BREATHE - About me

a younger me in the Sahara desert of Libya

Emanuele Cancellieri

I am a Stone Age archaeologist with a focus on understanding early human technological strategies in the Saharan region. My work mostly focuses on the analysis of stone tools and the reconstruction of past techno-landscapes to reveal how human communities interacted.

I am currently holding a Horizon Europe funded postdoctoral fellowship at ICArEHB at the Universidade do Algarve in Portugal, where I am studying the Early and Middle Stone Age of the Libyan Sahara to understand population dynamics and behavioural adaptation in the late Quaternary for project BREATHE

visit my profile at ICArEHB here contact me at ecancellieri@ualg.pt

I am a member of "the Archaeological Mission in the Sahara" (Sapienza University of Rome) since 2010

BIO

As a Palaeolithic archaeologist specializing in lithic technologies I completed my dissertation at Sapienza University in Rome, focusing on Late Glacial/Last Glacial Maximum complexes in south-eastern Italy. My university experience included extensive participation in archaeological excavations at prehistoric sites, spanning the Lower Palaeolithic to the Bronze Age, across Europe (Italy, Spain), Africa (Libya, Tunisia), and Asia (Turkey). I also contributed to preventive and rescue archaeological excavations throughout Italy.

I earned my PhD from the University of Ferrara, where a three-year scholarship supported my research into Last Glacial Maximum settlement systems in north-central Italy and the western Balkans. This doctoral work enabled me to develop innovative methods for studying flint procurement and exploitation, significantly broadening my expertise in lithic technology.

In 2010, I joined the 'Messak Project' as a post-doctoral researcher, a pivotal initiative sponsored by the Libyan Department of Archaeology and led by Professor Savino Di Lernia at Sapienza University of Rome. This project, which aimed to document endangered archaeological sites in the Messak Massif in south-west Libya, greatly deepened my understanding of Pleistocene archaeology in the central Sahara. The Libyan civil war in 2011 led to the project's abrupt termination.

Following this, I continued my collaboration with the "Archaeological Mission in the Sahara" at Sapienza University, undertaking a research project in southern Tunisia. My pilot research on Middle Stone Age archaeology and chronology in the Tunisian Sahara, including the first luminescence dating in the Wadi Lazalim area, was also supported by funding from the Wenner-Gren Foundation and the Leakey Foundation, allowing for the refinement of the archaeology, palaeoenvironment, and chronology of the studied sequences.

I hold the National Italian Scientific Qualification for Associate Professor in Archaeology and have contributed as a teaching assistant for the Chair of African Archaeology at Sapienza University in Rome. My research has been presented at national and international conferences and published in academic journals and books. As an experienced experimental lithic technologist, I actively apply my skills in both scientific research and public outreach to effectively disseminate archaeological knowledge.

I was recently awarded an ERA postdoctoral fellowship through the EU's Horizon Europed programme to conduct research on the Stone Age of the Libyan Sahara with BREATHE's project at the University of Algarve in Portugal.

Publications on African Archaeology

Micarelli, I., Di Matteo, M., Touj, F., Cancellieri, E., Trabelsi, K., Tafuri, M. A., Boukhchim, N., Rotunno, R., Castorina, F., di Lernia, S., & Aouadi, N., 2025, The medieval burial assemblage from Koudiet er Rammadiya, Northern Tunisia. An interdisciplinary bioarchaeological investigation. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 17(5), 97. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-025-02209-3

Rotunno, R., Aouadi, N., Gharbi, A., Cancellieri, E., Cafieri, D., Di Matteo, M., Kerkeni, H., Micarelli, I., & di Lernia, S. 2024,The necropolis of Jebel Zebouzi (El Kef ): integrated and multiscale archaeological analysis of protohistoric megalithic structures from Northern Tunisia. CaSteR, 9, 2-24. https://doi.org/10.13125/caster/6332

Cancellieri, E., Bel Hadj Brahim, H., Ben Nasr, J., Ben Fraj, T., Boussoffara, R., Di Matteo, M., Mercier, N., Marnaoui, M., Monaco, A., Richard, M., Mariani, G. S., Scancarello, O., Zerboni, A., & di Lernia, S., 2022, A late Middle Pleistocene Middle Stone Age sequence identified at Wadi Lazalim in southern Tunisia. Scientific Reports, 12(1), 3996. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-07816-x

Cancellieri, E., 2021, A tentative tale of Stone Age human dynamics in Pleistocene south-western Libya (central Sahara). Libyan Studies, 52, 36-53. https://doi.org/10.1017/lis.2021.18

Cancellieri, E. 2021, Morphometric analysis of Middle Stone Age tanged tools from south-western Libya, central Sahara. A regional perspective. Archeologia e Calcolatori 32:7-24. https://doi.org/10.19282/ac.32.1.2021.01

Monaco, A., Belhouchet, L., Bel Hadj Brahim, H., Ben Fraj, T., Ben Nasr, J., Boussoffara, R., Cancellieri, E., Jnen, M., Lucci, E., Rotunno, R. & di Lernia, S. 2020. Megalithic Structures of the northern Sahara (Chott el Jérid, Tunisia). Cartagine, Studi e Ricerche, 5. https://doi.org/10.13125/caster/4078

di Lernia, S., Anagnostou, P., Ben Fraj, T., Ben Nasr, J., Boukhchim, N., Boussoffara, R., Bel Haj Brahim, H., Cancellieri, E., Carpentieri, M., Castorina, F., Destro Bisol, G., Lucci, E., Manzi, G., Marnaoui, M., Monaco, A., Ouaja, M., Jaouadi, S., Tafuri, M.A., 2017. First archaeological investigations in the Chott el Jerid area, Southern Tunisia, Scienze dell'Antichità 23, 3-19.

