ARKEOS 

 I am a professional Italian archaeologist with a wide knowledge of the material culture and the archaeology of Sicily, the region where I have lived and worked for the last 20 years, and more broadly of the central- western Mediterranean basin. I have specialized in the study of the island’s prehistory and of the larger Mediterranean context, although I have had the opportunity to work and to study on other periods of the long Sicilian history, particularly the Greek Archaic age, the Byzantine- Islamic age, and historical archaeology up to the Fascist period, through an intense survey activity and a series of excavations of some key sites in central Sicily attributable to these later periods.

After my graduate (University of Genoa, Italy, 1983-1987) and postgraduate studies (Institute of Archaeology, UCL, UK, 1990-1994), I have been working as a freelance archaeologist, also collaborating with Italian and overseas universities, research bodies and archaeological Soprintendenze ,within research projects carried out in Italy (Sicily, Calabria, Sardinia, Lombardy) and abroad (Tunisia, Oman). From 1995 to 2011 I was director of the Centro Studi di Archeologia Mediterranea, an independent research centre based at Enna (central Sicily). From 2008 to 2011 I lectured in Mediterranean Prehistory and Protohistory at Università Kore of Enna. Since 2011 I have been running, as CEO, a private company, Arkeos, based at Enna, and specialized in a wide range of archaeological and topographic services. In February 2014 I achieved the National (Italian) Academic Qualification as Associate Professor in Prehistoric Archaeology.

During this period I have planned, organized and directed several research projects on the archaeology of Sicily, including both archaeological surveys and stratigraphic excavations. Since 2013 I have been co-directing, with Filippo Iannì, the summer school “Archaeology in central Sicily: the prehistory of the Erei”. Preliminary scientific results of this research have been presented and published in interim reports, conference proceedings and articles for both local and international peer-reviewed journals; furthermore, a series of monographs, regarding in particular the “Torcicoda Valley Project”, and the results from the excavations of Case Bastione and Tornambè, are now in preparation.

My specific research interests concern the study of the complex social, economic and cultural dynamics of the prehistory of central Sicily (6th-2nd millennium BC), as well as the social and cultural interaction between this internal area with the rest of Sicily and the wider Mediterranean context. I am also involved in the methodological aspects of the discipline, such as the use of digital and 3D planning and mapping, GIS and landscape archaeology, the different social and technological aspects of the ancient modes of production, archaeometry and bio-archaeology. I am particularly interested in investigating and discussing theories about the complexity of Mediterranean societies, from the development of hierarchic relations and social inequality to the formation and development of early states. Particular attention is also given to the impact and the social and economic consequences of the modern practice of archaeology, particularly on local communities, promoting at all levels the ethics of the discipline.

In this sense, I have actively collaborated with various local and regional authorities developing and managing complex projects for the research, conservation and improvement of the archaeological heritage of central Sicily, mostly funded by the European Community, developing advanced skills in the assessment and management of complex administrative, logistic and economic resources, and the organization of fieldwork with students, academics and multidisciplinary field teams.