Lorenzo Castellano

• PhD
• PostDoc Position at New York University

In the ancient world beeswax and honey were of crucial importance not only for nutrition, but also for a range of activities including various artisanal practices. A rich body of iconographic and literary evidence has proven very informative, but archaeological data are strongly underrepresented in studies on ancient beekeeping. A multidisciplinary...

Historical narratives about post-Hittite polities traditionally concern their political, military, and ethnic aspects, with very little attention given to their economic dimensions. Thanks to the recent discovery of large-scale storage facilities at the site of Niğde-Kınık Höyük, in South-Central Anatolia, this study aims to partially fill this gap...

This article presents a new anthracological sequence from the archeological site of Niğde-Kınık Höyük, in southern Cappadocia (Turkey), spanning from the Late Bronze Age to the Ottoman Period, which provides important insights into the vegetation history of Cappadocia and its change through time. The local woody vegetation was composed of deciduous...

Written accounts suggest there were major changes in agricultural practices in Anatolia as the region switched between Roman, Byzantine, Arab and Turkic control, yet archaeological evidence of these changes is offered only on a site-by-site basis. This article presents the first synthesis of archaeobotanical, palynological and zooarchaeological evi...

Excavations at the site of Kınık Höyük have brought to light over the past twelve years several occupational phases dated to the first Millennium BCE both on the acropolis and in the lower town, especially for the Middle Iron Age and the Hellenistic period. Since 2021 the University of Firenze joined the University of Pavia (Italy), NYU-ISAW (USA)...

Agricultural change in first and early second millennium ce Anatolia has been largely explored to date through palynological and historical datasets. This article presents a new synthesis of published archaeobotanical data that is used to explore regional differences in agricultural practices from the Roman (1st to mid-4th century ce) through the O...

Scenari di ricostruzione delle interazioni uomo-ambiente-clima in Lombardia (N-Italia) dal Paleolitico medio all’età del Ferro Characterising key issues in human–environment interactions in Lombardy (N-Italy) from the Middle Paleolithic to the Iron Age. - This contribution aims to provide an updated and concise overview of the main events and devel...

Alişar-IV ware is one of the most characteristic ceramic productions of early first-millennium BC central Anatolia and the only one characterised by painted figurative motifs besides geometric decorations. The ongoing excavations at Niğde-Kınık Höyük have uncovered a collection of fragments belonging to 42 Alişar-IV vessels, and this systematic mat...

The aim of this chapter is to provide an up-to-date review of the contribution of palynology to the reconstruction of the exploitation of ancient beekeeping and bee-products. After having introduced the reader to some of the main concepts in the palynology of bee-products (§2), the available evidence from Europe and the Mediterranean basin will be...

Cores and trenches drilled or dug in religious and secular buildings in the hilltop town of Bergamo (northern Italy) were investigated by means of micro/macrobotanical and pedochemical analysis to unravel the cultural vegetation history of the area during ca. seven centuries across the Bronze—Iron Ages. We explore the predictive power of biological...

Research in archaeobotany, the study of plant remains from archaeological sites, across Anatolia has significantly expanded in the last 25 years since the last systematic survey of the region was published (Nesbitt and Samuel 1996a). Our study builds on this survey and other, more recent but also more chronologically and regionally focused reviews...

Issues surrounding the difficult task of correlating archaeological and climatic trajectories are directly impacting the study of human-environmental interaction in Ancient China. We have chosen to focus on the 4.2 ka BP event due to the widespread belief in recent Chinese archaeological publications that it brought about the collapse of Neolithic...

The Neolithic to Bronze Age transition ( c . 5000–3500 BP) saw dramatic socio-economic developments in ancient China. Complex polities emerged in many regions, only to decline and collapse by the end of the period. In the Central Plains area, however, these centuries laid the foundations for China's first dynasties. This article presents zooarchaeo...

The hilltop town of Bergamo, at the southern fringe of the Italian Alps, represents a typical example of the stepped emergence of a prehistoric settlement developing into a proto-historic urban center in the Iron Age. We present here unprecedented multidisciplinary evidence based on several near-site stratigraphies, supported by a robust radiocarbo...

The study analyses through an interdisciplinary approach the wattle‐and‐daub building technique used on the Po Plain of northern Italy, focusing on the archaeological evidence from the Etruscan site of Forcello, near Bagnolo San Vito (Mantua) (540–375 bce). Wattle and daub is widespread across different times and periods, and is particularly common...

An introductory report on lake sedimentation and palaeoecology of the several small carbonatic lakes enclosed by LGM moraines in the glacial amphitheatre of the Garda Lake, and rich in pile dwellings developed in the Bronze Age.

The origin of the early settlement at the top of the Bergamo hill, as reconstructed from biostratigraphy and radiocarbon dating of core drillings in the center of the old town of Bergamo.

