Catalogo dei Corsi di studio

Profile
Born in Trani, Italy (1964), PhD in Archaeology (Prehistory, 1997) at Sapienza University of Rome, Associate Professor of African Archaeology, qualification as Full Professor since 2019, Sapienza University of Rome, Professor of Ethnoarchaeology at the Sapienza School of Specialization in Archaeology, Director of the School of Specialization in Archaeology since 2020, member of the Sapienza School of Doctorate in Archaeology since 2013.
I am an Africanist Archaeologist with a long-track experience in the Sahara and North Africa, including fieldwork in Sudan and Kenya. My main research interests focus on the study of hunter-gatherer-fishers
in northern and eastern Africa and on the analysis of pastoral societies in the Sahara, with particular focus on rock art.
I led and directed more than 35 expeditions to the central and northern Sahara. In particular, my research focussed on SW Libya, where I designed and undertook a large number of archaeological surveys and excavations in the Tadrart Acacus and Messak massifs, mostly centred on the transition from hunter-gatherer to Neolithic society. In this context, I have worked under the aegis of the Libyan Ministry of Culture and the Department of Antiquities in Tripoli, as well as local institutions in the municipality of Ghat.
I have expanded my field and scientific activity from the central Sahara to the Western Sahara, where I co-directed (2002-2006) an Anglo-Italian Geoarchaeological Mission in the Tifariti Region (in collaboration with King's College, London, and Norwich University, UK). Later, I moved my activity towards the northern Sahara and the Mediterranean in Tunisia, establishing "The Archaeological Mission in the Sahara" (2014-to date), based on an ongoing international cooperation with the Institut National du Patrimoine (Tunis) and the Faculty of Letters in Kairouan. Here, I designed and directed geoarchaeological survey in previously poorly explored regions, such as Chott el Jerid and Grand Erg Oriental.
In 2016, following an invitation of the Ministry of Tourism of Kenya and the Italian Embassy in Nairobi, I have started the international cooperation with the National Museums of Kenya (Nairobi) launching the first Kenyan-Italian Archaeological Mission in the region of Lake Turkana, focussed on Holocene archaeology and rock art (2017-ongoing). In 2022, following an invitation of the Centre National de Recherches Prehistoriques, Anthropologiques Et Historiques (CNRPAH), Alger, I have built a new research program in the region of the Tadrart, within the National Park of Tassili in SE Algeria.
Over three decades of research in Northern Africa, I built a strong national (mainly with Milano and Modena & Reggio Emilia universities) and international scientific network (mainly with Bristol, Cambridge, Norwich, Oxford - UK; Tunis TU; Alger, DZ; Nairobi - KE; Johannesburg - ZA; Paris, Bordeaux - F).

Awards
2012. Awarded the Sangiorgi Prize for the History of Africa by the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the world s oldest scientific academy.
2012. Certificate of Appreciation. Ministry of Culture, Libya

Publications
I published ~190 articles, ~50 single authored, mostly on peer-reviewed journals with IF (~60 listed on Scopus) or rated "A" (according to the Italian Agency ANVUR), routinely as First, Corresponding or Last Author, including Nature, Science, Nature Plants, PlosOne, Quaternary Science Review, J of Archaeological Science, J of Anthropological Archaeology, African Archaeological Review, Antiquity, J of African Archaeology. In 2012, our article on the first evidence of dairying in Africa (currently with >250 citations) got the Nature cover, so did our February 2018 paper on early evidence of cultivation appeared in Nature Plants, both having huge scientific and media impact, and both stemming from the excavation I designed and directed at Takarkori in Libya (2003-2006).
In 2015, I wrote a comment, solicited by the Editor, for Nature, on the situation of Libyan archaeology after the 2011 revolution.
I have edited or co-edited 8 monographs on my research in central Sahara, co-edited 2 monographs on my research in Italy. I also wrote a textbook "Archeologia Africana" (2017, Carocci, Rome): this is a 350 pages book on African Archaeology where I summarize and offer my perspective on specific African cultural trajectories. In 2022 I have written for Routledge, London, the book Saharan Hunter-gatherers. Specialization and diversification in Holocene southwestern Libya . In the same year, I have co-edited with M. Gallinaro and largely written the major book (ca. 1000 pages) Atlas of Tadrart Acacus rock art. A UNESCO World Heritage Site in southwestern Libya .
Given my scientific leadership on North African archaeology and rock art, I have been invited to contribute with in-depth analyses and reviews of Holocene North Africa archaeology to authoritative books of Oxford University Press, such as "The Handbook of African Archaeology" (Mitchell & Lane eds 2013), "The Handbook of Rock Art (David & McNiven eds 2017), and to the monumental work committed by UNESCO "General history of Africa" (Holl 2018, ed).

