We are very glad to welcome Isabel Mattuzzi to the group, who will be working on her PhD thesis entitled “Landscapes of Greek colonisation: an integrated archaeological approach of the compared territorial and landscape dynamics around the Ionian colonies of Abdera and Emporion (Thrace, Gr. and Catalunya, Sp.)” under the supervision of Dr. Arnau Garcia-Molsosa and Dr. Alfredo Mayoral, thanks to an FI AGAUR grant from the Generalitat de Catalunya.
Her project addresses the topic of the Trans-Mediterranean colonisation phenomena from the theoretical and methodological perspective of Landscape Archaeology. Its main objective is to assess how and to which degree Mediterranean landscapes were transformed by the colonisation process, the local variability of the colonial phenomena and how the interaction of colonial societies with local communities and palaeoenvironments (e.g. natural resources management, environmental impacts) influenced long-term landscape evolution. In order to answer to this major research question, this PhD project is based in the comparison of two micro-regions at opposite sides of the Mediterranean, but subject to the same Greek, and later Roman, colonial processes: Aegean Thrace and the Gulf of Lyon.
Featured image: from left to right, Josep Maria Palet, Arnau Garcia Molsosa, Isabel Mattuzzi and Alfredo Mayoral in Isabel’s first fieldwork day in Empordà (Catalonia)
About Isabel Mattuzzi
Isabel Mattuzzi obtained her Bachelor degree in Historical, Philological and Literary Studies at University of Trento (2014). In 2018, she obtained her master’s degree in Quaternary, Prehistory and Archaeology from the University of Ferrara, with a thesis on roman mortars (archaeometric study).
She participated in various excavation in Italy and in Greece. In 2022, Isabel took part to the research activities conducted by the GIAP research group in Grevenà (Greece), and collaborated with Dr. Merkouris Georgiadis in the conduction of the archaeological survey Krannon (Greece).
We extend a warm welcome to Tarragona and wish her a delightful and exciting journey ahead!
Landscapes of Greek colonisation: an integrated archaeological approach of the compared territorial and landscape dynamics around the Ionian colonies of Abdera and Emporion (Thrace, Gr. and Catalunya, Sp.) PhD thesis: Isabel Matuzzi. AGAUR, Ajuts de Formació d’Investigadors (FI-DGR), Generalitat de Catalunya (2023 FI-1 00533)
