Lorenzo Castellano

Postdoctoral Scholar

Ancient Agriculture and Paleoethnobotany Laboratory (AAPL) - Fowler A418

Education

  • 2022 PhD – Ancient Studies New York University (USA), Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (Graduate School of Arts and Science). 
  • 2017 MPhil – Ancient Studies New York University (USA), Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (Graduate School of Arts and Science). 
  • 2012 MA – Archaeology 110/110L (summa cum laude) University of Milan (Italy). 
  • 2008 BA - Cultural Heritage Studies 110/110L (summa cum laude) University of Milan (Italy).

Areas of Interest

Environmental Archaeology; Paleoethnobotany; Archaeological Methods and Theory; History of Agriculture; Western Asia Archaeology; Anatolian Archaeology.

Profile

I am an anthropological archaeologist interested in studying past human-environment relationships across different levels of cultural experience and practice. I received my PhD from New York University in 2022, following an MA in Archaeology (2012) and a BA in Cultural Heritage Studies (2008) from the University of Milan, Italy. Previous to my appointment as Postdoctoral Scholar at the Cotsen Institute, I was a Postdoctoral Lecturer in Archaeology at NYU’s Department of Anthropology and at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World.

As part of an overarching interest in the study of the relationships between people and environment, my research concentrates on the study of ancient agricultural systems, with a geographic focus on Western Asia. I am especially interested in the relationship between agricultural strategies and political complexity, the impact of climatic and environmental change on agricultural systems, and long-term patterns of landscape transformation. My work is strongly interdisciplinary, drawing on Archaeological Methods and Theory, Archaeobotany, Paleoenvironmental Research, and Western Asia Archaeology and History. I have participated in archaeological fieldwork and research across a wide range of chronological and cultural contexts in Italy, Egypt, Iraq, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Since 2015, I have been directing excavations on the southern slope of the multi-period site of Niğde-Kınık Höyük (Turkey).

At the Cotsen Institute, I coordinate activities at the Ancient Agriculture and Paleoethnobotany Laboratory (AAPL), a collaborative research space dedicated to investigating past agricultural systems and studying archaeological plant remains. If you would like to learn more about AAPL resources, get involved in laboratory activities, or simply chat about plants and people, do not hesitate to reach out to me at lorenzo.castellano@ucla.edu.

