Andrea Vianello

• MA, PhD
• Fellow at University of South Florida

The first world pandemic (541–767 CE) was investigated using archaeological, proteomic, genetic, and genomic technologies. Focusing on a mass burial site in Jerash, present-day Jordan, we generated evidence of a pandemic for the first time in this region of cultural and geopolitical significance. The burial site predates the Black Death by approxim...

The first world pandemic (541-767 CE) was investigated using archaeological, proteomic, genetic, and genomic technologies. Focusing on a mass burial site in Jerash, present-day Jordan, we generated evidence of a pandemic for the first time in this region of cultural and geopolitical significance. The burial site predates the Black Death by approxim...

The catacombs of Santa Lucia were built during the 3rd century CE in Siracusa, Sicily, Italy, as a burial site for members of the local Christian community until the early 8th century CE. This site is an important cemeterial context of the Late Roman and Byzantine periods. The tombs and artifacts found suggest that individuals of varying wealth wer...

The paper presents the results obtained by techno-typological analysis of a lithic assemblage from the Neolithic layers of Grotta San Michele Arcangelo di Saracena (Cosenza) together with the results of micro-wear analysis obtained from a preliminary selection of obsidian artifacts with different provenances distinguished by pXRF analysis. The site...

Microbiome data are undergoing exponential growth powered by rapid technological advancement. As the scope and depth of microbiome research increases, cross-disciplinary research is urgently needed for interpreting and harnessing the unprecedented data output. However, conventional research settings pose challenges to much-needed interdisciplinary...

The amount of prehistoric metal items discovered in the Maltese archipelago during the BronzeAge very limited in number. The majority of the artifacts are traditionally considered Aegean imports from nearby Sicily. Nineteen objects, currently on display in the National Archaeological Museum of Valletta, and dated between the 17th and 12th century B...

This study focuses on the Neolithic, particularly on the emergence and development of the Diana Culture in the Aeolian Islands. Since the 1950s, the archaeological excavations unearthed parts of a settlement in a plain near the sea, contrada Diana in Lipari. We discuss the technological and typometric study of obsidian from trenches XVII, XXI, and...

The study and reconstruction of ancient dietary habits has become a very significant topic in archaeological research. Most chemical analysis studies for diet at Greek sites are limited to prehistory, with very few examples of studies for the Classical period. This paper represents a pilot study of stable isotope analysis carried out on a group of...

This presentation explores the Neolithic-Chalcolithic transition in Sicilian prehistory and contextualizes the interplay between the procurement of obsidian raw materials and their consequent reduction and use, in turn highlighting long-term trends in lithic exploitation from the Neolithic through Chalcolithic eras. By combining obsidian sourcing b...

The introduction of copper-based metals in Sicily appears to have been a particularly late and slow process. A program of pXRF analyses on early metals in Sicily has revealed the use of mostly copper, and a very late introduction of tin. Copper had been in use and extracted in northern Italy since the Late Neolithic (ca. 3500 BC), and spread across...

Archaeological excavations in the S-F area of Piani della Corona settlement have affected a portion of 2200 m² of a large plateau (490 m asl). The researches, conducted between 2007 and 2008 by the Superintendence of the Museo Preistorico Etnografico “L. Pigorini” with the Archaeological Superintendence of Calabria, have revealed traces of a large...

This paper discusses the use of non-destructive portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) to distinguish sources of variation in 8th Century BC Greek and Sicilian ceramics. The project comprises an element of my PhD study through La Trobe University, concerning Hellenic colonies established from the eighth century BC in the south of Italy, and on Sicily i...

Through the analysis of 106 obsidian artifacts from eight Chalcolithic sites throughout the island of Sicily (c. 3500–2500 BC) this paper discusses the interplay between the procurement of obsidian raw materials and their consequent reduction, in turn highlighting long-term trends in lithic exploitation from the Neolithic through Chalcolithic eras....

A systematic study on obsidian tools in Calabria and Sicily carried out by the authors have revealed the uniqueness in the patterns of production, exchange and consumption of Lipari obsidian. The study has concentrated on the Middle Neolithic primarily, with other Neolithic and Bronze Age contexts recognised at a later stage in the research since m...

This study explores obsidian consumption during the Early/Middle Neolithic Stentinello period (ca. 5600–4000 cal B.C.) on the Italian island of Sicily through the analysis of 622 obsidian artifacts from eight sites in eastern Sicily and the Aeolian Islands. By combining obsidian sourcing by means of portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectrometry w...

