Giulia Russo M.A.
Landscape Archaeology and Architecture (LAA)
Vorderasiatische Archäologie
Institut für Vorderasiatische Archäologie
Fabeckstr. 23-25
14195 Berlin
Since 02/2025
Mitarbeiterin im Projekt Management "CiVers" Projekt, DAI Berlin, Editorial Offic
2022 – 2023
Curatorial assistant (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin in Fortbildung) at the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin
2022
Fellowship SAWA Museum Academy (SMB, HTW Berlin, Sharjah Museums Authority, Goethe Institute, funded by Volkswagen Stiftung and Auswärtiges Amt der Bundesrepublik Deutschland)
02/2018 – 12/2018
Research stay at the Faculty of Archaeology, Material Culture Studies, Leiden University
Since 10/2017
PhD student in Near Eastern Archaeology, Freie Universität Berlin
10/2013 – 04/2016
M.A. in Near Eastern Archaeology, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
10/2012 – 07/2013
Erasmus at the Institute for Ancient Near Eastern Studies (IANES), Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
2009 – 2017
Excavations in Italy, Oman, Egypt, India, Azerbaijan and Iraqi Kurdistan
09/2007 – 06/2011
B.A. in Cultural Heritage Studies (main subject: Archaeology of the Ancient Near East), University of Pisa
Auszeichnungen:
DAAD conference travel grant | August 2025 Online participation to the 125th ASOR Annual Meeting
Scholarship from the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, Berlin | Jun 2023 Tuition fees for advanced training “Museum Management for Curatorial Assistants”
Pottery-Making Practices and Communities of Potters: A Chaine Opératoire Approach to Ubaid to Late Chalcolithic 2 Ceramics from the Balikh Valley, Syria
Pottery making and knowledge transmission in late prehistoric Northern Mesopotamia: a case study from the Balikh Valley, Syria (late 6th to 4th millennia BC). This research investigates the Ubaid and Late Chalcolithic 1-2 (ca. 5300 - 3900 BC) ceramics from the Balikh Valley, modern northern Syria, in order to gain a deeper understanding of pottery technology and related contexts of knowledge transmission within the region. A chaîne opératoire approach coupled with archaeometric analyses will be applied to the study of selected pottery assemblages from the Valley to reconstruct how those vessels were made at different sites, how their production was organized in relation to the physical and social landscape, and how did artisanal skills and technical knowledge travel across space and time.
This dissertation was funded by a doctoral fellowship from the Einstein Center Chronoi.
Articles
In press
G. Russo. In press. “‘Basements with Insatiable Appetites’ - Archaeological Collections, Museums Storerooms and Sustainability” In New Research on Old Collections in Southwest Asia Archaeology, edited by Mette Bangsborg Thuesen and Giulia Russo. Bicester: Archaeopress Archaeology.
P. Durgun, G. Russo, The Darvish. In press. “Disrupting Time: Queer Storytelling in Museums with Ancient Western Asian Collections.” In Teaching about the Ancient World in Museums: Pedagogies in Practice, edited by Jen Thum, Carl Walsh, Lissette M. Jiménez, and Lisa Saladino Haney. Routledge.
2025
G. Russo. 2025. “The Iron Age Pottery from Operation G.” In Der Königspalast von Qatna. Teil 3: Architektur, Stratigraphie, Funde und Keramik der westlichen, nördlichen und östlich-zentralen Raumeinheiten, edited by Anne Wissing, Eva Geith, Sarah Lange-Weber, and Peter Pfälzner, 1341–1375. Qatna Studien 11. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
M. Riedel, F. Riebschläger, G. Russo. 2025. “Terms and concepts of publishing and citing information resources in archaeology and beyond. A perspective from the CiVers project and the iDAI.world.” Forum for Digital Archaeology and Infrastructure: 1–34. https://doi.org/10.34780/6k764r03
2022
G. Russo. 2022. Pottery-making practices between the Ubaid and the Late Chalcolithic 1 and 2: some observations on ceramics from the Balikh valley, Syria. Paléorient 48.1: 155-174 (peer-reviewed).