Affiliations and Visiting
- 2019-to date. Rock Art Network, Getty Conservation institute and Bradshaw Foundation, Member.
- 2019. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, USA. Getty Scholar (winter term)
- 2017-to date. Istituto Italiano di Preistoria e Protostoria.
- 2017-to date. ISMEO, Associazione Internazionale di Studi sul Mediterraneo e l'Oriente.
- 2017-to date. Scuola Archaeologica Italiana di Cartagine. SAIC. Member of Scientific Board
- 2016-to date. Scuola Archaeologica Italiana di Cartagine. SAIC.
- 2013-to date. Society of Africanist Archaeologists. Life Member.
- 2009-to date. Honorary Research Fellow, School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
- 2009. Visiting Scholar (one year), Cambridge University (UK), MacDonald Institute of Archaeology

Editorial Boards
- 2017-to date. Quaderni di Archeologia della Libia. Scientific Board
- 2013-to date. Arid Zone Archaeology (Series). Series Editor
- 2012-2021. Origini. Preistoria e protostoria delle civiltà antiche (rated A). Associate Editor
- 2012-2021. Scienze dell'Antichità (rated A). Associate Editor
- 2011-2015. Libya Antiqua. Editorial Board
- 2009-to date. Azania - Archaeological Research in Africa (rated A). Editorial Board
- 2008-2016. Sahara - Prehistory and History. Editorial Board
- 2005-2012. Arid Zone Archaeology (Series). Editorial Board
- 2003-to date. Journal of African Archaeology (rated A). Editorial Board

Evaluation and assessment
I reviewed ~100 papers on scientific journals, including J of Archaeological Science, Quaternary Science Reviews, African Archaeological Review, PlosOne.
I have reviewed (as Rapporteur and Expert) projects funded by MIUR (Italy) as follows: FARE (2017), SIR (2015), together with assessments for the national VQR. I have been serving since 2017 as Expert for the European Research Executive Agency as Rapporteur and Evaluator for the Marie Sk odowska-Curie Action post-doctoral fellowships. I provided the assessment in two international competitions for a position of Full Professor: 2015 at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (ZA); 2012-2013 at King's College, London (UK). I reviewed and assessed: three-years research project in Ethiopia opened by the National Science Foundation, Washington DC (USA, 2017); research proposal grant in Sudan funded by the Czech Science Foundation (Czech Republic, 2016); "Research Fellowship", funded by the Institut d'Etude Avancées de Paris (France, 2015).

Conferences and congresses
I have attended many national and international congresses and invited as key-note speaker or in plenary session in several congresses in Europe, Africa and the US. I have designed and chaired as President: the International workshop on "Before Food Production in North Africa (Forli 1996); the CIRSA lecture series at Sapienza University of Rome (2000-2004); the International Workshop "Archaeology in Africa" (Rome 2017). I have been in the Scientific Committee of CEA 2018 (Modena 2018), IIPP 2019 (Rome) and Third International Conference on the Rock Art of Northern Africa, 2022-2023 (Bruxelles) Congress.

Consulting
Since 2004, I am technical consultant to UNESCO for the archaeology and rock art of Northern Africa, with a special focus on the World Heritage Site of the Tadrart Acacus (Libya).

- 2010-2011. Messak, Libya. Principal Investigator. Design and direction of "The Messak Project. Cultural and natural preservation and sustainable tourism", committed by the Libyan Department of Archaeology, funded by Eni North Africa.
- 2008-2009. Italy, Libya. Principal Investigator. Design and direction of "The child mummy from Giarabub: Study, preservation and museum collection", committed by the Libyan Department of Archaeology, funded by Eni North Africa.
- 2006. Edeyen of Murzuq. Libya. Principal Investigator. Design and direction of the Geoarchaeological surveys for the assessment of archaeological risk in the area of Murzuq, committed by the Libyan Department of Archaeology, funded by Eni North Africa.
- 2006. Kufra, Libya. Principal Investigator. Design and direction of Geoarchaeological surveys for the assessment of archaeological risk in the area of Kufra, committed by the Libyan Department of Archaeology, funded by Eni North Africa.
- 2004-to date. UNESCO World Heritage Centre (Sahara, rock art).
- 2000-2001. Principal Investigator. Design and direction of "Messak Archaeological Rescue Survey (MSRS)", a programme of geoarchaeological surveys, excavations and post-processing studies for the assessment of environmental and archaeological damage in the Messak (LASMO concession), committed by the Libyan Department of Archaeology, funded by LASMO.
- 1998-to date. National Geographic Society (Sahara, rock art).

Funding
Over the 2002-2022 period, I have acquired resources totalling over 4.5 million as Principal Investigator through competitive calls or third-party contracts, mainly for research activities in North and East Africa. In addition to Sapienza's 'Grandi Scavi di Ateneo' and the programme of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Directorate General for the Country System, DGPS, Office VI), there are European projects (MSCA, Marie Sk odowska-Curie Action), Italian national PRIN (MIUR), third-party contracts with Eneremass and Eni North Africa, and projects funded by the British Library, the National Geographic Society, the Leakey Foundation, the Wenner Gren Foundation, the Ethnos Kalos Foundation.

Dissemination
I wrote several articles on magazines, newspaper, blogs, websites, together with radio and TV interviews. In particular, I list here the scientific supervision and presence in the 2 documentaries that attracted much attention in the larger audience.

- 2005. "Il segno sulla pietra. Il Sahara sconosciuto degli uomini senza nome", Studio TV (Italia, 56'), directed by L. Rosa (awarded of several prizes: in particular, "Capitello d'oro" 2007 at 2° International Rome (http://www.studiofilmtv.it/film.asp?id=8&l=it).
-2002. "The Mistery of the Black Mummy". Fulcrum TV/Discovery Channel (UK, 49'), directed by Chris Hooke (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfIyj3p8j7w).