Valentina Azzarà
Honorary Research Fellow
- Name
- Dr. V.M. Azzarà Ph.D.
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 2727
- v.m.azzara@arch.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0002-3559-3227
Valentina Azzarà is an honorary research fellow at the Faculty of Archaeology.
Research
The research of Valentina Azzarà focuses on the rise of socio-economic complexity in non-urban societies.
Valentina is currently a post-doctoral researcher of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions H2020 COFUND LEaDing Fellows Programme, with the project "Building Complexity: Building techniques and craft specialisation in Early Bronze Age Eastern Arabia". The project delves into the characterisation of earthen building materials and techniques, aiming at exploring craftsmanship and organisation of labour in the field of construction, through the study of architectural materiality. The program includes the mineralogical and petrographic characterisation of building materials, the test of mechanical properties on materials reproduced in a lab setting, the analysis of structural design, and the experimental reconstruction of archaeological structures.
Valentina is also a grantee of the National Geographic Society, as the scientific director of a field project at the previously unexplored site of Ra’s al-Jinz RJ-3 (Oman). The aim of this project is to investigate the process of economic diversification and the rise of social complexity in Eastern Arabian societies, by documenting a long sequence of occupations, spanning from the second half of the 4th millennium to the very end of the 3rd millennium BCE.
Besides, she is in charge of the Ra’s al-Jinz Study Program (RJSP), aimed at publishing the French-Italian excavations conducted at Ra’s al-Jinz between 1985 and 2011. The project includes the reconstruction of stratigraphic sequences, the analysis of architectures, and specialised studies on material culture. See for more information on the project website.
Valentina is also a member of the ANR NeoArabia (Arabian coastal Neolithic), led by J.-F. Berger (CNRS, UMR 5600, University of Lyon), as one of the project coordinators of the subprogram "Cultural and social evolutions: settlements and graveyards". See for more information on the project website.
Curriculum vitae
As a PhD student at the University of Paris 1, and then as a research associate at the UMR 7041 ArScAn (MAE, Nanterre), Valentina focused on the social complexification at the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age and throughout the Early Bronze Age in Eastern Arabia. Her interests centred on the socio-economic diversification and the dynamics of production / consumption of households and settlement complexes, on the functional organisation and social value of space, on the techno-morphological study of domestic architectures. As a member of different archaeological projects, Valentina directed/co-directed fieldworks at various sites in Oman, Egypt, Tunisia, Turkmenistan.
Honorary Research Fellow
- Faculteit Archeologie
- World Archaeology
- Near Eastern
- Azzarà V. M. (2021), The rise of socio-economic complexity in non-urban societies: Function, organisation and social meaning of space in Early Bronze Age Eastern Arabia. . In: Jallot L. & Peinetti A. (Eds.) UISPP Proceedings Series Volume 18, Use of Space and Domestic Areas: Functional Organisation and Social Strategies.. Oxford: Archaeopress. 98-118.
- Azzarà V.M. (2020), Modelling the built environment: Spatial patterns, siting techniques and layout works of non-monumental architecture in Early Bronze Age Eastern Arabia , Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 31(2): 301-326.
- Guyot F., Azzarà V., Briois B., Marchand J. & Midant-Reynes B. (2019), An early old kingdom settlement in the eastern Nile delta: first season at Tell el-Neshed (Eastern Nile Delta, Sharqiya Governatorate), Bulletin de l'Institut Français Archéologie Orientale 118: 143-187.
- Azzarà V.M. & De Rorre A.P. (2019), The first excavation season at the Early Bronze Age settlement of Ra's al-Jinz RJ-3, Journal of Oman Studies 20: 25-47.
- Azzarà V.M. (2019), La Baia di Ras al-Jinz nella Sharquiyyah Meridionale / The Bay of Ras al-Jinz in the Southern Sharquiyyah. In: Frenez D. & Cattani M. (Eds.), Sognatori. 40 Anni di Ricerche Archeologiche Italiane in Oman. Dreamers / 40 Years of Italian Archaeological Research in Oman.. Il Novissimo Ramusio no. 10. Rome: BraDypUS Communicating Cultural Heritage. 71-75.