Ben Nasr, J., Ben Fraj, T., Boussoffara, R., Boukhchim, N., Marnaoui, M., Jaouadi, S., Anagnostou, P., Cancellieri, E., Carpentieri M., Destro Bisol, G., Lucci E., & di Lernia, S., 2017. Climat, environnement et sociétés de la Préhistoire du sud tunisien: résultats préliminaires et perspectives de la recherche. In P. Ruggeri (Ed.), Archeologia e tutela del patrimonio di Cartagine: lo stato dell’arte e le prospettive della collaborazione tuniso-italiana (Tunisi, 18 Marzo 2016) Atti del seminario di studi (pp. 95-108). SAIC Editore.

Cancellieri, E. & Ben Nasr, J. 2019. Archaeological research in northern Sahara. Thoughts on the experience of a Tunisian-Italian research program (2014-2017) in post-revolutionary Tunisia. In: di Lernia, S., Gallinaro, M. (Eds.), Archaeology in Africa. Potentials and perspectives on laboratory & fieldwork research, All’Insegna del Giglio, Firenze, pp. 37-45. https://www.insegnadelgiglio.it/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/aza-8.pdf

Cancellieri, E., Cremaschi, M., Zerboni, A., di Lernia, S., 2016. Climate, Environment and Population Dynamics in Pleistocene Sahara. In: Johnes, S., Steward, B. (Eds.), Africa from Stages Six to Two: Population Dynamics and Palaeoenvironments. Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, pp. 123-45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7520-5_7

Ben Nasr, J., Ben Fraj, T., Boussoffara, R., Boukhchim, N., Marnaoui, M., Jaouadi, S., Anagnostou, P., Cancellieri, E., Carpentieri, M., Destro Bisol, G., Lucci, E. and di Lernia, S. 2016. Climat, environnement et sociétés de la Préhistoire du sud tunisien: résultats préliminaires et perspectives de la recherche. Cartagine, Studi e Ricerche 1: 1-15. https://doi.org/10.13125/caster/2497

Cancellieri, E., di Lernia, S., 2014. Re-Entering the central Sahara at the onset of the Holocene: a

territorial approach to Early Acacus Hunter Gatherers (SW Libya), Quaternary International 320, 43-62.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2013.08.030

Cancellieri, E., di Lernia, S., 2013. Middle Stone Age human occupation and dispersals in the Messak plateau (SW Libya, central Sahara). Quaternary International 300, 142-152. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2012.08.2054

Liverani, M., Barbato, L., Cancellieri, E., Castelli, R., Putzolu, C., 2013. Fewet Necropolis: the survey. In: Mori, L. (Ed.), Life and death of a rural village in Garamantian Times. Archaeological investigations in the oasis of Fewet (Libyan Sahara), Arid Zone Archaeology Monographs 6, pp. 199-224.

Mori L., Ricci F., Gatto M. C., Cancellieri E., Lemorini C., 2013. The excavation of the Fewet Necropolis, in Mori, L. (Ed.), Life and death of a rural village in Garamantian Times. Archaeological investigations in the oasis of Fewet (Libyan Sahara), Arid Zone Archaeology Monographs 6, pp. 253-318.

Biagetti, S., Cancellieri, E., Cremaschi, M., Gauthier, C., Gauthier, Y., Zerboni, A., Gallinaro, M., 2013. ‘The Messak Project’, Archaeological research for cultural heritage management in SW Libya. Journal of African Archaeology 11, 55-74. https://doi.org/10.3213/2191- 5784-10231

Gallinaro, M., Gauthier, C., Gauthier, Y., Le Quellec, J.L., Abdel Aziz, S., Biagetti, S., Boitani, L., Cancellieri, E., Cavorsi, L., Massamba N'Siala, I., Monaco, A., Vanzetti, A., Zerboni, A., di Lernia, S., 2012. The Messak Project. Cultural and Natural Preservation and Sustainable Tourism (south-western Libya). Antiquity (project gallery) 086 (331, March 2012). https://www.antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/gallinaro331/

Cancellieri, E., Frinchillucci, G., Poggi, G., 2011. Craft activities in a village of Fugà (Wolaita, Ethiopia): preliminary etnoarchaeological observations. In: F. Lugli, A. A. Stoppiello, S. Biagetti (Eds.), Proceedings of the 5° Congress of Ethnoarchaeology, BAR International Series, 2235.

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