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Staff profile

Overview

Letizia Silvestri

Biography

Letizia Silvestri specializes in Mediterranean Later Prehistory, with a focus on Central Italy and the Bronze Age. 

With her PhD research “Caves and human lifeways in Bronze Age Central Italy: a social bioarchaeology approach”, she integrated zooarchaeology and palaeoethnobotany to the archaeological context of several cave sites, in order to improve the understanding of both palaeoeconomy and social practice, including rituals, in the central Apennine communities of the 2nd millennium B.C.E.

She is currently experimenting such method also on other periods, geographical regions and site types, including the Neolithic, Northern Italy and open-air settlements, while collaborating in interdisciplinary projects focusing also on Italian Middle and Upper Palaeolithic.

Letizia has been collaborating with Durham University and Rome “Tor Vergata” University as Project Assistant of international fieldwork projects in central Italy since 2013.

Since 2016, she has also been working as team leader for the Italian National Museum Services Company, supervising the staff of several National Museums and Monuments in Rome, in so gaining expertise in the field of cultural heritage and museum management.

Main research interests
  • Central Mediterranean Later Prehistory
  • Social zooarchaeology and palaeoethnobotany
  • Cave archaeology
  • Comparison between bioarchaeological evidence in different site types
  • Contextual archaeology and interdisciplinarity

Publications

Authored book:

Rolfo, M.F., Achino, K.F., Gatta, M. and Silvestri, L. (eds.) (in prep.). ‘The Archaeology of Grotta Mora Cavorso – Volume I – From Protohistory to present’, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, exp. 2020.

Chapter in book:

Silvestri L., Rolfo M.F., Achino K.F., Gatta M., Angle M. (2019): “How to detect ritual in Middle Bronze Age Central Italy? A contextual approach at Pastena Cave”, in L. Buster, E. Warmenhol, D. Mlekuž (Eds.), Between worlds: Understanding ritual cave use in later prehistory, Berlin: Springer, pp.87-112.

Silvestri L., Rolfo M.F., Angle M., Skeates R., Salari L. (2018): “Plant and faunal remains as cultural markers of ritual sites: case studies from Bronze Age central Italy”, in A. Livarda, R. Madwick, S. Riera (Eds.), Bioarchaeology of Ritual and Religion, Oxford: Oxbow, pp.129-147.

Silvestri L., Rolfo M.F., Angle M., Salari L., (2017): “Caves and ecofacts in Middle Bronze Age central Italy: new interpretive perspectives on economy and rituals of Apennine communities”, in T. Lachenal, C. Mordant, T. Nicolas, C. Véber (Eds.) – Le Bronze moyen et l’origine du Bronze final en Europe occidentale, de la Méditerranée aux pays nordiques (xvii-xiii siècle avant notre ère), Colloque APRAB “Bronze 2014”, Strasbourg 17 au 20 juin 2014, 2017 (Collection Rhin-Meuse-Moselle 6), Strasbourg, pp.569-577.

Rolfo, M.F., Achino, K.F. and Silvestri, L. (2017). Mora Cavorso Cave: a collective underground burial in Neolithic central Italy, in: T. Tomé, M. Díaz-Zorita Bonilla, A. M. Silva, C. Cunha, R. Boaventura (eds.), Current Approaches to Collective Burials in the Late European Prehistory, Archaeopress, Oxford, pp.33-40.

Conference paper:

Angle, M., Skeates, R., Rolfo, M.F., Mancini, D., Silvestri, L., (2019). "Seppellire in grotta”. Relazioni spaziali, materiali e concettuali tra aree di frequentazione chiuse o aperte - Burial in caves: Spatial, material and conceptual relations between closed and open areas of human occupation” (Poster), in Atti del Tredicesimo Incontro di Studi sul Lazio e la Sabina, Roma, pp.339-342.

Silvestri L., Rolfo M.F., Angle M., Skeates R., Salari L. (2019): “Il potenziale interpretativo dell'archeofauna: alcuni esempi da grotte rituali e funerarie dell'età del Bronzo medio in Italia Centrale”, in Atti dell’8° Convegno Nazionale di Archeozoologia, Lecce, Novembre 2015, pp.101-108.

Silvestri, L., Salari, L., Rolfo, M.F., (2016). La fauna della media età del Bronzo di Grotta Mora Cavorso (Jenne, RM), in Atti del 7° Convegno Nazionale di Archeozoologia, Ferrara - Rovigo, 22nd-24th November 2012. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15160/1824-2707/1314.

Rolfo, M.F., Achino, K.F., Cappa, E., Fusco, I. and Silvestri, L. (2015) ‘La Grotta Mora Cavorso a Jenne: dalle indagini speleologiche alla ricostruzione archeologica’, in L. Alessandri (ed.) Speleologia del Lazio. Attraverso il vuoto. Atti del VI Convegno Federazione Speleologica del Lazio, Genzano 7-8 Dicembre 2013, Roma, Rivista della Federazione Speleologica del Lazio, 8, pp. 112-125.

