Staff profile
Ms Maria De Falco
PhD candidate
| Affiliation | Room number | Telephone |
|---|---|---|
| Member of the Department of Archaeology |
Biography
BA and MA degree at the Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale in Western Archaeology. Specialized in the analysis of prehistoric pottery from Southern Italy, with a focus on Neolithic, Copper age and Early Bronze age contexts. Before undertaking my PhD, I worked in commercial archaeology and in the field of digital reconstructions and innovative technologies applied to archaeology, co-founding Mnemosyne3D. I am member of the CRS “Enzo dei Medici” since 2011 with which I took part to several projects on underground Italian prehistoric contexts and from 2014 to 2016 I took part to the Archaeological Mission of the Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale” to Oman as pottery specialist.
Organisation of Conferences, sessions, workshops
‘Revolutionary innovations? Re-thinking long-term technological change’, session at the Theoretical Archaeology Group meeting, 15-17 December 2022, University of Edinburgh. With Beatrijs de Groot, Guillermo Diaz de Liano del Valle.
‘Across Technologies: what is left to explore in the concept of technological variability? Choices, traditions, identities and ideologies in prehistoric pottery production in Europe and the Mediterranean’ 19th January 2022 - Online workshop – Durham University, Department of Archaeology, Research Dialogues 2021.
Research Topic
Serving the Living and the Dead: Ceramic technology and circulation in Copper Age Southern Italy
Abstract
Between the IV and III millennia BC, Europe and the Mediterranean are characterized by the development of widespread cultures that show highly coded funerary practices and long-distance connections. Southern Italy and the Central Mediterranean region during the Copper Age stand out for the widespread transcultural circulation of goods, symbols and concepts. Hypotheses on the definition of cultures and circulation of peoples, goods and ideas have been made on the basis of typological and contextual analyses. The main aim of my research is to analyse Copper Age Campania pottery from an archaeometric point of view in order to investigate the social dynamics of pottery production and circulation. In particular, my research question are:
1) Understanding to what extent stylistic changes and patterns in ceramic production reflect technological, productive, functional and cultural differences;
2) Detecting the presence of imported/exported goods and the local re-elaboration of foreign influences.
The dataset for the proposed research consists in pottery from several Copper Age sites, settlements and necropolises, in Campania, Southern Italy. The methodology chosen for this research is an integrated approach to pottery involving both macroscopic and advanced archaeometric analyses. This research will contribute to broaden our understanding of Copper age communities, their craft specialization, mobility and technological choices.
Conference Contributions
2022: DE FALCO M., Continuity and change in the ceramic technologies of Copper Age Campania, 43rd Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG) Conference, 15-17 December 2022, Edinburgh, UK.
2021: AURINO P., DE FALCO M., Mind the gap: Bell Beaker presence in Copper Age Campania, Southern Italy. 22nd Meeting of “Archéologie et Gobelets”, 21-23 January 2021, Geneva, Switzerland.
2019: AURINO P., DE FALCO M., Le forme del culto: strategie produttive e scelte rituali nella ceramica eneolitica di Paestum, Dialoghi sull’Archeologia della Magna Grecia e del Mediterraneo, Paestum 15-17 September 2019.
2019: NEGRONI CATACCHIO N., VALENTINOVA DIMITROVA C., ROMEO PITONE M., DE FALCO M., Forni a cupola in Etruria Meridionale durante l'età del Bronzo Finale: il caso di Sorgenti della Nova, Incontri Annuali di Preistoria e Protostoria 6, Bologna 29 March 2019.
2018: DE FALCO M., Pottery for the living and the dead: Copper Age Campania through the ceramic record, Ceramic Petrology Group Meeting, CC A-BW, University of Tübingen, 8 - 9 November 2018.
2018: DE FALCO M., AURINO P., Circulation of goods, circulation of ideas: perspectives from Copper Age Campania, Southern Italy, Sessione “Mediterranean cultural diffusion in Prehistory”, XXIV European Association of Archaeologist Annual Meeting, Barcellona 5-8 September 2018.
