. To deepen her knowledge and skills, she continued her training through internships at the Universitè du Sophia Antipolis and the Universitè Paris 1- College Ecole Doctoral.

During her career she spent time analysing the lithic industries of important neolithic sites of central Italy, she worked as a commercial archaeologist and an archaeologist collaborator for various municipality Museums of Tuscany.

Since 2019 she has been the scientific director of the investigation activities at Rio Tana (AQ), an early neolithic settlement in central Italy.

Since 2013 she teaches several courses at the University of Pisa for BA and MA students, as well as at the School of Specialization in Archaeology of the University of Pisa.

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Petrinelli Pannocchia, C. 2021. The Neolithic to Copper age transition in central Italy: a view from the chipped stone artefacts of Fossacesia (CH, Abruzzo), Origini, XLIV, 65-92. https://dx.doi.org/10.48235/1006

Petrinelli Pannocchia, C., Vassanelli, A. 2021. The First Italian Farmers: the role of stone ornaments in tradition, innovation and cultural change. 1st Conference on the Early Neolithic of Europe – ENE 2019. Open Archaeology, 7: 1398–1424. https://doi.org/10.1515/opar-2020-0175

Radi, G., Petrinelli Pannocchia, C., 2018. The beginning of the Neolithic Era in Central Italy, The expansion of the Neolithic in the Central-Western Mediterranean, Quaternary International, pp 270-284. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2017.06.063

Mazzucco, N., Capuzzo, G., Petrinelli Pannocchia, C., Ibáñez, J.J., Gibaja, J.F., 2018. Time of Harvests: Crop-reaping Tools and the Spread of Neolithic into the Central-Western Mediterranean, The expansion of the Neolithic in the Central-Western Mediterranean, Quaternary International, pp 511-528. https://dx.doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2016.273

Ucelli Gnesutta, P., Boschian, G., Cantoro, G., Castiglioni, E., Dini, M., Maspero†, A., Petrinelli Pannocchia, C., Rottoli., M., 2006. I livelli epigravettiani della Grotta delle Settecannelle (Viterbo), in Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche, LVI,Tipografia Latini, Firenze, pp. 127-184.

Lionello Morandi is currently Research Fellow at the University of Pisa, Department of Civilisation and Forms of Knowledge. He graduated at the University of Milan (BA), University of Turin (MA) and University of Reading (MSc), where he carried out his PhD research (funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK). Subsequently he worked as a palaeoenvironmental analyst in commercial archaeology, and held a post-doctoral position at the University of Tübingen, where he is Honorary Research Fellow within the Archaeometry Research Group.

His research interests mostly focus on bioarchaeological and archaeobotanical proxies in archaeological research, 2nd-early 1st Millennium Mediterranean societies, experimental archaeology and ethnoarchaeological methods. He has applied traditional social and typological approaches as well as different laboratory techniques to the study of a range of topics and chrono-cultural contexts, from early Neolithic pastoralism to Etruscan society and medieval Europe. He is actively involved in a number of field and laboratory projects, among which “The Raw and the Cooked: A Biomolecular Approach to Culinary Traditions in Multicultural Medieval Iberia” (University of Pisa, NextGenerationEU Programme) and “Crafts and the City: Ceramic Production in Etruria at the Dawn of the Urbanisation (late 10th –mid 7th cent. BCE)” (University of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg Stiftung gGmbH).

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Morandi, L. F., Amicone, S. (2023). Ceramic traditions and technological choices revealed by early Iron Age funerary vessels: the case of Vetulonia (southern Tuscany), STAR: Science & Technology of Archaeological Research, c.s.

Morandi, L. F. (2022). La Collezione Guidi nel Museo Archeologico di Grosseto. La necropoli di Colle Baroncio e la prima età del Ferro a Vetulonia. Quaderni del MAAM. Arcidosso: Effigi.

Morandi, L. F., Frémondeau, D., Müldner, G., Maggi, R. (2021). Sequential analyses of bovid tooth enamel and dentine collagen (δ¹⁸O, δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N): new insights into animal husbandry between the Late Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age at Tana del Barletta (Ligurian Prealps), Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences13(9). www.doi.org/10.1007/s12520-021-01418-w

Morandi, L. F. (2020). An ethnoarchaeological case study of dung fungal spore and faecal spherulite taphonomy in a pastoral cave deposit, Environmental Archaeology 25(2), 198-207.