Angle, M., Rolfo, M.F., Fusco, I. and Silvestri, L. (2014) ‘New investigations at the Cave of Pastena (Frosinone). Report 2012’, in G. Ghini and Z. Mari (eds.), Lazio e Sabina, Scoperte Scavi e Ricerche, Atti del Decimo Incontro di Studi sul Lazio e la Sabina, Roma: Quasar, pp. 205–211.

Achino, K.F., Rolfo, M.F., Silvestri L., and Proietti, D. (2012) ‘Oral sources and Archaeological data: the study case of Mora Cavorso Cave (Jenne)’, in F. Lugli, A. Stoppiello, A. and S. Biagetti (eds.) Proceedings of the V Ethnoarchaeological meeting ‘Ethnoarcheology: Current research and field methods’, Rome 13th-14th May 2010 (Poster), Oxford: BAR International Series 472, pp. 293-297.

Rolfo, M.F., Achino, K.F., Fusco, I., Silvestri, L. and Salari, L. (2012) ‘Grotta Mora Cavorso a Jenne (Roma), campagne di scavo 2009-2010’, in G. Ghini and Z. Mari (eds.) Lazio e Sabina 8 (Atti del Convegno “Ottavo Incontro di Studi sul Lazio e la Sabina”, Roma, 30-31 marzo, 1 aprile 2011), Roma: Quasar, pp. 77-90.

Journal article:

Silvestri, L., Achino, K.F., Gatta, M., Rolfo, M.F. and Salari, L. (in press): “Grotta Mora Cavorso: Physical, material and symbolic boundaries of life and death practices in a Neolithic cave of central Italy”. Quaternary International. doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2018.09.050.

Salari, L., Masseti, M., Silvestri, L. (2019). ‘Late Pleistocene and Holocene distribution history of the Eurasian beaver, Castor fiber L., 1758, in Italy’, Mammalia, doi.org/10.1515/mammalia-2018-0159.

Gatta, M., Kotsakis, T., Pandolfi, L., Petronio, C., Salari, L., Achino, K.F., Silvestri, L. and Rolfo, M.F., (2018). The Late Pleistocene faunal assemblage from Cava Muracci (Latium, Italy): Palaeoenvironmental implications for coastal central Italy during MIS 3. Comptes Rendus Palevol. doi.org/10.1016/j.crpv.2018.04.006

Salari, L., Achino, K. F., Gatta, M., Petronio, C., Rolfo, M. F., Silvestri, L., and Pandolfi, L. (2017). ‘The wolf from Grotta Mora Cavorso (Simbruini mountains, Latium) within the evolution of Canis lupus L., 1758 in the Quaternary of Italy’. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 476, 90-105.

Achino, K.F., Gatta, M., Silvestri L., and Rolfo, M.F. (2016) ‘Re-evaluating the traditional models of prehistoric human occupation in central Italy: the case-study of Grotta Mora Cavorso’, Antiquity Project Gallery, Issue 350.

Gatta, M., Achino, K. F., La Rosa, M., Ceruleo, P., Silvestri, L., and Rolfo, M. F. (2016). ‘The Pontinian open-air project (PONT-AIR), Lazio, Italy’, Antiquity Research Gallery, Issue 352.

Gatta, M., Rolfo, M. F., Petronio, C., Salari, L., and Silvestri, L. (2016). ‘Late Pleistocene skeleton of Canis lupus l., 1758 from Grotta Mora Cavorso (Jenne, Latium, central Italy)’. Comptes Rendus Palevol, 15(8), 941-949.

Rolfo, M.F., Achino, K.F., Fusco, I, Silvestri, L. and Salari, L. (2016) ‘Reassessing human occupation patterns in the inner central Apennines in prehistory: The case-study of Grotta Mora Cavorso’, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 7, pp. 358-367.

Salari, L., & Silvestri, L. (2015). ‘Holocene bats (Mammalia, Chiroptera) from five caves of Central Apennines (Italy)’. Barbastella, 8(1).

Rolfo, M.F., Achino, K.F., Fusco, I., Salari, L. and Silvestri, L. (2013) 'La Grotta Mora Cavorso a Jenne (Roma). I livelli dell’antica-media età del Bronzo', Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche, 63, pp. 95-123.

Tagliacozzo, A., Fiore, I., Rolfo, M.F., Silvestri, L. and Salari, L. (2016) ‘New data on Late Pleistocene and Holocene red squirrel, Sciurus vulgaris L., 1758, in Italy.’ Revue de Paléobiologie, 35(2), 417-445.

Silvestri, L., Achino, K.F., Gatta, M., Rolfo, M.F., (2017): “Bioarchaeological remains as indicators of costly signalling: two case-studies from the Middle Bronze Age of Central Italy'. In World Archaeology - Costly Signalling special issue, pp.1-15.

Silvestri, L., (2015). ‘Beyond the cave: the Southern Lazio Field Project’. PAST 80, July 2015, pp. 1-3.

Publications

Journal Article