- Azzarà V.M. (2019), Il Ras al-Jinz Study Program (RJSP) / The Ras al-Jinz Study Program (RJSP). In: Frenez D. & Cattani M. (Eds.), Sognatori. 40 Anni di Ricerche Archeologiche Italiane in Oman. Dreamers / 40 Years of Italian Archaeological Research in Oman.. Il Novissimo Ramusio no. 10. Rome: BraDypUS Communicating Cultural Heritage. 76-78.
- Azzarà V.M. & Cattani M. (2018), The Hafit settlement of HD-6 at Ra’s al-Hadd. In: Cleuziou S. Tosi M. Frenez D. Garba R. (Ed.), In the shadow of the ancestors: the Prehistoric foundations of the Early Arabian civilization in Oman: Archaeopress. 146-150.
- Azzarà V.M. (2018), Exploring cultural, social and economic complexification: settlement life through the Umm an-Nar period at Ra’s al-Jinz RJ-2. In: Döpper S. (Ed.), Beyond Tombs and Towers. Domestic architectures of the Umm an-Nar Period in Eastern Arabia no. 4. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
- Azzarà V.M. & De Rorre A.P. (2018), Socio-cultural innovations of the Final Umm an-Nar period (c. 2100-2000 BCE) in the Oman Peninsula: new insights from Ra’s al-Jinz RJ-2, Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 29: 10-26.
- Frazier J.G., Azzarà V., Munoz O., Marcucci L.G., Badel E., Genchi F., Cattani M., Tosi M. & Delfino M. (2018), Remains of Leatherback turtles, Dermochelys coriacea, at Mid-Late Holocene archaeological sites in coastal Oman: clues of past worlds, PeerJ 6: e6123.
- Munoz O., Azzarà V.M., Giscard P.H., Hautefort R., San Basilio F. & Saint-Jalm L. (2017), First campaign of survey and excavations at Shiyāʾ (Sūr, Sultanate of Oman), Proceedings of the seminar for Arabian Studies. Fiftieth meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 29 July 2016 - 31 July 2016. Proceedings of the seminar for Arabian Studies no. 47. Oxford: Archaeopress Publishing. 185-192.
- Azzarà V.M. (2013), Architecture and building techniques at the Early Bronze Age site of HD-6, Raʾs al-Hadd, Sultanate of Oman, Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies. 11-26.
- Azzarà V.M. (2013), Autour de la sebkha-lagune Halk el Menjel: la rammadiya de SHM-15. In: Mulazzani S. (Ed.), Le Capsien de Hergla (Tunisie). Culture, environnement et économie. Reports in African Archaeology. Reports in African Archaeology no. 4. Frankfort: Africa Magna Verlag. 369-384.
- Azzarà V.M. (2012), Household and Domestic Architecture: the "Sociogram" of a Social System. In: Giraud J. Gernez G. De Casteja V. (Ed.), Aux Marges de l'archéologie : Hommage à Serge Cleuziou, Collection Travaux de la Maison René-Ginouvés no. 16: De Boccard.
- Hilbert Y.I. & Azzarà V.M. (2012), Lithic Technology and Spatial Distribution of artefacts at the Early Bronze Age Site HD-6 (Sharquiyyah Region, Sultanate of Oman), Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 23: 7-25.
- Azzarà V.M. (2012), The Organization of Food Processing at HD-6 (Sultanate of Oman). Matthews R. Curtis J. Seymour M. Fletcher A. et al. (Ed.), The Archaeology of Consumption & Disposal. Proceedings of the 7th ICAANE, i. . Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz. 251-268.
- Azzarà V.M. (2009), Domestic architecture at the Early Bronze Age sites HD-6 and RJ-2 (Ja’alān, Sultanate of Oman), Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies. no. 39 1-16.
- Mulazzani S., Cavulli F., Azzarà V.M., Scaruffi S. & Boussofara R. (2009), Structures d’habitat nord-africaines: la fouille de la rammaddya côtière holocène de SHM-1 (Hergla, Tunisie). Cavulli F. (Ed.), Defining a Methodological Approach to Interpret Structural Evidence, (WS28). Proceedings of the XV UISPP Worlds Congress. no. 32: BAR International Series 2045.