Morandi, L. F., Porta, S. N., Ribechini, E. (2018). Evidence for birch bark tar use as an adhesive and decorative element in Early Iron Age central Italy: technological and socio‐economic implications, Archaeometry 60(5): 1077-1087.

Alejandro Sierra (Zaragoza, Spain, 1990) specializes in the study of livestock management in Neolithic societies through archaeozoology. His research focuses on the evolution of livestock practices in the Mediterranean basin, particularly in the Adriatic region and the Iberian Peninsula. He has employed methodologies such as stable isotope analysis, dental microwear, and paleoproteomics (ZooMS) to study livestock specialization across different Mediterranean regions. His interdisciplinary approach has significantly contributed to understanding the relationship between Neolithic livestock management and its environment, highlighting the importance of using multiple methodological tools to reconstruct past economic practices.

After earning a degree in History from the University of Zaragoza in 2013 and a Master’s in Prehistory and Archaeology from the University of Cantabria in 2014, he completed his PhD in Ancient Sciences at the University of Zaragoza in 2020. His dissertation, titled Domestication and Early Livestock Practices in the Central Pyrenees: An Approach through Archaeozoology and Biogeochemistry, explored the integration of biogeochemical techniques in archaeozoological analysis.

In 2021, he received funding from the Fyssen Foundation to develop the Impressa Sheep project at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris (MNHN). In 2022, he joined the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) with a Juan de la Cierva Formación contract, continuing his research in archaeozoology.

He is currently a researcher at the University of Pisa, within the Dipartimento di Civiltà e Forme del Sapere, as part of the Young Researchers 2024 – SOE program, where he is developing the project FeedingSouth: Reconstructing Neolithic Livestock Management Strategies in Southern Europe.

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Hansen, J., Sierra, A., Mata, S., Gassiot Ballbè, E., Rey Lanaspa, J., Welker, F., Saña Seguí, M., & Clemente Conte, I. (2024). Combining traceological analysis and ZooMS on Early Neolithic bone artefacts from the Cave of Coro Trasito, NE Iberian Peninsula: Cervidae used equally to Caprinae. PLoS ONE 19(7): e0306448. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306448

Sierra, A., Navarrete, V., Alcàntara, R., Camalich, Mª. D., Martín-Socas, D., Fiorillo, D., Saña, M. (2024). Shepherding the past: High-Resolution data on Neolithic Southern Iberian Mobility at Cueva de El Toro (Antequera, Málaga). PLOS ONE 19(4): e0299786. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0299786

Sierra, A., Balasse, M., Radović, S., Orton, D., Fiorillo, D., Presslee, S. (2023). Early Dalmatian farmers specialized in sheep husbandry. Scientific Reports, 13, 10355. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-37516-z

Sierra, A., Balasse, M., Rivals, F., Fiorillo, D., Utrilla, P., Saña, M. (2021). Sheep husbandry in the Early Neolithic of the Pyrenees: new data on feeding and reproduction in the cave of Chaves. Journal Archaeological Science: Reports 37, 102935.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.102935

Sierra, A., Bréhard, S., Montes, L., Utrilla, P., Saña, M. (2019). Sheep exploitation and husbandry in first farming societies: from production to consumption in Central Pyrenees in the Early Neolithic. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. Springer. 11, pp. 5813-5829 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00907-3

I specialised in lithic technology, meaning I analyse stone artefacts’ manufacturing processes. Thanks to the reconstruction of such processes, I can understand human groups’ behaviours: the used techniques and tools, and the activities on site. My main research interest lies in the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic Transition, when the last Neanderthals occur, and the earliest groups of our species arrive in Europe (around 60-40 thousand years ago).

I obtained my PhD in 2021 at the University of Cologne and since October 2022 I am a research fellow at the Department of Civilisations and Forms of Knowledge at the University of Pisa in the framework of a Marie Curie Sklodowska Actions project (Raw material provisioning and mobility patterns throughout the Middle-to-Upper Palaeolithic Transition in NW Tuscany – MobiliTy).

