Claudia Minniti
See also https://unisalento.academia.edu/JacopoDeGrossiMazzorin for other papers
I have many years of professional experience in archaeology and archaeozoology. In the course of my pre- and post-doctoral career I have developed a substantial experience in the study of faunal remains and molluscs from archaeological sites. My main geographic area of investigation is Italy, but I have also worked in other countries, such as Syria, Turkey and Britain.
My work has resulted in a monograph and more than 85 papers in national and international journals, conference proceedings and books. I have also acquired a good deal of experience in teaching and students’ supervision at both undergraduate and postgraduate level and in setting up laboratories and reference collections for both teaching and research purposes.
I worked at Sheffield for two years with a European grant (Marie Curie) on a research project concerning the comparative analysis of the Iron Age/Roman husbandry transition in Italy and England.
Now I am working as a post doc researcher at the University of Salento (Lecce, Apulia, Italy) on a project concerning animal remains from ritual contexts found in the Mediterranean area.
My main areas of research include:
Roman and Medieval food and husbandry:
Since 1993 I have been involved as collaborator of Soprintendenza Archeologica of Rome in many zooarchaeological projects in Rome and in Latium, dealing with many different periods of human history. I have been in particular specialized in the study of husbandry practices in the Roman and medieval periods. I recorded important samples of animal remains, such as that coming from the ancient town of Leopoli-Cencelle (the ancient Civitavecchia), the Crypta Balbi and monastic contexts of Trinita’ dei Monti e S. Maria degli Angeli in Rome. These studies have particularly concerned the role of animal raised in meat consumption, the nature of animal exploitation in Italy the role of hunting as expression of high status and the relationship between diet and religious practises into monastic orders in medieval times.
Subsistence economy and social complexity in central Italy during the Bronze and the Iron Age Iron Age:
This is a subject I have been involved with for more during my PHD work between 2004 and 2008. I have analysed different faunal samples dated to the Middle Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age from both Latium and Abruzzi. I was interested in understanding the succession of occupational forms throughout the Bronze Age and the initial phases of the Iron Age so as to understand their evolution and, at the same time, gather information regarding both the cultural and the socio-economic aspects that characterized the pertaining human groups. This study founded its analysis of those aspects of the primary economy that are tied to the relationships existing between the inhabitants of the settlements considered and the animals attested, on both territorial and archaeozoological data.
Ritual use of animals:
In the last years I have studied several samples from burial grounds of Lazio and Rome that therefore providing new information useful in the understanding some of the ritual aspects of funerary practices during the Early Iron Age. My studies have been focalized on their contribute to understand if and how different animal food offerings reflect the emergence and development of socio-political complexity in human societies.
The exploitation of shells in the Mediterraneum area during the Bronze Age:
I have studied a large number of marine shells, over 50.000 specimens, found at the Bronze Age settlement of Coppa Nevigata in the south-east of Italy (Apulia) since working on the post-graduate specialisation project at the University of Rome. My main area of work has been the contribution of living molluscs to food provision, economy and trading activities, like as purple dye, of groups that lived in the Aegean area during the Bronze Age.
Animal husbandry, hunting and the wild animals exploitation in northern Syria and Turkey between the Early Neolithic Ceramic to the Iron Age:
My interest in this area originally started with my work on the Bronze Age sites of Tell Mardikh-Ebla and Tell Tuqan (Syria) and then I had the opportunity to work on the animal bones from the Early Neolithic Ceramic of Yumuktepe (Turkey). My main area of work has been the contribution of zooarchaeology to the understanding the economic transformations through time by means of the study of the hand-collected mammals bones and to monitor the territory and the environment around settlements through the analysis of water-sieved small mammal remains.
Phone: 339 3679606
I have many years of professional experience in archaeology and archaeozoology. In the course of my pre- and post-doctoral career I have developed a substantial experience in the study of faunal remains and molluscs from archaeological sites. My main geographic area of investigation is Italy, but I have also worked in other countries, such as Syria, Turkey and Britain.
My work has resulted in a monograph and more than 85 papers in national and international journals, conference proceedings and books. I have also acquired a good deal of experience in teaching and students’ supervision at both undergraduate and postgraduate level and in setting up laboratories and reference collections for both teaching and research purposes.
