Education and training:

06/2025
Research stay at Leiden University, Faculty of Archaeology, funded by a PhD scholarship of Una Europa, Freie Universität Berlin

2018 – 2020
(As part of ARCHMAT): Master’s in “Scienze e tecnologie per la conservazione dei beni culturali” – Sapienza University (Rome Italy)

2018 – 2020
(As part of ARCHMAT): Mestrado em Arqueologia e Ambiente – Evora University (Portugal)

11/2019
“Mentions of Honour” at the “CWMUN Abu Dhabi 2019“

2015 – 2018
Bachelor in Archaeology – Leiden University (Netherlands)

Work Experience:

Now
Collaborating with Claudia Pizzinato as freelance archaeologists.

06/2021
worked for “Archeogeo” as archaeologist in Trento (IT)

05/2017 – 07/2017
Archaeological internship within Nexus1942 project (University of Leiden)

Active Projects:

Collaboration with “DHOMIAP”

Collaboration with “Archaeologists connected”

Member of the editorial board of “Archeologia Veneta”

Past perception of time and past economy of long-distance trade: The Indian Ocean and its globalizing network

The PhD research titled “Past perception of time and past economy of long-distance trade: The Indian Ocean and its globalizing network”, carried out at Freie Universität Berlin and as a member of the Berlin Graduate School of Ancient Studies (BerGSAS), examines the trade dynamics in the Indian Ocean from the 3rd century BCE to the 5th century CE.

The study primarily examines the settlement of Sumhuram, now situated within the archaeological site of Khor Rori (Governorate of Dhofar, Sultanate of Oman), along with its ceramics. The settlement was established at the end of the 3rd century BCE and was gradually abandoned from the 5th century CE. The primary focus of the dissertation is the ceramic assemblage excavated from Sumhuram, which is directly compared with that from the sites of Arikamedu (in Tamil Nadu, India) and Tissamaharama (in the Southern Province of Sri Lanka).

Sumhuram was selected as the focal point of the study because its harbour functioned as the local access point and regional hub of the Indian Ocean trade network. Furthermore, its chronology aligns precisely with what is widely regarded as the golden age of the ancient Indian Ocean trade (also referred to as “Indo-Roman trade”). The consequent absence of earlier or later occupational disturbances at Sumhuram allows researchers access to an undisturbed archaeological record of the site’s impact on and inclusion within the trade network. On the other hand, the selection of the two South Asian sites as sources of comparison is dictated by two main reasons. Firstly, as the studied trade is commonly known as “Indo-Roman” trade, the selection of non-Roman settlements ought to detach this dissertation from a long-lasting tradition of Roman-centered approach to the topic. Secondly, since the Indian Ocean is divided into the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf to the west, and given Sumhuram’s central location between these two bodies of water, comparing Sumhuram’s ceramics with those from the two South Asian sites is expected to shed light on the relative influence that the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea had on the trade network over time.

The primary source of data on the ceramics from Sumhuram comes from the excavations carried out between 1997 and 2019 by the Italian Mission to Oman (IMTO), as published in the corresponding reports (Avanzini 2002; 2007; Pavan 2017; Buffa 2019). These data have all been compiled into a single relational database, as part of the PhD, which now serves as the foundation of the larger-scale comparative analysis of the ceramic assemblage. The comparisons of the published pottery are conducted by separately confronting the fabric descriptions and the vessels' morphologies (mainly by comparison of the rim profile drawings) from the South Asian sites with the material excavated at Sumhuram. As the total of the artefacts included in the study overcomes the 4000 units, the comparison process, if done manually, would have required too much time. Consequently, in collaboration with an expert in data analysis and machine learning, the applicant developed two pieces of programming able to fasten and nearly completely automate the process of morphological data comparison.

Comparing the ceramics datasets has given the applicant exceptional data, which are now being processed and used as the foundation for studying the dynamics of trade that directly impact the settlement of Sumhuram. Additionally, the provenance and chronological information regarding specific ceramic types are anticipated to introduce two additional dimensions to the discussion chapter. In particular, they are expected to offer a preliminary understanding of the chronological variations in the quantity and direction of trade connections. The dissertation’s ultimate goal is to determine the socio-economic influence that long-distance trade contacts had on the inhabitants of Sumhuram. Furthermore, it will discuss the practical advantages and drawbacks of the adopted methodology to understand its potential in studying long-distance maritime trade, aiming to encourage the use of similar data-driven systematic approaches in examining the Indian Ocean trade network.

Diese Dissertation wird gefördert durch ein Promotionsstipendium des Einstein Center Chronoi.

2024
Daniele Zampierin, Patricia Moita, Silvia Lischi, Marike van Aerde, Pedro Barrulas, José Mirão, A multi-analytical approach applied to pottery from Oman as a key ton understanding Indian Ocean maritime trade

2020
van Aerde, Marike, and Daniele Zampierin. 2020. A lot of pepper and little garum: an archaeological comparison of the Roman presence at Berenike and Arikamedu. Ancient West & East 19: 145–66.