Giulia Saltini Semerari

Dr. Saltini Semerari is a Mediterranean archaeologist, and who studies connectivity in the first millennium BC, in particular between Italy and the Aegean. Dr. Saltini Semerari's current research focuses primarily on the Greek colonization of southern Italy in the 8th and 6th centuries BC. This process cast Aegean settlers from the Black Sea to Spain, catalyzing an exponential increase in social complexity, urbanization, Mediterranean-wide exchange networks. Recent research inspired by postcolonial perspectives has shown that the local communities were actively involved in shaping the Greek colonization, in response to growing social competition within them. Yet, this research has largely ignored gender, in its intersection with other identities such as status and age, as a crucial variable in shaping these dynamics. Thus, Dr. Saltini Semerari strives to reconstruct the interplay between the gender organization of southern Italian communities and their increasingly close interactions with migrants from the Aegean. Dr. Saltini Semerari is doing this through two projects. One combines archaeological and bioarchaeological evidence to reconstruct the demographic underpinnings of the Greek colonization. Another generates detailed data on rituals and craft production from excavations at Incoronata, an exceptionally preserved site where locals and Aegean migrants coexisted at this crucial time. In this context, Dr. Saltini Semerari is currently analyzing the use of textile implements – closely associated with women – in votive deposits.