I worked at Sheffield for two years with a European grant (Marie Curie) on a research project concerning the comparative analysis of the Iron Age/Roman husbandry transition in Italy and England.
Now I am working as a post doc researcher at the University of Salento (Lecce, Apulia, Italy) on a project concerning animal remains from ritual contexts found in the Mediterranean area.
My main areas of research include:
Roman and Medieval food and husbandry:
Since 1993 I have been involved as collaborator of Soprintendenza Archeologica of Rome in many zooarchaeological projects in Rome and in Latium, dealing with many different periods of human history. I have been in particular specialized in the study of husbandry practices in the Roman and medieval periods. I recorded important samples of animal remains, such as that coming from the ancient town of Leopoli-Cencelle (the ancient Civitavecchia), the Crypta Balbi and monastic contexts of Trinita’ dei Monti e S. Maria degli Angeli in Rome. These studies have particularly concerned the role of animal raised in meat consumption, the nature of animal exploitation in Italy the role of hunting as expression of high status and the relationship between diet and religious practises into monastic orders in medieval times.
Subsistence economy and social complexity in central Italy during the Bronze and the Iron Age Iron Age:
This is a subject I have been involved with for more during my PHD work between 2004 and 2008. I have analysed different faunal samples dated to the Middle Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age from both Latium and Abruzzi. I was interested in understanding the succession of occupational forms throughout the Bronze Age and the initial phases of the Iron Age so as to understand their evolution and, at the same time, gather information regarding both the cultural and the socio-economic aspects that characterized the pertaining human groups. This study founded its analysis of those aspects of the primary economy that are tied to the relationships existing between the inhabitants of the settlements considered and the animals attested, on both territorial and archaeozoological data.
Ritual use of animals:
In the last years I have studied several samples from burial grounds of Lazio and Rome that therefore providing new information useful in the understanding some of the ritual aspects of funerary practices during the Early Iron Age. My studies have been focalized on their contribute to understand if and how different animal food offerings reflect the emergence and development of socio-political complexity in human societies.
The exploitation of shells in the Mediterraneum area during the Bronze Age:
I have studied a large number of marine shells, over 50.000 specimens, found at the Bronze Age settlement of Coppa Nevigata in the south-east of Italy (Apulia) since working on the post-graduate specialisation project at the University of Rome. My main area of work has been the contribution of living molluscs to food provision, economy and trading activities, like as purple dye, of groups that lived in the Aegean area during the Bronze Age.
Animal husbandry, hunting and the wild animals exploitation in northern Syria and Turkey between the Early Neolithic Ceramic to the Iron Age:
My interest in this area originally started with my work on the Bronze Age sites of Tell Mardikh-Ebla and Tell Tuqan (Syria) and then I had the opportunity to work on the animal bones from the Early Neolithic Ceramic of Yumuktepe (Turkey). My main area of work has been the contribution of zooarchaeology to the understanding the economic transformations through time by means of the study of the hand-collected mammals bones and to monitor the territory and the environment around settlements through the analysis of water-sieved small mammal remains.
Phone: 339 3679606
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This research is focused on chicken, pigeon, goose and duck remains recovered from medieval sites in Italy. Relative frequencies, mortality pattern and sex indicators by period and site phase are analysed. At all sites, chicken is the most frequent domestic bird while goose importance increased in the course of the Middle Ages. Duck and pigeon remains, when recorded, represent a marginal occurrence. High frequencies of juvenile bones, often recorded at rural sites, seem to be related to local breeding and specialised forms of exploitation. While chickens were sometimes slaughtered when still young, geese were generally kept alive longer. Development of medullary bone and spur presence were both used to assess the sex ratio. The quantity of medullary bone in the hens’ lower limb bones has disclosed information about different forms of chicken management. Biometrical analyses are used to discriminate between breeds, as well as wild and domestic forms. In particular, duck and goose identifications were aided by the application of a new system developed by our research team.
This study shows how domestic birds can highlight social and economic differences in rural and urban sites from medieval Italy.