The discovery of remains of daub, especially burned, is very common in Italian pre- and protohistoric sites. This collective work aims to summarize the researches carried out over the last thirty years in Italian contexts of the Late Prehistory, from the Neolithic to the Iron Age. The subjects considered in this paper will be the selection of raw m...

The Gravettian settlements of Europe are considered as an expression of human adaptation to harsh climates. In Southern Europe, however, favorable vegetation-climate conditions supported hunters-gatherer subsistence and the maintenance of their large-scale networks. This was also the case of the North-Adriatic plain and the Apennine mountain ridge...

The present contribution aims to provide communication of the 2009 to 2017 field seasons in Val Camisana (Carona, Bergamo). The project takes place in a high altitude, Alpine, setting, between 2100 and 2350 m asl, within an area of archeological and historical relevance for the rich attestation of rock incisions and inscriptions, dated from the Iro...

Macroscopic charred remains have long since been studied in archeology, archaeobotany, and palaeoenvironmental research. Despite this long tradition, very little attention has so far been given to microscopic charred botanical remains, apart from microcharcoal. The discovery of extraordinarily well-preserved fossil bee-breads and fragments of charr...

The Gravettian settlements of Europe are considered as an expression of the human adaptation to harsh climates. In Southern Europe, however, favorable vegetation-climate conditions supported hunters-gatherers subsistence and the maintenance of their large-scale networks. This was also the case of the North-Adriatic plain and the Apennine mountain r...

The Gravettian settlements of Europe are considered as an expression of the human adaptation to harsh climates. In Southern Europe, however, favorable vegetation-climate conditions supported hunters-gatherers subsistence and the maintenance of their large-scale networks. This was also the case of the North-Adriatic plain and the Apennine mountain r...

This note complements the preliminary comparative stratigraphy of excavated sites of Cilicia published in AoF 44/2 with the new stratigraphic data obtained at the ongoing excavation of Niğde Kınık Höyük, in South Cappadocia. South Cappadocia lies directly north of Cilicia beyond the Taurus mountains, and from Prehistory it has controlled the access...

The Gravettian settlements of Europe are considered as an expression of the human adaptation to harsh climates. In Southern Europe, however, favorable vegetation-climate conditions supported hunters-gatherers subsistence and the maintenance of their large-scale networks. This was also the case of the North-Adriatic plain and the Apennine mountain r...

Report of excavation at the site of Kınık Höyük, 2017 season

Niğde-Kınık Höyük (Turkey): Excavation Report (UNIPV, ISAW-NYU) 2017

1. This paper addresses the origin and development of the oldest prehistoric pasture in the timberline ecotone known so far in the Alps and its relation to anthropogenic pressure and natural climate change. 2. Palaeoecological and geochemical techniques were applied on the Crotte Basse mire stratigraphy (2365 m a.s.l, northwestern Italy) to describ...

Presentiamo il primo studio paleoecologico che abbraccia un’intera stratigrafia del sottosuolo del pianalto di Bergamo Alta, potente più di 3 metri, dalle fasi precedenti agli strati archeologici protourbani fino alla fase urbana e monumentale, non limitato allo studio dei soli strati propriamente archeologici. Tra il 2001 e il 2011 la Soprintenden...

The Italian Apennine is dearth of evidence dating to the Mid Upper Paleolithic and at the present state one of the best known Gravettian settlement in this area is represented by the site of Fonte delle Mattinate, on the Marche Apennine ridge. After that discovery, no advancements have been made in surveying other patches of this long but crossable...

Valcamonica is known all over the world for the development of rock art between the Lateglacial and the Middle Ages. We present here an updated synthesis on the environmental history of Valcamonica, focussing on the relationships between natural ecosystems, climate and human peopling. Among the natural archives reviewed, a reference is the Pian di...

C. Ravazzi et al. Lake evolution since the Bronze Age in the Lower Mincio River valley and the Forcello Etruscan harbour (Central Po plain.) (IT ISSN 0394-3356, 2011). The Etruscan harbour of Forcello in lower valley of the Mincio River, N-Italy, was active between the VI to IV centuries BC. The stratigraphic investigations revealed that the settle...

The ongoing archaeological excavations at "Lucone D" pile-dwelling (Garda lake morainic amphitheatre, Polpenazze del Garda - Brescia), yielded abundant archaeological artifacts and piles dendrochronologically and/or culturally dated back from 2033±10 to 1800-1900 cal B.C. Palynostratigraphic studies focused on the lacustrine-palustrine sequence in...

Le ricerche avviate a Carona nel 2007, nell’area delle incisioni rupestri, hanno permesso di effettuare la georeferenziazione, la schedatura di molti dei massi localizzati, oltre al rilievo a contatto delle loro incisioni1. Poiché è risultata subito evidente l’importanza del masso CMS 1 che reca figurazioni riferibili al V sec. a.C. e iscrizioni ce...