Research

nature
My Marie Curie project PythiaPlus explores the epigraphic cultures of the Greek and Roman worlds using Artificial Intelligence.
By revolutionising our ability to access and analyse the data through the implementation of Machine Learning models, this research will enable and undertake the interpretation of the epigraphic patterns discovered by the models across thousands of Greek and Latin inscriptions.
My first output is the Ithaca project, featured on the cover of Nature in March 2022.

sicilyMy doctoral thesis investigated the burial practices of Archaic and Classical western Sicily, incorporating comparative epigraphic evidence. It explored the processes of creation and assertion of socio-cultural identities among migrant and indigenous communities. My thesis was awarded the G. Nenci prize by the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa.
My work on ancient Sicily continues today as cooperation partner of the Consuming the East in Sicily project (University of Vienna - FWF), where I am responsible for the study of the inscriptions on the transport amphorae from the necropoleis of Himera.

Academic Positions

Research Projects

2021 - 2023, Project lead
PythiaPlus - Machine Learning for the Study of Ancient Epigraphic Cultures.
Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 101026185. Hosted by Ca’ Foscari Università di Venezia.
2023 - 2027, Cooperation partner
Consuming the East in Sicily – The eastern Greek transport amphorae from the necropolises of Himera and new insights into the colony's extra-regional trade (mid-7th to 5th century BCE).
Responsible for the study of the amphorae inscriptions from the necropoleis of Himera.
FWF Austrian Sciences Fund P. 36827. Institute for Classical Archeology, University of Vienna.
2020 - 2022, Project co-lead
Ithaca – Restoring and attributing ancient Greek inscriptions with Machine Learning.
With Google DeepMind, Ca’ Foscari Università di Venezia, University of Oxford, Athens AUEB University, Google Cloud.
2021 - 2022, Project co-lead
Machine learning for ancient Greek literature.
With Google DeepMind, funded by the Harvard CHS Center for Hellenic Studies.
2021, Research collaborator
I.Sicily - A digital corpus of Sicilian inscriptions.
University of Oxford - ERC 'Crossreads Project'.
2020, Project lead
Machine Learning for the restoration of Latin epigraphic texts.
Funded by the British School at Rome.
2019, Project co-lead
Pythia – Restoring ancient text using Deep Learning: a case study on Greek epigraphy.
With the University of Oxford and Google DeepMind.
2018 - 2017, Project lead
ISicDef – A digital corpus of Sicilian curse tablets.
Independent research conducted at the University of Oxford.

Media Coverage