My research methodology is grounded in a multidisciplinary approach: I bring together linguistics, history, epigraphy, and digital humanities, while consistently referencing the broader theoretical framework of ancient world anthropology, in which I was academically brought up in the Centre for Anthropology of the Ancient World in Siena. My work has consistently focused on scarcely documented areas and periods, teaching me to approach problems from every possible perspective. Constantly keeping up with the latest innovations in digital tools and coding puts me in the best position to build bridges between humanities and tech. 

My excellent knowledge of ancient Greek and Latin, as well as Hittite, Luwian, Old Persian, and other minor ancient languages —and their scripts, from Luwian Hieroglyphs to Latin cursive —enables me to work directly with original documents. My training and experience as an epigraphist at the Schools of Archaeology in Athens also equipped me with the skills to manage relationships with museums and best practices for document conservation. 

What I am working on now

A Computational Analysis of Multilingual Documents from Hittite Anatolia (University of Verona)

I am investigating the textualization and historical significance of different languages in the cuneiform archives of Hattusa, with particular attention to phonetic and phonematic representation and the transmission of texts in multilingual contexts. Our study integrates traditional philology and history with computational approaches, applying automated data collection and machine learning to Hattian documents. First, using the syllabogram as the unit of analysis, we examine patterns such as scriptio plena and scriptio geminata through digital parsing and quantitative modeling. Building on this foundation, we are now exploring the transmission of texts in the multicultural archives of Hattusa through innovative applications of n-gram and clustering analysis.

Publications in press: (1) Computational approaches to orthographic variability in cuneiform bilinguals: The case of scriptio plena in Hattian.  

(2) Transmission in Hittite Times: Tracing Textual Reworking and the Circulation of Texts in the Multilingual Archives of Hattusa through N-gram Clustering. 

A Fleet on Stone. A Study into Language and Knowledge in Naval Inscriptions from Democratic Athens 

(University of Trier)

This project reconstructs Athenian naval technical language in inscriptions from the Classical period, addressing its connections with technological knowledge and socio-political structures in democratic Athens. As technological advancements reshape language and knowledge structures today, it remains crucial to examine how linguistic frameworks and knowledge structures of past societies were impacted on by new scientific and societal innovations. The project focuses on the Naval Inventories from the Piraeus harbours, providing their first-ever comprehensive translation to make these significant inscriptions accessible for the first time. The study examines their structure, lexicon, syntax, and semantics to (1) reconstruct their technical language and its evolution in response to technological, political, and societal changes; (2) how their expanding body of technological and administrative knowledge is organized and conveyed in public documents. Making these documents accessible will provide a valuable resource for the University of Cambridge while advancing the applicant’s expertise in linguistics and digital humanities. Beyond academia, the project explores how technological knowledge and its specialized language impacted past democracies. 

My broad research interests

• History of technical knowledge and technical languages, especially naval and military 

• Plurilingualism and multiculturalism in ancient Anatolia, from the Bronze to the Hellenistic Age

• Digital methodologies for History, Classics and Linguistics

• Formation and evolution of Greek and Anatolian alphabets 

• Mycenaean Greek and Linear B script

Conference and Talks 

2025

• [invited] Social Network Analysis and epigraphy: exploring multiculturalism and multilinguism through networks. 10/11/2025, The Groningen Research Institute for the Study of Culture, Groningen University. 

• [invited] It's all Greek to me: assessing the intelligibility of minority languages in Pamphylia with the Levenshtein algorithm. 6/11/2025, Center for Language and Cognition (CLCG) - Groningen, Language Diversity Research Group, Groningen University. 

• Barbarophones or Hellenophones? Assessing Pamphylian Intelligibility with the Levenshtein algorithm. 26/06/2015. 11th International Colloquium in Ancient Greek Linguistics - Université Côte d'Azur, Nice.

• [invited] Variability in Hattic texts: computational tools and approaches. 5-6/06/2025. Studies on translations and tradition of plurilingual texts in Hittite Anatolia Workshop - Università di Pavia (with Prof. Dr. A. Rizza)

•  [invited] Alphabets on the periphery: the reinterpretation of the corpus doctrinae on the edges of the Greek world. 28-29/04/2025, LautSchrift Sprache Conference, Île d'Oléron (with Dr. A. Santamaria).

• Multivariate SNA and linguistic choices: an analysis of funerary inscriptions from Hellenistic Pamphylia. 03/04/2025, IX Epigraphy.info Workshop, University of Aarhus. 

• From conquest to cohesion: Linguistic data for understanding conflict dynamics in Hittite Anatolia. 24-29/03/2025, Kiel Conference - Scales of Social, Environmental & Cultural Change in Past Societies, University of Kiel. 

• [invited] L'antroponomia nell'Anatolia ellenistica: contatti e divergenze fra greco panfilio e sidetico. 24/01/2025, Giornata di studi su Scrittura, lingua e società nel Mediterraneo Orientale antico, Università di Verona (with Prof. Dr. A. Rizza). 

2024

• Le basi aggettivali in hurrita: verso una prospettiva tipologica. 4-5/11/2024. Cantieri d'Autunno 2024 - Sezione di Orientalistica, Università degli Studi di Pavia. With Dr. Fabio Bastici (Pavia) & Alessandro Rossi (Roma La Sapienza).

