I am a researcher working in archaeometallurgy, with an academic background in Sciences and Technologies applied to Cultural Heritage, a branch of studies in Italy on heritage diagnostics, conservation and archaeometry, with a focus on applied chemistry and physics.
During my university studies, especially through my thesis works, I trained in SEM–EDS for archaeometry, and I specialised in archaeometallurgy and experimental archaeology, focusing first on ancient gold–silver parting and later on base-metal metallurgy and mining. These interests gradually expanded toward landscape and mining archaeology, with attention to ancient mineral resources and their exploitation.
During my PhD and subsequent research experiences, I carried out archaeological surveys and documentation of ancient mining areas, working in different environmental contexts, including vegetated and mountainous landscapes as well as arid desert–savannah regions.
Following a postgraduate specialisation in geomatics for archaeology, my work increasingly focused on cartography, photogrammetry, 3D modelling for topographic studies, GIS, and remote sensing. I later worked for several years in geomatics monitoring, applying these methods also for landscape and mining archaeology. In this context, I also studied the presence of underground quarries and their effects in urban environments, alongside the monitoring of modern infrastructure. Currently, as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cyprus Institute – STARC, under the supervision of Prof. Th. Rehren, I am carrying out the DE-CADMEA project, where archaeometallurgy, experimental archaeology, and GIS-based spatial analysis for the planning of survey and fieldwork in the ancient mining landscapes, are integrated for the recognition and use of zinc-rich materials, such as smelting-related zinc oxides (kadmeia/Ofengalmei) for brass making, by using the post-medieval mining landscapes of the Harz as a comparative framework to better understand their identification and use in the early Cypriot context.