Robin Skeates

Nel 1996, quando il dottor Skeates era impegnato a raccogliere notizie sulle collezioni museali italiane riguardanti la preistoria, da inserire in quello che sarebbe diventato poi un libro dal titolo The collecting of origins: collectors and collections of Italian prehistory and the cultural transformation of value (1550-1999), Brithish Archaeological Reports n. 868, ebbi la possibilità di fornirgli scarne notizie riguardanti il Museo Civico di Piedimonte Matese (oggi dedicato a "Raffaele Marrocco"). Egli, nonostante il poco aiuto prestatogli, ricompensò ugualmente il mio impegno con generose citazioni all'interno del prestigioso volume donandomi, per giunta, vari estratti delle sue precedenti pubblicazioni.


Componente dello staff del dipartimento archeologico della Durham University in qualità di docente di Museologia, il dott. Robin Skeates è anche redattore dell'European Journal of Archaeology.

Notevole è stato, e continua ad essere, il suo contributo riguardo all'archeologia preistorica italiana e del Mediterraneo centrale. Nel 2010, durante lo svolgimento del "Progetto grotte di Seulo" (comune in provincia di Cagliari), l'equipe da lui guidata è stata protagonista della clamorosa scoperta, nella grotta di Is Janas, di una piccola testa in calcare della "dea madre" attribuita al Neolitico finale (4.000/3200 a.C).


Ha pubblicato:

