I am an archaeologist specializing in people-environment interactions in the Mediterranean during the later prehistory and early historical periods. My research focuses on the investigation of social complexity in early cities through food redistribution patterns, agricultural practices, and landscape modifications. I am currently involved in projects in Italy, Romania, and Egypt. I am the director of the Archaeobiology Lab at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology and the director of environmental archaeology for the Gabii Project. I use taxonomical identifications of plant and animals, isotopic and biochemical analysis, soil and sediments and micromorphology to reconstruct past environments and human activities. In 2022 I was awarded a collaborative EOS grant for the study of the plant remains and legacy archives from the site of Karanis, Egypt. The site was excavated in the 1920’s-30’s and we are re-organizing the legacy archives for their insertion into a searchable database and eventual online publication. Thanks to the level of recording and documentation produced on the excavation -unparalleled for the time- it is possible to reconstruct the excavated contexts and create a 3D visualization of the lost structures. I am also interested in experimenting with AI methodologies to transform fragmented archival records into structured spatial data.