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Gennai, J., Schemmel, M., & Richter, J. (2023). Pointing to the Ahmarian. Lithic Technology and the El-Wad Points of Al-Ansab 1. Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology, 6(1), 6. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41982-022-00131-x

Chu, W., McLin, S., Wöstehoff, L., Ciornei, A., Gennai, J., Marreiros, J., & Doboș, A. (2022). Aurignacian dynamics in Southeastern Europe based on spatial analysis, sediment geochemistry, raw materials, lithic analysis, and use-wear from Românești-Dumbrăvița. Scientific Reports, 12(1), 14152. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-15544-5

Delpiano, D., Gennai, J., & Peresani, M. (2021). Techno-functional implication on the production of discoid and Levallois backed implements. Lithic Technology, 46(3), 171-191. https://doi.org/10.1080/01977261.2021.1886487

Gennai, J., Peresani, M., & Richter, J. (2021). Blades, bladelets or blade (let) s? Investigating early Upper Palaeolithic technology and taxonomical considerations: Klingen, Lamellen oder beides? Untersuchungen zur früh-jungpaläolithischen Technologie und taxonomische Überlegungen. Quartär–Internationales Jahrbuch zur Erforschung des Eiszeitalters und der Steinzeit, 68, 71-116. https://doi.org/10.7485/qu.2021.68.94298

Gennai, J., (2021). Back to the lithics: technological comparison of early Upper Palaeolithic assemblages from Al-Ansab/ Jordan, Româneşti-Dumbrăviţa/ Romania and Fumane/ Italy. PhD thesis, Universität zu Köln. https://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/53384/

Prehistoric archaeologist, he is mainly concerned with the study of Palaeo-Mesolithic and Neolithic chipped lithic complexes (Middle Palaeolithic, Final Upper Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Early and Middle Neolithic) in relation to the dynamics of human behaviour regarding land exploitation and the related techno-economic aspects. An expert in archaeological and geoarchaeological cave investigations, he has also dealt with issues concerning the neolithisation of the central-southern Italian territory. He collaborates with Italian and foreign scholars in the fields of geoarchaeology and lithic technology, a field the latter of which he has also studied in terms of experimental chipping for the reconstruction of the main “chaînes opératoires” used by prehistoric human groups. He was a research fellow in the Departments of Earth Sciences and Biology at the University of Pisa, working on the oldest human settlements in the territories of the Ligurian-Provencal arc and inland Abruzzo.

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1. Boschian, G., Serradimigni M., Colombo M., Ghislandi S., Grifoni Cremonesi R., 2017, Change fast or change slow? Late Glacial and Early Holocene cultures in a changing environment at Grotta Continenza, Central Italy, Quaternary International, 450: 186-208 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2016.12.027) (ISSN: 1040-6182) (Impact Factor: 2.067).
2. Serradimigni M., Tozzi C. 2017, Il complesso litico in selce scheggiata proveniente dal villaggio di Ripatetta (Lucera-FG): aspetti tecno-tipologici, Studi di Preistoria e Protostoria, 4, Preistoria e Protostoria della Puglia, pp. 253-260 (ISBN: 978-88-6045-060-9).
3. Serradimigni M., Tozzi C., 2019, Note preliminari sul giacimento paleo-mesolitico di Piazzana (Coreglia Antelminelli – LU): un sito pluristratificato di quota dall’Epigravettiano finale al Castelnoviano, Book of abstracts – Incontri Annuali di Preistoria e Protostoria, 7, pp. 88-89 (ISBN 978 88 6045 0760).
4. Tomasso A., Serradimigni M., Ricci G., Mihailovic D., 2020, Lost in Transition: between Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene around the Adriatic, Quaternary International, 564, 30: 3-15 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2019.07.033) (Impact Factor: 2.003).
5. Serradimigni M., 2020, Il Paleolitico: i livelli del Musteriano, dell’Uluzziano, del Gravettiano e dell’Epigravettiano antico, in Ingravallo E., Grifoni R., (a cura di), La Grotta delle Veneri di Parabita, Bibliotheca Archaeologica-Collana di archeologia (Peer Rewiew), pp. 19-38 (ISBN 978-88-7228-937-2); (ISSN 1724-8523); (http://dx.doi.org/10.4475/937).

