Staff profile

I am a historian of the Greek world and an epigrapher, Anglo-Italian by birth and Scandinavian by surname. I gained my BA in Classics at the University of Pavia (Ghislieri College), alongside a parallel degree from the Institute of Advanced Study (IUSS) of Pavia. I then moved to Oxford for an MSt in Greek History and a DPhil in Ancient History.

During my postdoctoral meanderings, I was an Award holder at the British School at Rome (2020), Fellow in Hellenic Studies at Harvard’s CHS (2021–22), Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (2021–23), and Leverhulme Fellow at the University of Nottingham (2024–25). I joined the Department of Classics and Ancient History at Durham as Assistant Professor on 1 September 2025.

My research develops and applies Machine Learning models to ancient Mediterranean written cultures, exploring new ways to understand and write about history, and challenging how we think about the ancient world using AI (while also using ancient data to reflect on how we think about AI itself). I also work on the epigraphy and archaeology of Greek Sicily.

 

Research projects

Ithaca, co-led with Google DeepMind, funded by the MSCA - EU commission.

Ithaca is the first deep neural network for the textual restoration, geographical attribution and chronological attribution of ancient Greek inscriptions. The model is designed to assist and expand the historian’s workflow: its architecture focuses on collaboration, decision support and interpretability. Research now continues on investigating the new contextualisation function of the upgraded model. 

• Read the article and the release blogpost.

• Use the free online interface for your research here: https://predictingthepast.com/

Consuming the East in Sicily, project cooperation partner, led by University of Vienna, funded by FWF Austrian Sciences Fund.

The eastern Greek transport amphorae from the necropoleis of Himera reveal new insights into the colony's extra-regional trade (mid-7th to 5th century BCE). I am responsible for the study of the inscriptions on the transport amphorae from the necropoleis. I also enjoy publishing new epigraphic material from Himera and its hinterland.

• Visit the project website.

Aeneas, co-led with Google DeepMind, funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

Aeneas is the first generative neural network for contextualizing Roman inscriptions. Aeneas retrieves textual and contextual epigraphic parallels, leverages visual inputs, handles arbitrary-length text restoration, and advances the state of the art in key tasks (restoring, dating and placing inscriptions). Research now continues on performance analysis and the contextualisation function. 

• Read the article and the release blogpost.  

• Use the free online interface for your research here: https://predictingthepast.com/.

Office hours

My office is 111, 37 North Bailey, Durham DH1 3ET; my office hours are Tuesdays 10:00-12:00.

Please select a time slot at this link.

Supervision and mentorship

PhD Supervision: I am interested in supervising graduate students in Greek epigraphy, machine learning for ancient languages, and ancient Sicily. Please make an appointment with me via email to discuss your interests.

Postdoctoral mentorship: If you’re interested in applying for a Leverhulme EC, British Academy or Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellowship, or intend to carry out a research secondment at Durham with a project on AI for the ancient world, drop me an email and I’d be very happy to talk more.

School talks and outreach

I am always happy to give school talks on Digital Humanities and AI for the Ancient World. 

• Ancient Greek History
• Epigraphy
• Machine Learning for ancient languages
• Ancient Sicily (c. 700 BCE - 300 BCE)
• Greek religion
• Digital Humanities

• 2025: Google Developer Expert:
• 2024 - 2025: Leverhulme EC Fellow, University of Nottingham - Leverhulme Trust:
• 2022 - 2024: Google Cloud Research Innovator:
• 2022: Ghislieri Prize (Collegio Ghislieri):
• 2021 - 2023: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow, Ca' Foscari University of Venice - European Commission:
• 2021 - 2022: CHS Fellow in Hellenic Studies, Harvard University:
• 2021: Giuseppe Nenci Prize (Scuola Normale di Pisa):
• 2020 - 2020: Ralegh Radford Rome Award, British School at Rome:
• 2017 - 2019: Craven University Fellow, Faculty of Classics - University of Oxford:

Journal Article

• Contextualizing ancient texts with generative neural networks
  
  Assael, Y., Sommerschield, T., Cooley, A., Shillingford, B., Pavlopoulos, J., Suresh, P., Herms, B., Grayston, J., Maynard, B., Dietrich, N., Wulgaert, R., Prag, J., Mullen, A., & Mohamed, S. (2025). Contextualizing ancient texts with generative neural networks. Nature. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09292-5