Roberto Arciero
PhD Candidate
- Name
- Dr. R. Arciero MA
- Telephone
- 071 5272727
- r.arciero@arch.leidenuniv.nl
Roberto Arciero is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Archaeology, focusing on the Near East and Central Asia regions.
More information about Roberto Arciero
Leiden Archaeology Blog
Office days
Monday - Friday
Research
In my doctoral research, I investigate the human-water relation and agricultural practice of the Oxus Civilization (also known as Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex) between the 3rd and 2nd millennium BCE. In particular, I focus on the Murghab region in southern Turkmenistan, that was largely neglected over the last decades, notably by western scholars. However, such a region represents one of the main areas of the Oxus Civilization that witnessed an early urban development in Central Asia. Likewise, the ancient hydrological and irrigation system has been considered crucial by many scholars to the rise of the region’s earliest proto-States. Yet, questions remain about how the water management system worked and who controlled it, its relation to the agricultural system, and its influence on the distribution of farming settlements between urban areas and periphery.
Within my doctoral Murghab Water Project (MWP) I aim to apply a multidisciplinary approach based on micro-scale investigation of the irrigation and agricultural system of the region. I argue that investigating the irrigation and agricultural system of two distinct micro-areas (urban and peripheral) is the most effective method to understand local water and agricultural management, and its impact on (distinct) settlements pattern. Specifically, the irrigation and agricultural system has been investigated by remote sensing analysis, classic survey, as well as OSL and stratigraphic analysis of ancient watercourses. Likewise, further data has been acquired by carbon isotope analysis of botanical samples in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute in Jena (Germany).
My Ph.D. research is under the supervision of Prof. Peter M.M.G. Akkermans and Dr. Bleda S. Düring and it was founded by the National Geographic Society/ Early Career Grant, Elise Mathilde Fund/LUF Grant, and Asian Modernities and Tradition Grant (Leiden University).
Teaching activities
Roberto Arciero worked as a Teaching Assistant between 2017 and 2021 for several BA1 courses at the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University. Specifically - along with teachers - I taught, coordinated, and designed campus-based and online tutorials. Moreover, along with Dr. Victor Klinkenberg I taught the course “Designing Archaeological Research” for BA3. In 2021, I obtained the University Teaching Qualification (Basis Kwalificatie Onderwijs, BKO).
Curriculum vitae
Roberto Arciero obtained a BA in Ancient History at Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna (Italy). From the same institution, he obtained a two years Master's degree cum Laude in Archaeology, focusing on Near Eastern Archaeology. His research interests are related to topics of water and agricultural management, settlement systems, and social changes in Central Asia and Easter Iran between the 3rd and 2nd millennium BCE.
Since 2009, he has been a member of the longstanding “Archaeological Map of the Murghab Delta Project” that investigated the Murghab region (southern Turkmenistan) since 1989, and terminated in 2013. He is now a senior member of the “Togolok Archaeological Project-TAP” under ISMEO/ University of Bologna in Turkmenistan and an active member of “Project for the Ancient Murghab-PAM” under German Archaeological Institute/ Washington University in Saint Louis.
Since 2007 Roberto Arciero has taken part in numerous archaeological field surveys and excavations in Italy, Greece, Central Asia (Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan), Arabian Peninsula (Oman), and eastern Africa (Eritrea). Besides, he also worked for two years as contract archaeologist in Italy.
Roberto Arciero is a National Geographic Explorer.
PhD Candidate
- Faculteit Archeologie
- World Archaeology
- Near Eastern
- Arciero R. (6 December 2024), Irrigating the desert: water management, agricultural practices, and social complexity in Southern Turkmenistan during the Bronze Age (Dissertatie, Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University) Archaeological Studies Leiden University no. 54. Supervisor(s) and Co-supervisor(s): Düring B.s., Akkermans P.M.M.G.
- Forni L & Arciero R. (2022), Identity and interaction at Togolok 1 in the Murghab region (Southern Turkmenistan) during the Bronze Age. In: Coppini C., Cyrus G. & Golestaneh H. (Eds.) Bridging the gap: disciplines, times, and spaces in dialogue. Sessions 4 and 6 from the conference Broadening Horizons 6 held at the Freie Universität Berlin, 24-28 June 2019. no. 3 Oxford: Archaeopress Publishing.
- Billings T. N., Cerasetti B., Forni L., Arciero R., Dal Martello R., Carra M., Rouse L.M., Boivin N. & Spengler R.N. (2022), Agriculture in the Karakum: an archaeobotanical analysis from Togolok 1, southern Turkmenistan (ca. 2300–1700 B.C.) , Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution : 10.
- Arciero R., Water in the desert? The Oxus Civilization and the role of the irrigation system. Leiden Archeology Blog. Leiden: Leiden University. [blog entry].
- Cerasetti B., Arciero R., Billings T.N., Cattani M., D’Ippolito L., Forni L., Luneau E., Olson K.G., Potenza A.C., Rouse L.M. & Spengler R.N. (2022), The rise and decline of the desert cities: the last stages of the BMAC at Togolok 1 (Southern Turkmenistan). In: Baumer C., Novák M. & Rutishauser S. (Eds.), Cultures in contact: central Asia as focus of trade, cultural exchange and knowledge transmission. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
- Cerasetti B., Arciero R., Carra M., Curci A., De Grossi Mazzorin J., Forni L., Luneau E., Rouse L.M. & Spengler R.N. (2019), Bronze and Iron Age Urbanisation in Turkmenistan. Preliminary results from the excavation of Togolok 1 on the Murghab alluvial fan. Baumer C. & Novak M. (Eds.), Urban Cultures of Central Asia from the Bronze Age to the Karakhanids: Learnings and conclusions from new archaeological investigations and discoveries. Proceedings of the First International Congress on Central Asian Archaeology held at the University of Bern, 4–6 February 2016. First International Congress on Central Asian Archaeology 4 February 2016 - 6 February 2016. Bern: Harrassowitz Verlag. 63-72.
- Arciero R. & Forni L. (2018), La prima urbanizzazione in Turkmenistan: coesistenza tra nomadi e sedentari nel delta interno del fiume Murghab Risultati preliminari delle indagini archeologiche ed etnografiche presso il sito di Togolok 1. Ferrari A., Pupulin E., Ruffilli M. & Tomelleri V. (Eds.), Armenia, Caucaso e Asia Centrale - Ricerche 2017. no. 7. Venezia: Edizioni Ca’ Foscari.
- Arciero R. (2016), Nuove scoperte lungo la Via della Seta, Archeologia Viva 178(Jul-Aug): 46-56.