Alice Vassanelli is currently enrolled in the regional doctorate in Archaeology at the University of Pisa, with a project entitled: OrnaMed_Role and Meaning of Lithic Personal Ornaments in Ancient Agricultural-Pastoral Communities of the Mediterranean: Traditions, Techniques, Functionality.

Her main research interests concern pre-protohistoric material culture, and their use as the key to understanding the dynamics of interaction between humans and the environment. She works also on the ancient production processes, artifacts use, and circulation, with a specific interest in ornamental items.

Her academic career began at the University of Pisa with a degree in Cultural Heritage Sciences and a master’s degree in Prehistoric Archaeology.

In 2020 she specializes in the School of Specialization in Archaeological Heritage of the University of Pisa. At the same time, she won a two-year research grant (2020-2022) for the MARBLE project: Methodologies of Analysis for Researching on prehistoric marBLE , promoted and co-financed by the Tuscany region (POR FSE RT 2014/2020- Program of intervention “UNIPI_ACT”), with a study on the first use of marble in the prehistoric age. She took part in numerous archaeological excavations. Since 2014 she has participated in the campaigns carried out in early neolithic sites of Colle Santo Stefano and Rio Tana in Abruzzi (AQ, Italy) in which over time she became field director and is responsible for the archaeological artifacts.

Over the years, she collaborated as a supervisor and tutor at the “Summer School of Archaeology in Abruzzo” (2014-2022) and in special teaching projects, such as “Outdoor Archaeology” (2019) and “ProArch_ Professione Archeologo” (2022). Programs promoted by the Department of Civilisations and Forms of Knowledge (University of Pisa), to increase the field skills of university students enrolled in archaeological disciplines in Italian and foreign institutes.

She was co-teacher of the course “Recognition of prehistoric artifacts: stone and ceramics”, at the School of Specialization in Archaeological Heritage of the University of Pisa (Academic Year 2020/21), and currently, she is a subject expert in the teaching of Experimental Archaeology (Master’s Degree Course in Archaeology) and Prehistoric Archaeology (Bachelor’s Degree Course in Cultural Heritage Studies), at the Department of Civilization and Forms of Knowledge, University of Pisa.

ARPI

Vassanelli A., Petrinelli Pannocchia C., Starnini E. (under review). The chaîne opératoire approach for interpreting personal ornament production: marble beads in Copper Age Tuscany (Italy). Special Issue: Reconsidering the ChaîneOpératoire: Towards a Multifaceted Approach to the Archaeology of Techniques; Open Archaeology.

Petrinelli Pannocchia C., Vassanelli A., 2023. The Botanical Ornaments of La Marmotta. In Mineo M., Gibaja J., Mazzucco N. (Eds.) The Submerged Site of La Marmotta (Rome, Italy): Decrypting a Neolithic Society. Oxbow Books, 2023.

Petrinelli Pannocchia C., Vassanelli A., Naime Y., Terranova A., Sani S., Spadacini L., Ceccaroni E., 2022. Le nuove ricerche sul sito neolitico di Rio Tana (Lecce nei Marsi, AQ). In Atti del V Convegno di Archeologia “Il Fucino e le aree limitrofe nell’Antichità”; Avezzano, 6-7 novembre 2021, pp. 73-86.

Vassanelli, A., Petrinelli Pannocchia, C., 2021. I vaghi in steatite di età pre-protostorica del territorio livornese (Toscana). AGOGHE’, Atti della Scuola di Specializzazione in Beni Archeologici, Volumi XIV-XVIII, 2017-2021, Pisa University Press, 2021 pp. 59-72. https://doi.org/10.12871/97888333961257

Petrinelli Pannocchia C., Vassanelli A., 2021. The First Italian Farmers: The Role of Stone Ornaments in Tradition, Innovation, and Cultural Change. Open Archaeology, 7, pp. 1398 -1424. https://doi.org/10.1515/opar-2020-0175

Simone Sani is an M.A. graduate student and currently a contracted researcher within the PRIN 2022-funded project CHRONOS. As part of the CHRONOS team, he is responsible for the acquisition and curation of data concerning Early Neolithic obsidian assemblages.