• Prospettive tipologiche nell’analisi delle radici aggettivali in hurrita. 24-26/10/2024. LVIII Convegno della Società Italiana di Glottologia: La storia, le storie e la linguistica - Sapienza Università di Roma. With Dr. Fabio Bastici (Pavia) & Alessandro Rossi (Roma La Sapienza).

• Language Choices and Identity Reflections in Hellenistic Pamphylia: A Social Network Analysis of Funerary Inscriptions. 19/07/2024, Language and Identity in Antiquity, Université de Lausanne.

• Pausanias’ Erythrai. Indigenous elements in foundation myths of Hellenistic and Imperial Age Asia Minor. 9-12/07/2024, Panel ‘Pausanias from Different Perspectives’ - 15th Celtic Conference in Classics, University of Cardiff.

• [Invited] Plurigrafismo e plurilinguismo nell’Asia Minore ellenistica. 14/06/2024, Testi e Testualizzazione: mise en page e mise en texte nel Vicino Oriente Antico, Università di Verona.

• [Invited discussant] Basic adjectives in Hurrian. 21/02/2024, Università di Pavia. Keynote lecture: F. Plank, Discussants: M. Giorgieri, A. Rizza, F. Bastici, E. Selvi.

2023

• [Invited] Alphabets in contact: an anthropological approach to the transmission of the alphabet from Greece to Anatolia. 14/03/2023, Museo di Antalya.

• Due decreta navalia dal Pireo. IG I³ 153 e 154 e la gestione delle strutture portuali nella seconda metà del V secolo. SAEG VIII – Seminario Avanzato di Epigrafia Greca, Università degli Studi di Perugia. (Abstract accettato e inserito nella programmazione dell’evento e degli atti, intervento non tenuto per motivi di salute).

2022

• [Invited] Graeco-Anatolian Pamphylia. Data from regional onomastics. 09-10/12/2022, Anatolian Interactions. Criss-cross contacts and cultural dynamics in the first millennium BCE, University of Trento.

• [Invited] Shaping the Pamphylian Alphabet through interference and isolation: the representation of the glides. 24-25/03/2022, PaLAC Workshop – Languages and Cultures in Contact in the Ancient Mediterranean, University of Verona (with A. Santamaria, Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna).

• Aspect and Actionality in Archaic and Classic Attic Epigraphs at a Syntax-Semantic Interface. 15-18/06/2022, ICAGL – International Colloquium on Greek Linguistics. Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (with A. Santamaria, Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna).

2021

• Aspetto e azionalità nel lessico navale militare. Possibilità per l'integrazione dei cataloghi frammentari del IV secolo. 15/12/2021, Colloquio invernale - Scuola Archeologica Italiana ad Atene.

• A Story without an End. The Never Reached Systematization of the Pamphylian Alphabet. 21-23 October 2021, 13th International Workshop on Writing Systems and Literacy - AWLL13: On the systematic nature of writing systems, University of North Carolina, USA.

2019-2020

• Building a Borderland: Tales and Traditions on Greek Pamphylia. 15-17/10/2020, 2nd International Conference for Postgraduate Students and PhD Candidates in Classics ''Discourses about Otherness: Forms of the Other in Ancient Greek and Latin Literature.'' Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

• The crews of the Sicilian Expedition. An analysis of the sources for the rowers’ social status in the 5th cent. B.C.E. 10/10/2019, 10th MA and PhD Philology Candidates Conference Faculty of Philology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

• A Linguistic and Philological Analysis for a Revisitation of the Mycenaean e-re-ta Tablets. 14/05/2019, Mezinárodního setkáni mladých lingvistů. Filozofické fakulty - Univerzity Palackého v Olomouci. With A. Santamaria, Università di Bologna.

• Social status and roles in the Mycenaean navy. 23/01/2019, Post-graduate Work in Progress Seminars, Dept. of Greek and Latin - University College London.

• Status sociale e ruolo nella flotta militare micenea di ki-ti-ta, me-ta-ki-ti-ta e po-si-ke-te-re. 11/12/2018, Classicamente – Dialoghi Senesi sul Mondo Antico, Centro di Antropologia del Mondo Antico. Università degli Studi di Siena.

Epigraphic fieldwork (archaeological sites and museums)

• Thracian inscriptions in Alexandropouli and Komotini, November 22nd - December 7th 2025, with Dr. Andrea Santamaria (CAU Kiel).

• Athenian naval inscriptions in the Epigraphic Museum of Athens II, August 1st - August 31st 2023, with the École française d’Athènes.

• Cretan Hieroglyphs and Linear A seals and sealings in the Heraklion Museum and the archaeological sites of Myrtos Pyrgos, Archanes, Vassilikì and Haghia Triada (Crete, Greece), 15th-30 April 2023, with Dr. Andrea Santamaria (Bologna). 

• Pamphylian inscriptions in the Antalya Museum and the archeological sites of Aspendos, Perge, Sillyon and Termessos (Turkey), March 1st-March 30th 2023. 

• Athenian naval inscriptions in the Epigraphic Museum of Athens I, September 1st - December 20th 2021, with the Scuola Archeologica Italiana di Atene.