Michela Spataro
Scientist (ceramics and stone)
Scientific analyses of stone and
ceramic objects from the Museum collection
Department: Conservation and Scientific
Research
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7323 8342
Email: mspataro @ thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
Michela uses microscopy (optical and SEM) to
analyse stone and ceramic artefacts to identify raw material
sources and the technological processes used to produce them. She
is particularly interested in the provenance of ceramic raw
materials - clays and mineral inclusions – which can indicate where
a pot was manufactured, and therefore shed light on patterns of
pottery production and trade in the past. She also collaborates
with conservators regarding deterioration of limestone objects.
Before joining the Museum, Michela was a
Leverhulme Research Fellow at UCL Institute of Archaeology,
studying the early Neolithic Starčevo-Criş Culture in Romania,
Serbia and Croatia, which produced the earliest pottery in
continental Europe. This project was linked to her PhD thesis on
early and middle Neolithic pottery production and circulation in
the Adriatic region (Italy and Croatia).
Since 2003 she has also been a lecturer in
Balkan and European prehistory at Ca’ Foscari University (Venice,
Italy).
Current British Museum projects
Ceramic Analysis: Investigating regional difference during the
Halaf period
Petrographic analysis of mortaria from the
eastern Mediterranean
The Vinča culture: technological changes in the Middle Neolithic
of the central Balkans
Previous British Museum projects
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External fellowships/ honorary positions/ membership of professional bodies
Lecturer of the MA course in European and
Balkan prehistory at Venice University (Italy)
Honorary Research Associate of the Institute
of Archaeology, UCL
Editor of The Old Potter’s
Almanack
Member of the Italian archaeological mission
in Pakistan
Member of the Italian archaeological mission
in Romania
Member of the Interdepartmental Centre for
Balkan Studies (Venice International University)
Member of the Ceramic Petrology Group (UK)
Publications
M. Spataro, ‘Early Neolithic pottery production in Romania: the
scientific analysis of the ceramics from Gura Baciului and Şeuşa
La-cărarea morii (Transylvania)’ in Living Well Together?
Settlement and Materiality in the Neolithic of South-East and
Central Europe, eds. D W Bailey, A Whittle, and D Hofmann
(Oxford, Oxbow Books, 2008), chapter 9, pp. 91-100
M. Spataro (ed.) A Short Walk Through the
Balkans: the First Farmers of the Carpathian Basin and Adjacent
Regions, with P. Biagi (Trieste, Società per la
Preistoria e Protostoria della Regione Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Quaderno 12, 2007)
M. Spataro, ‘Everyday ceramics and cult
objects: a millennium of cultural transmission’ in A
Short Walk through the Balkans: the First Farmers of the Carpathian
Basin and Adjacent Regions, (eds.) M. Spataro, M. and P.
Biagi, (Trieste Società per la Preistoria e Protostoria della
Regione Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Quaderno 12, 2007), pp.149-160.
M. Spataro, The First Farming Communities
of the Adriatic: Pottery Production and Circulation in the Early
and Middle Neolithic (Trieste, Società per la Preistoria e
Protostoria della Regione Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Quaderno 9,
2002)
M. Spataro, ‘Pottery production in the Thar
Desert (Sindh, Pakistan): three case-studies (Hindwari, Pir chebo,
and Hingorja)’. Rivista di Archeologia, XXVIII, (2004),
pp. 171-180