His primary research interests focus on prehistoric and protohistoric material culture, with a particular emphasis on flaked stone materials. He adopts an integrated approach that encompasses raw material analysis, technological studies, and use-wear analysis.

Simone began his academic journey at the University of Pisa, earning a degree in Cultural Heritage Sciences followed by a master’s degree in Prehistoric Archaeology. Throughout his studies, he has participated in numerous archaeological missions both in Italy (Rio Tana-Abruzzo) and abroad (PBM-Spain, Hayy Al-Sarh-Sultanate of Oman, Pakthomena-Cyprus).

PreIStoriA

Mazzucco, N., Rey Lanaspa, J., Clemente Conte, I., Ruiz-Redondo, A., Barba Pérez, M., Bianchi, A., Capablo, A., Finocchiaro, C., Gassiot, E., Pirrone, G., Sani, S., Scarazzato, C. (2024). El campamiento Mesolítico de PBM (Sariñena, Huesca): datos preliminares sobre una cabaña de cazadores recolectores de hace 8.200 años en los Monegros. In: V Congreso de Arqueología y Patrimonio Aragonés CAPA. pp. 45-52. ISBN: 978-84-09-65020-0

Petrinelli Pannocchia C., Vassanelli A., Naime Y., Terranova A., Sani S., Spadacini L., Ceccaroni E., 2022. Le nuove ricerche sul sito neolitico di Rio Tana (Lecce nei Marsi, AQ). In Atti del V Convegno di Archeologia “Il Fucino e le aree limitrofe nell’Antichità”; Avezzano, 6-7 novembre 2021, pp. 73-86.

Jacopo Conforti (Pontedera, 1985) deals with the study of prehistoric chipped lithic industries by applying a technological and techno-economic approach to the study of materials from contexts ranging from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Neolithic. The main focuses of his research are quartz lithic industries, the bipolar technique on anvil and the determination of siliceous lithotypes through binocular microscope. He has participated in numerous archaeological excavations and research missions in Italy and abroad.

After graduating in Archaeology at the University of Pisa in 2016, between the years 2016 and 2020, he carried out his PhD in Sciences of Antiquity and Archaeology (PEGASO Regional Doctorate) at the same university, in co-supervision with the University Cote d’Azur. After his doctorate he worked as freelance archaeologist in the preventive archaeology. Since March 2023 he has been a research fellow at the University of Bari Aldo Moro (Department of Earth and Geo-environmental Sciences) within the research project “Nardo district of prehistory: the cultural enterprise as a link between research and communication” (CSO Prof. Giacomo Eramo – Department of Earth and Geo-environmental Sciences, University of Bari Aldo Moro). He is currently a collaborator and subject expert for Prehistory at the Department of Civilizations and Forms of Knowledge of the University of Pisa.

ORCID

Scopus Author ID

Lorenzi F., Colonna A., Dubar M., Zamagni B., Conforti J., (2021). Matériel en pierre polie et non taillée du site néolithique de A Guaita (Morsiglia, Haute-Corse). Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Française, 118(2): 323-362.

Baills H., Conforti J., Dini M., Tozzi C., (2020). Economie du débitage et économie de la matière première dans l’US2 de la Greppia II. L’Epigravettien final de la Garfagnana (Parc Naturel de l’Orecchiella. Lucca. Italie. Preistoria Alpina, 50 (2020): 5-27.

Villa P., Soriano S., Pollarolo P., Smriglio C., Gaeta M., D’Orazio M., Conforti J., Tozzi C., (2020). Neandertals on the beach: Use of marine resources at Grotta dei Moscerini (Latium, Italy), PLoS ONE 15(1): e0226690. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0226690

Conforti J., Parisi M., (2018). L’industria litica del villaggio trincerato di Trasanello (Matera) durante il Neolitico antico e medio: analisi tecno-economica preliminare, Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche, LXVIII: 35-64. https://doi.org/10.32097/1088

Villa P., Pollarolo L., Conforti J., Marra F., Biagioni C., Degano I., Lucejko J. J., Tozzi C., Pennacchioni M., Zanchetta G., Nicosia C., Martini M., Sibilia E., Panzeri L., (2018). From Neandertals to modern humans: New data on the Uluzzian, PLoS ONE 13(5): e0196786. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0196786