Presented here are results from the non-destructive portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analysis of ceramic artifacts in Italy, Malta, and Croatia, dating to the Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze, and Iron Ages, with a focus on the advantages and limitations of this method of analysis in identifying local vs. non-local pottery, and their “history” of...

While there is a large body of literature on prehistoric obsidian use in the West Mediterranean, little of this work is focused on post-Neolithic assemblages. This presentation aims in part to redress this research bias through a discussion of Chalcolithic and Bronze Age obsidian consumption in the region, with a focus on the role that early metall...

By the Late Bronze Age in Sicily and the Mediterranean, long distance exchange was well established as shown by materials such as copper oxhide ingots, amber, glass, ivory, and both decorated pottery and ceramic transport vessels. At some sites in southeastern Sicily, the large quantity of Mycenaean-style ceramics suggests the existence of establis...

A large number of copper-based and other metal artifacts in the Paolo Orsi Museum in Siracusa, southeast Sicily, were analyzed to determine their elemental composition and address issues such as the beginnings of alloy technology in Sicily. A small sample of comparative analyses has been carried out at the Luigi Bernabò Brea museum in Lipari. Non-d...

Engraved and painted animal and anthropomorphic figures were discovered in 1949 in the Grotta del Genovese on Levanzo, one of the Egadi islands west of Sicily. The engravings are thought to date to the upper Paleolithic (ca. 10,000 BC), the red painted figures to the Late Mesolithic (ca. 7000 BC), and the black painted figures to the Late Neolithic...

Over 1500 obsidian artifacts from 30 sites in Sicily (Italy) dating from the Early Neolithic to the Bronze Age were analyzed non-destructively using a Bruker III-SD portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer to determine their specific geological source and reconstruct transport/trade routes. This systematic, large-scale analytical program, which als...

A systematic, large-scale analytical program for obsidian from prehistoric archaeological sites in Sicily was conducted in 2012 and 2013. With the permission of several museums and superintendencies, over 1500 obsidian artifacts from 30 sites dating from the Early Neolithic to the Bronze Age were examined and characterized by their typology and tec...

Obsidian artifacts have been found at many prehistoric sites in Sicily, yet only a few studies have been done to determine the specific geological sources and subsources used. In 2012, nearly 600 artifacts from 25 archaeological sites dating from the Neolithic, Copper, and Bronze Ages (ca. 6th-2nd millennia BC) were analyzed non-destructively using...

Obsidian artifacts have been found at many prehistoric sites in Sicily, yet only a few studies have been done to determine the specific geological sources and subsources used. In 2012, nearly 600 artifacts from 25 archaeological sites dating from the Neolithic, Copper, and Bronze Ages (ca. 6 th-2 nd millennia BC) were analyzed non-destructively usi...

This concise dictionary is intended to be helpful in the reading of archaeological books and publications, and in the writing of papers and articles in both English and Italian. The aim of this work is to help, in particular, students and on-site archaeologists to find quickly a word relating to a specific period, a specific area or a research fiel...

Since " New Archaeology " was proposed by Lewis Binford in the 1960s, many archaeological theories have been produced and discussed to a point that it might appear that our knowledge of the past depends upon the latest theory. Post-processual archaeologists criticised the positivist position of processual scholars that thought archaeological interp...

Exotica in archaeology are usually identified as any foreign as opposed to indigenous materials and products. The presence of exotica can map movements of people and help recognise exchange networks by linking human societies with sometimes distant places. Initially exotica were only body ornaments, such as Palaeolithic beads (i.e. shells) and stud...

Archaic State Interaction: the Eastern Mediterranean in the Bronze Age, edited by ParkinsonWilliam A. & GalatyMichael L., 2009. Santa Fe (NM): School for Advanced Research Press; ISBN 978-1-934691-20-5 paperback £28.50 & US$34.95; xii+318 pp., 24 figs., 2 tables - Volume 21 Issue 1 - Andrea Vianello

Technological progress has been a constant of human history, to the point of being considered a defining aspect of human beings. Production technologies in some of the oldest cultures could provide immediate advantages that could result in social power as technological products would carry embedded meanings and symbolisms. As more cultures emerged...

Aegean-type pottery has been found in the West Mediterranean for more than a century and several publications have tried to explain the phenomenon from an Aegeancentric point of view. The search for metals, the arrival of Mycenaean people after the LH III B destructions in Mainland Greece and the hypothesis that Mycenaeans had to sail westwards bec...

Possible changes in the significance of gestures and body language can be detected in the Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeological evidence. These changes can be best assessed by presenting a few case studies encompassing the Palaeolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age. The cultural and behavioural changes in the later periods seem to have resulted in th...