Francesca Chelazzi
Degree and Qualifications
BA, Classic Archaeology (summa cum laude), 2005, University of Florence (Italy)
MA, Archaeology (summa cum laude), 2007, University of Florence (Italy)
2nd level Master (Italian Academic System), Geo-technologies for Archaeology, 2008, University of Siena, Italy.
Research Project
Settlement strategies in Bronze Age South-western Cyprus.
My project aims to investigate the development and changes in settlement strategies during the Bronze Age periods (2500-1050 BC) in the South-western part of Cyprus. As traditionally assumed, regional processes in terms of settlement strategies, land use and subsistence patterns evolved in Cyprus in parallel with the rise of the so-called ‘social complexity’, a concept that permeates studies and discussions concerning long-term changes in regional and extra-regional Pre-historic and Proto-historic contexts. In fact, the emergence of ‘social complexity’ – in its incipient, emergent and developed phases – is reflected by the change of settlement strategies chosen considering the dynamic locative, economic, socio-political and behavioural factors. This is a complex and articulated process: it develops from a mainly agricultural and horizontally structured social organisation in the Pre-historic Bronze Age (2300-1750 BC) to a hierarchical settlement system where different site categories have particular roles into a well organised redistributive model in Proto-historic Bronze Age (1750-1050 BC). Signs and traces of this process are clearly identifiable in the selected area and the choice of a perspective focusing on settlement strategies could help in this attempt.
As the variables and the parameters involved in this development have a different and heterogeneous nature, a Geographic Information System (GIS) is undoubtedly the best instrument at our disposal because it permits us to store, manage and analyse different data in a completive and holistic way; moreover GIS is a necessary tool in integrating archaeological and environmental data. Two methodological challenges affect my research: the first one is represented by the data I’m working with, coming from several survey projects undertaken in the island since the beginning of the 20th century. The main difficulty is represented by the different informative standards and the different approaches characterizing each archaeological project, a problem that is very common in Mediterranean regional studies. The second challenge is represented by the dataset’s heterogeneity that is constituted by the two-part nature of the data: on one hand excavation activities and on the other hand survey projects. Sometimes, in fact, survey data alone are not sufficient in order to investigate past landscapes and, especially, the social structure behind them.
Landscape, in fact, is a complex phenomenon where important relationships between natural processes and human practices take place and make themselves perceptible. In the light of this proposition, it’s clear that human settling activities need to be interpreted considering both the environment (natural landscape) and the human features (social landscape). Too often traditional regional archaeology has focused on settlement patterns dwelling almost exclusively on the environmental background and neglecting important key points such as religion, culture, sociopolitical structure, security systems, communications, trades. South-western Cyprus is certainly an area showing a more agricultural than metallurgical economic background. Nevertheless, this area played an important role and showed great economic wealth in the Pre-historic and Proto-historic periods, as well as in the subsequent Iron Age. The gentle landscape, formed by several hills alternated with fertile terraces along riverbeds, had always promoted more agricultural than mineral activities and, despite of this, the human presence in this area has been intense and continuous, eluding the traditional equation ‘Cyprus = metallurgy’.
Supervisors
Research Interests
Aegean and Eastern-Mediterranean Archaeology (Greece, Crete, Cyclades, Cyprus, Turkey and Near East)
Regional and settlement Archaeology, Landscape Archaeology
Geo-technologies for archaeology (GIS, 3D-modelling, geophysics, remote sensing)
Conference Papers
Chronology and function of the Middle Bronze Age sites in the Kouris valley area: a preliminary study on the topography and the pottery evidence (presented with Dr. Bombardieri). Postgraduate Cypriote Archaeology (POCA 2008), November 2008, Mediterranean Archaeological Research Institute (MARI). Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
Applicazioni archeometriche nella Kouris Valley: primi dati morfologici e composizionali sulla Red Polished Ware (presented with Dr. Davit). Giornate di studio. Antichità Cipriote: la valle del fiume Kouris e alter ricerche, April 2009, Dipartimento delle Antichità “G. Pasquali”, Università degli Studi di Firenze.
Excavations at Erimi-Laonin tou Porakou: a MCy-LCy Settlement in the Kourion region (presented with Dr. Bombardieri and Dr. Marino). Postgraduate Cypriote Archaeology (POCA 2009), November 2009, University of Oxford.
Investigation the intra-site spatial relations at Erimi-Laonin tou Porakou: the organization of the workshop, settlement and cemetery areas during the EC III – LC I period (presented with Dr. Bombardieri and Miss Amadio). Postgraduate Cypriote Archaeology (2010), October 2010, Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia, Italy.