Publications

  • Marston, J and L. Castellano (in press), “Political Economy, Climate, and Agriculture in 1st and 2nd Millennia CE Anatolia”. Antiquity.
  • Castellano, L. (2024), “Farming the land of Hatti: emergence and collapse of the Late Bronze Age agricultural landscape of Central Anatolia ". In M.G. Masetti-Rouault, R. Hawley, I. Calini, L. d’Alfonso (eds), Ancient West Asia Beyond the Paradigm of Collapse and Regeneration, 1200-900 BC. ISAW-NYU press: 85-116.
  • Castellano, L. (2023), “Grapes and wine in pre-Roman Anatolia: evidence of large-scale viticulture from southern Cappadocia, the land of the Storm-God of the Vineyard”. Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 82(2): 171-196.
  • Marston J. and L. Castellano (2023), “Crop Introductions and Agricultural Change in Anatolia during the Long First Millennium CE”. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany.
  • d’Alfonso L., E. Basso, L. Castellano, A. Mantovan, P. Veruani (2022), “Regional exchange and exclusive elite rituals in Iron Age Central Anatolia: dating, function, and circulation of the “Alişar-IV ware””. Anatolian Studies, 72: 37-77.
  • Castellano L. (2021), “A new anthracological sequence from Niğde-Kınık Höyük (Turkey): woodland vegetation and arboriculture in southern Cappadocia from the Late Bronze Age to the Ottoman Period”. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 13(49).
  • Jaffe Y.Y., L. Castellano, G. Shelach-Lavi, R.B. Campbell (2021), “Mismatches of scale in the Application of Paleoclimatic Research to Chinese Archaeology”. Quaternary Research, 99: 14-33.
  • Marston, M. J. and L. Castellano (2021), “Archaeobotany of Anatolia”. In: S. Steadman and G. McMahon (eds), Archaeology of Anatolia Volume IV. Cambridge Scholar Publishing: 338-354.
  • Castellano L., R. Pini, C. Ravazzi, G. Furlanetto, F. Valoti (2021), “Palynological insights to the ecology and economy of ancient bee-products: a contribution to the history of beekeeping”. In: D. A. Wallace-Hare (ed), New Approaches to the Archaeology of Beekeeping. Archaeopress: 59-78.
  • Pini R., C. Ravazzi, R. Comolli, R. Perego, L. Castellano, C. Croci, M. De Amicis, D. Abu El Khair, G. Furlanetto, D. Marsetti (2020), “Life on a hilltop: vegetation history, plant husbandry and pastoralism at the dawn of Bergamo-Bergomum (northern Italy: 15th to 7th century BC)’. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, 30: 525–553.
  • Jung Y., R. Campbell, L. Castellano, C. Xianglong (2020), “Subsistence and persistence: Agriculture in the Central Plains of China through the Neolithic to Bronze Age transition”. Antiquity, 94(376): 900-915.
  • D’Alfonso L., B. Yolaçan, L. Castellano, N. Highcock, C. Casagrande, M.E. Gorrini, A. Trameri (2020), “Niğde Kinik Höyük: New evidence on Central Anatolia during the first millennium BCE”. Near Eastern Archaeology, 83(1): 16-29.
  • Ravazzi C., R. Pini, M. De Amicis, L. Castellano, R. Comolli, D. Abu El Khair, G. Furlanetto, D. Marsetti, R. Perego (2020), “Palaeoecological archives unraveling the early land-use history at the emergence of the Bronze Age settlement of Bergamo (Italian Alps)”. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 276: 104205.
  • Amicone S., E. Croce, L. Castellano, G. Vezzoli (2020), “Building Forcello. Etruscan wattle and daub technique in the Po Plain (Bagnolo San Vito-Mantua, northern Italy)”. Archaeometry, 62(3): 521–537.
  • Castellano L. (2018), “Staple economies and storage in post-Hittite Anatolia. New data from Niğde Kınık Höyük (Southern Cappadocia)”. Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies, 6(4): 259-284. 
  • Peresani M., C. Ravazzi, R. Pini, D. Margaritora, A. Cocilova, D. Delpiano, S. Bertola, L. Castellano, F. Fogliazza, G. Martino, C. Nicosia, P. Simon (2018), “Human settlement and vegetation-climate relationships in the Greenland Stadial 5 at the Piovesello site on the Northern Apennine watershed”. Quaternary Research, 90(3): 503-528.
  • Pini R., G. Furlanetto, L. Castellano, F. Saliu, A. Rizzi, A. Tramelli (2018), “Effects of stepped-combustion on fresh pollen grains: morphoscopic, thermogravimetric, and chemical proxies for the interpretation of archeological charred assemblages”. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 259: 142-158.
  • Castellano L., C. Ravazzi, G. Furlanetto, R. Pini, F. Saliu, M. Lasagni, M. Orlandi, R. Perego, I. Degano, F. Valoti, R. C. de Marinis, S. Casini, T. Quirino, M. Rapi (2017), “Charred honeycombs discovered in Iron Age Northern Italy. A new light on boat beekeeping and bee pollination in pre-modern world”. Journal of Archaeological Science, 83: 26-40.
  • Pini R., C. Ravazzi, L. Raiteri, A. Guerreschi, L. Castellano, R. Comolli (2017), “From pristine forests to high-altitude pastures: an ecological approach to prehistoric human impact on vegetation and landscapes in the western Italian Alps”. Journal of Ecology, 105:1580–1597.

Presentations

  • Castellano L. and V. Sezer. Archaeobotanical approaches to ancient farming in the Eastern Anatolian Highlands. Agriculture in Anatolia from the Antiquity to the Present Symposium, 13-15 May 2024, Ankara.
  • Castellano L. Feeding Ḫattuša: Crop Production and Storage in Hittite Anatolia. Feeding Cities, Antiquity to Middle Ages. The Center for Ancient Studies, New York University, 4-5 April 2024,
  • Castellano L. and J.M. Marston. Agriculture in Achaemenid and Early Hellenistic Central Anatolia: A view from Niğde-Kınık Höyük and Gordion. British Association of Near Eastern Archaeology (BANEA),  University of Glasgow, 3-5 January 2024.
  • Castellano L. and J.M. Marston. Agricultural production in Bronze and Iron Age central Anatolia. The Archaeobotanical Evidence. 13th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East (ICAANE). Copenhagen, 22-26 May 2023.
  • Castellano L. Agriculture in the “Land of Hatti”. The politics and ecology of farming in Late Bronze Age central Anatolia. 88th Annual Meeting Society American Archaeology (SAA). Portland, 29 March – 2 April 2023.
  • Castellano L. The Vines and Grains of Tarhuntas: the development of the agricultural landscape of southern Cappadocia (Turkey) in the 1st millennium BCE. Annual Meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR). Chicago, November 17-20, 2021.
  • Castellano L., D. Campana, P. Crabtree. The village after the citadel:  the agropastoral economy of the Medieval occupation of Niğde-Kınık Höyük (Central Anatolia). 27th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA). Kiel (Germany), September 6-11, 2021.
  • Castellano L. The archaeobotany of viticulture in post-Hittite Anatolia: a view from Southern Cappadocia and a regional synthesis. 67th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale (RAI). Turin (Italy), July 12-16, 2021.
  • Castellano L., D. Campana, P. Crabtree, A. Gürel, C. Kuzucuoğlu, A. Matessi, L. d’Alfonso. A diachronic view on the Anatolia landscape Environment, economies, and polities from the Bronze Age to the Ottoman Period in the Northern Tyanitis (Southern Cappadocia, Turkey). 12th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East (ICAANE). Bologna (Italy), April 6-12, 2021.