https://doi.org/10.4000/paleorient.1722
2021
G. Russo, S. Döpper. 2021. Die Nekropole von Al-Ayn. In Die Nekropolen von Bat und Al-Ayn und das Gebäude II in Bat, edited by Stephanie Döpper, 179-237. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
https://doi.org/10.32028/9781789699494
Herausgeber*innenkollektiv (A. Abar, G. Cyrus, M.B. D’Anna, V. Egbers, B. Huber, C. Kainert, J. Köhler, B. Öğüt, N. Rol, G. Russo, J. Schönicke, F. Tourtet). 2021. Pearls, Politics and Pistachios. Essays in Anthropology and Memories on the Occasion of Susan Pollock's 65th Birthday. Berlin: ex oriente.
https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.837
2018
G. Russo, S. Amicone, C. Berthold, R. Siddall, P. Sconzo. 2018. Early Bronze Age Painted Wares from Tell el-'Abd, Syria: a Compositional and Technological Study. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 21: 359–66 (peer-reviewed).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2018.08.005
G. Russo. 2018. The Iron Age Pottery from Tell Mishrifeh (Qaṭna): Preliminary Results from the German-Syrian Excavations. In Proceedings of the Tenth International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Vienna, April 25-29, 2016, edited by Barbara Horejs et al., 601–12. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Edited books
In press
M. Bangsborg Thuesen and G. Russo (Eds.). In press. New Research on Old Collections in Southwest Asia Archaeology. Bicester: Archaeopress Archaeology.
2023
Editorial Collective (A. Abar, M. E. Bangsborg Thuesen G. Cyrus, V. Egbers, J. Eger, I. Heit, B. Irvine, C. Kainert, J. Köhler, M. Mishmastnehi, B. Öğüt, S. Parsa, G. Russo, J. Schönicke, S. Schreiber, F. Tourtet, Lisa Wolff-Heger). 2023. What does this have to do with archaeology? Essays on the Occasion of the 65th Birthday of Reinhard Bernbeck. Leiden: Sidestone Press.
Exhibition catalog entries
2024
G. Russo. 2024. “Kat.-Nr. 12 Von Ballast befreit – Nach der Restaurierung 140 g leichter!.” In (Un)seen stories: Suchen, Sehen, Sichtbarmachen, edited by Sarah Hampel, Franziska Kabelitz, and Angelika Walther, 44-45. Heidelberg: arthistoricum.net-ART-Books. https://doi.org/10.11588/arthistoricum.1419.c20208
G. Russo. 2024. “Kat.-Nr. 24 Papierabklatsche – authentisch, wertvoll, einzigartig.” In (Un)seen stories: Suchen, Sehen, Sichtbarmachen, edited by Sarah Hampel, Franziska Kabelitz, and Angelika Walther, 87-88. Heidelberg: arthistoricum.net-ART-Books. https://doi.org/10.11588/arthistoricum.1419.c20222
Popular articles
2024
P. Durgun, G. Russo. 2024. “A Bittersweet Goodbye from the Vorderasiatisches Museum…for now.” Blog Post Museum and the City. April 4, 2024. https://blog.smb.museum/a-bittersweet-goodbye-from-the-vorderasiatisches-museum-for-now/.
2023
P. Durgun, C. Kainert, G. Russo. 2023. “Das Vorderasiatische Museum verabschiedet sich…vorläufig.” Antike Welt 23 (6), 2023: 31–35.
Book reviews
2021
G. Russo. 2021. II Workshop on Late Neolithic Ceramics in Ancient Mesopotamia: Pottery in context. Edited by Anna Gómez-Bach, Jörg Becker, and Miquel Molist. Monografies del MAC 1. Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya, Barcelona, 2018. Bibliotheca Orientalis 78.3-4: 499-502.
https://doi.org/10.2143/BIOR.78.3.3289928