Excavations at Erimi-Laonin tou Porakou (Lemesos, Cyprus) (presented with Dr. Bombardieri and Miss Dionisio). Symposium of Mediterranean Archaeology (SOMA 15), March 2011, Università di Catania, Italy.
Dating the contexts (or contextualize the dating?): new evidences from the Southern Cemetery at Erimi-Laonin tou Porakou (EC-LC I) (presented with Dr. Bombardieri and Miss Scirè Calabrisotto). Postgraduate Cyptiote Archaeology (POCA 2011), October 2011, Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée "J. Pouilloux”, Lyon, France.
Archaeometric analysis in Cyprus: some cues taken from the Bronze Age site of Erimi-Laonin tou Porakou (presented with Dr. Davit). 4th Conference of Young Researchers Working in the Ancient Near East (Broadening Horizons 4), October 2011, Università di Torino, Italy.
From carving to processing: stone features of the EC III – LC I Workshop Complex at the Cypriot site of Erimi-Laonin tou Porakou (presented with Miss Amadio). Symposium of Mediterranean Archaeology (SOMA 16), March 2012, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy.
Publications
2009. La ceramic Neolitica nella collezione egea del Museo Archeologico di Firenze. In: Jasink, A.M. and Bombardieri, L. (eds.), Le collezioni egee del Museo Archaeologico di Firenze. Florence University Press, Florence, 185-191.
2010. Archaeometric applications in the Kouris River Valley: preliminary morphological and compositional studies on Red Polished ware from survey co-authored with P. Davit. In: Jasink, A.M. and Bombardieri, L. (eds.), Atti delle Giornate di Studio. Antichità Cipriote: la valle del Kouris e alter ricerche. Florence University Press, Florence, 135-146.
2010. Land use and settlement patterns in theKourion region: a cross analysis of the MC-LC topography and potteryevidence co-authored with L. Bombardieri. In: Nys, K. and Jacobs, A. (eds.) “POCA 2008: acts of the 8th annual meetingof Postgraduate Cypriote Archaeology, 27th – 29th of November 2008, VrijeUniversiteit Brussel”, SIMA-PB series. In press.
2011. Dating the Contexts (or contextualizing the dating?). New evidences from the Southern Cemetery at Erimi-Laonin tou Porakou (EC-LC I) co-authored with L. Bombardieri, C. Scirè Calabrisotto and E.Albertini. Cathiers du Centre d’Études Chypriotes 41 (2011), 87-108.
2011. Working with water. Procurement, consumption and water-based working activities at Erimi-Laonin tou Porakou (EC-LC I Workshop Complex) co-authored with L. Bombardieri and M. L. Amadio. In: Hadjikyriakos, I. and Trentin, M. (eds.), Proceedings of the 10th annual meeting of Postgraduate Cypriote Archaeology (X POCA), Venice, October 28th – 30th 2010. In press.
2012. From Quarrying to Dressing and Fixing: Stone features of the EC III-LC I Workshop Complex at Erimi-Laonin tou Porakou (Cyprus)co-authored with M. L. Amadio. In Acts of the 16th SOMA Conference ‘Identity and Connectivity’, British Archaeological Reports 2012. In press.
2012. Archaeology and Archaeometry: a daily cooperative match between allied disciplines at the Bronze Age site of Erimi-Laonin tou Porakou, Cyprus. co-authored with P. Davit. In: Proceedings of the 4th Conference of Young Researchers Working in the Ancient Near East (Broadening Horizons 4), 25th – 28th of October 2011, Università di Torino, Italy. In press.
Forthcoming. Technological and compositional characterization of Red Polished ware from the Bronze Age Kouris valley, Cyprus. I. A preliminary study. co-autored with S. Coluccia, P. Davit, L. Operti and F. Turco. Forthcoming.
Additional information
Currently, I have a research scholarship at the Department of Chemistry I.F.M. of the University of Turin for the archaeometric study of the archaeological artefacts and contexts from the EC III – LC I site of Erimi-Laonin tou Porakou (Limassol District, Cyprus).
I am one of the former members of the Kouris Valley Project (University of Florence) and the Italian Archaeological Expedition at Erimi.
Previous archaeological fieldworks in the Greater-Greece site of Kaulon (Reggio Calabria, Italy) and the Etruscan site of Accesa (Massa Marittima, Italy).
Specific interest in working with 3D modelling and GIS.
Lab. activities in chemical and physical methods of analysis of the archaeological record (SEM-EDX, XRD and XRPD, XRF, DR-UV-vis, FTIR)