  • The Routledge Handbook of Sensory Archaeology, 2019, pp. 610.
  • Faunal remains and ritualisation: case studies from Bronze Age caves in central Italy, (con altri), in «The Bioarchaeology of Ritual and Religion», 2018, pp. 129-147.
  • Prehistoric figurines in Italy, in «The Oxford Handbook of Preistoric Figurines», 2017, pp. 777-798
  • From Cave to Dolmen: Ritual and Symbolic Aspects in the Prehistory between Sciacca, Sicily and the Central Mediterranean, Oxford: Archaeopress Archaeology. 2014. Germania 94 (1-2): (2016), pp. 311-314.
  • Rethinking the North Italian Early Naolithic, in «European Journal of Archaeology» vol. XVIII, 1, 2015, pp. 165-169
  • Communicating over space and time in the world of the Iceman, in «Space and Time in Mediterranean Prehistory», S. Souvatzi & A. Hadji (eds.), 2014, pp. 138-159
  • The Making of the Middle Sea: A History of the Mediterranean from the Beginning to the Emergence of the Classical World, in «European Journal of Archaeology» vol. XVII, 4, 2014, pp. 733-736
  • Neolithic Italy at 4004 B.C.: people and places, in «Accordia Research Papers», 13, 2013, pp. 1-29
  • The Cultural Life of Caves in Seulo, Central Sardinia, (coautrici M. G. Gradoli e J. Beckett), in «Journal of Mediterranea Archaeology» vol. 26 n. 1, 2013, pp. 97-126
  • Caves in context: an introduction, in «Caves in context: The cultural significance of caves and rockshetters in Europe», 2012, pp. 1-9 (v. prefazione al libro)
  • Caves in need of context: prehistoric Sardinia, in «Caves in context: The cultural significance of caves and rockshetters in Europe», 2012, pp. 166-187
  • Constructed caves: transformations of the underworld in prehistoric southeast Italy, in «Sacred darkness: a global perspective on the ritual use of caves», 2012, pp. 27-44
  • Making sense of the history of archaeological representation, in «The Oxford Handbook of Public Archaeology», 2012, pp. 82-89
  • Recensione a: Caroline Malone, Simon Stoddart, Anthony Bonanno and David Trump, eds. Mortuary Customs in Prehistoric Malta: Excavation at the Brochtorff Circle at Xaghra, in «European Journal of Archaeology» vol. XIV, 1-2, pp. 299-300
  • Introduction: questioning archaeology's place in the world, in «The Oxford Handbook of Public Archaeology», 2011, pp. 1-10
  • The Seulo Caves Project, Sardinia: a report on archaeological work undertaken in 2009 and 2010, in «Cave and Karst Science» 38, 2011, pp. 131-136
  • An Archaeology of the Senses: Prehistoric Malta, Oxford, 2010
  • Journeys to the underworld: ritual transformations of persons, objects and caves in prehistoric Central Sardinia, in «Past: the newsletter of the Prehistoric Society», LXV, 2010, pp. 13-14
  • The art of memory: personal ornaments in Copper Age South-East Italy, in «Material Mnemonics - Everyday Memory in Prehistoric Europe», Oxford, 2010, pp. 73-84
  • Trade and interaction, in «The Oxford Handbook of Archaeology», Oxford, 2009, pp. 555-578
  • Uplands of Ancient Sicily and Calabria: The Archeology of Landscape Revisited, in «European Journal of Archaelogy» vol. XII, 1-3, 2009, pp. 255-257
  • Embodiment and visual reproduction in the Neolithic: the case of stamped symbol, in «Documenta Praehistorica» XXXV, 2008, pp. 179-184
  • Some questions for stamp collectors, introduzione a «Prehistoric stamps - Theory and experiments» a cura di D. Gheorghiu e R. Skeates, Bucarest, 2008
  • Abstract and figurative representation and the politics of display in Neolithic Southeast Italy, in «Image and imagination - a global prehistory of figurative representation», Cambridge, 2007, pp. 199-210
  • Italian prehistory collections as Mediterranean cultural heritage, in «Mediterranean Crossroads» (eds.) Antoniadou-Pace, 2007, pp. 691-714
  • Neolithic stamps: cultural patterns, processes and potencies, in «Cambridge Archaeological Journal» 17 (2), 2007, pp. 183-198
  • Recensione a: Douglass W. Bailey, Prehistoric Figurines: Representation and Corporeality in the Neolithic, New York 2005, in «Antiquity» 81 (313), 2007, pp. 801-802
  • Recensione a: Menotti F., (ed.), Living on the Lake in Prehistoric Europe: 150 Years of Lake-Dweling Research, London 2005, in «Environment Archaeology» vol. XII, n. 1, 2007, pp. 95-97
  • Religious experience in the prehistoric Maltese underworld, in «Cult in context - Reconsidering ritual in archaeology», Oxford, 2007, pp. 90-96
  • Chronological bibliography of Luigi Cardini's publications, in «Explorations in Albania: 1930-39 - the Notebooks of Luigi Cardini. Prehistorian with the Italian Archaeological Mission», Londra 2005, pp. 205-209
  • Luigi Cardini (1898-1971): a biography, in «Explorations in Albania: 1930-39 - the Notebooks of Luigi Cardini. Prehistorian with the Italian Archaeological Mission», Londra, 2005, pp. 4-9
  • Museum archaeology and the Mediterranean cultural heritage, in «The Archaeology of Mediterranean Prehisory», Oxford, 2005, pp. 303-320
  • Visual culture in Neolithic South-East Italy, in «Papers in Italian Archaeology VI - Communities and settlements from the Neolithic to the early medieval period», Oxford, 2005, pp. 541-544
  • Visual Culture and Archaeology: Art and Social Life in Prehistoric South-East Italy, Londra 2005
  • Radiocarbon dating and interpretations of the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in Italy, in «The Widening Harvest. The Neolithic transition in Europe», Boston, Archaeological Institute of America, 2003, pp. 157-187
  • Axe aestetics: stone axes and visual culture in prehistoric Malta, in «Oxford Journal of Archaeology» XXI, 1, 2002, pp. 13-22
  • The Neolithic enclosures of the Tavoliere, South-East Italy, in «Encolsures in Neolithic Europe - Essays on causewayed and non-causewayed sites» Oxford, 2002, pp. 51-58
  • Archaeologies of art - contributions to World Art Studies, in «Raising the Eyebrow - John Onians and World Art Studies. An album amicorum in his honour», Oxford, British Archaeological Reports, 2001, pp. 289-300
  • Debating the Archaeological Heritage, Londra, 2000
  • The Collecting of Origins: collectors and collections of Italian prehistory and the cultural transformation of value (1550-1999), Oxford, BAR, 2000
  • Unveiling inequality social life and social change in the Mesolithic and Early Neolithic of East-Central Italy, in «Social dynamics of the prehistoric central Mediterranean» Tykot, Morder & Robb (eds.), Londra, 1999, pp. 15-45
  • The social life of Italian neolithic painted pottery, in «The Archaeology of Value: Essays on Prestige and the Processes of Valuation», BAR, 1998, pp. 131-141
  • Copper Age Settlement and Economy in Marche, Central Italy, in «Journal of Medieval Archaeology» vol. 10, 1997, pp. 49-72
  • The human uses of caves in east-central Italy during the Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Copper Age, in «The human use of caves», 1997, pp. 79-86
  • Towards an absolute chronology for the Coper Age in central Italy: a note based on the conelle site and culture, in «Papers of the British School at Rome» volume 64, 1996, pp. 273-282
  • Animate objects: a biography of prehistoric 'axe-amulets' in the central Mediterranean region, in «Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society» 61, 1995, pp. 279-301
  • Ritual, context, and gender in Neolithic south-eastern Italy, in «European Journal of Archaeology», 8, 1994, pp. 199-214
  • Towards an absolute chronology for the Neolithic in central Italy, in «Radiocarbon Dating and Italian Prehistory», Archaeological monographs of the British School at Rome, 14, 1994, pp. 61-72
  • Towards an absolute chronology for the Neolithic in central Italy, in «Radiocarbon Dating and Italian Prehistory», Archaeological monographs of the British School at Rome, 14, 1994, pp. 61-72
  • Early metal-use in the central Mediterranean region, in «The Accordia Reserch Papers» volume 4, 1993, pp. 5-48
  • Neolithic exchange in central and southern Italy, in «Trade and exchange in prehistoric Europe» Proceedings of a Conference held at the University of Bristol, April 1992, Oxford 1993, pp. 109-114
  • Mediterranean coral: its use and exchange in and around the alpine region during the later neolithic and copper age, in «Oxford Journal of Archaeology» vol. XII n. 3, 1993, pp. 281-292
  • The Neolithic and copper age of the Abruzzo-Marche region, central Italy, Oxford University 1992 (Thesis)
  • Thin-section analysis of Italian Neolithic pottery, in «New developments in italian archaeology, part 1» Papers of the fourth conference of italian archaeology held in the University of London, January 1990, (1992), pp. 29-34
  • Caves, cult, and children in Neolithic Abruzzo, central Italy, in «Sacred and profane - Proceedings of a Conference on Archaeology, Ritual and Religion», Oxford, 1991, pp. 122-134
  • Triton's trumpet: a Neolithic symbol in Italy, in «Oxford Journal of Archaeology» 10, 1991, pp. 17-31