2018: DE FALCO M., Villages of the living, villages of the dead: Copper Age Campania through the pottery record, Central Mediterranean Prehistory Seminar, McDonald Institute for Archaeology, University of Cambridge 23 May 2018.
2016: DE FALCO, M., LAROCCA, F., ‘Il luogo sacro. Aspetti e caratteristiche dell’utilizzo cultuale della cavità’, Tra Pietra e Acqua. Archeologia delle Grotte di Pertosa-Auletta: studi e ricerche 2004-2016, 21-22 October 2016, Pertosa.
2016: AURINO, P., DE FALCO, M., MANCUSI, V. and MORETTI, M., ‘Prima di Poseidonia: la vita e la morte sotto i templi’, Dialoghi sull’archeologia della Magna Grecia e del Mediterraneo, I International Congress, 7-9 September 2016, Paestum.
2015: LAROCCA F., DE FALCO M., ‘The Funerary Use of Caves in Prehistoric and Protohistoric Calabria (Italy). From isolated burials to hypogean graveyards’, Session ‘Human Remains In Caves: Reconfiguring Identities’, XXI European Association of Archaeologist Annual Meeting, 2-5 September, University of Glasgow.
2015: DE FALCO M., LAROCCA F., ‘Underground Sacredness: Hypogean Cult Endurance from Prehistory to Christian Era. A “Focus” on the figure of Michael the Archangel and on some case studies from Southern Italy’, Session ‘Sacred Places, Sacred Spaces: Landscape Transformation and Inheritance’, XXI European Association of Archaeologist Annual Meeting, 2-5 September, University of Glasgow.
2014: LAROCCA F., DE FALCO M., ‘Water sacredness and underground protohistoric cults within the Grotte di Pertosa (Campania, Italia)’, Session ‘Caves as ritual spaces in later prehistoric Europe’, XX European Association of Archaeologist Annual Meeting, 10-14 September, University of Istanbul.
Publications
Aurino P., De Falco M., (2022) Mind the gap: Bell Beaker presence in Copper Age Campania, Southern Italy, in: Abegg, C., Carloni, D., Cousseau, F., Derenne, E., and Ryan-Despraz, J. S. (Eds.), Bell Beaker Culture in all its forms. Proceedings of the 22nd Meeting of ‘Archéologie et Gobelets’ 2021 (Geneva, Switzerland). Oxford: Archaeopress, pp. 211–224.
De Falco M., Nappi M. L., Auletta A., Langella C., (2021) Dal digitale al materiale: design e tecnologie digitali per la creazione di kit esperienziali per il Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, Archeologia e Calcolatori, 32.
Aurino P., De Falco M., (2021), Le Forme Del Culto: Strategie Produttive e Scelte Rituali Nella Ceramica Eneolitica Di Paestum, in: Dialoghi sull’Archeologia della Magna Grecia e del Mediterraneo, Paestum 15-17 Settembre 2019, vol. IV.3. Paestum: Pandemos, pp. 693–706.
Aurino, P., De Falco, M., Mancusi, V. and Moretti, M. (2017). Prima di Poseidonia: la vita e la morte sotto i templi. In: A. Pontrandolfo, M. Scafuro (eds.), Dialoghi sull’archeologia della Magna Grecia e del Mediterraneo. Paestum 7-9 September 2016, I International Congress. Paestum: Pandemos, vol. 2, pp. 151-65.
De Falco, M., Larocca, F., (2017). Il luogo sacro. Aspetti e caratteristiche dell’utilizzo cultuale della cavità. In: Felice Larocca (ed.), Tra Pietra e Acqua. Archeologia delle Grotte di Pertosa-Auletta: studi e ricerche 2004-2016. Fondazione Mida, Pertosa: pp. 120-35.
Antonietti, D., De Falco, M. (2016), “The ceramic assemblages from H5 and H1-H1a” in LORETO, R., Antonietti, D., Cozzolino, V., De Falco, M., Gaudiello, M., Terminiello, L., “BMH2 and the Iron Age northern coastal Oman in light of 2014-2015 excavation seasons”, AION - Annali dell’Università degli Studi di Napoli "L’Orientale". Sezione orientale, 76, pp. 201-45.