Marco Madella
Biographic Data
| ID | 473 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Marco Madella |
| GIVEN NAMES | Marco |
| FAMILY NAME | Madella |
| SIGNATURE | MADELLA M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9324-1545 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 84 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 785 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 84 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 17 |
Into the woods of ancient Corinth
This paper explores the historical periods of Hellenistic and Early Roman Greece, which brought important changes to the region during the second half of the 1st millennium BCE. While these periods hold great historical and cultural importance, the understanding of how individuals interacted with their environment remains insufficiently explored. The present study aims to address this gap, with focus on human-woodland interactions in Hellenistic …
Plant processing and foodways in the Pastoral Neolithic
Pastoralism has long been conceptualized as an animal-centered lifeway, with plants treated as marginal or ancillary resources. This is particularly true in Africa where rich ethnographic records of present-day pastoralism and scant archaeobotanical evidence have combined to create a focus on livestock in the archaeological record. This study challenges that perspective by demonstrating that plant use formed an integral component of Pastoral Neol…
Experts against automation? Comparing artificial intelligence and human identifications of multi-cell cereal husk phytoliths
This study compares the efficacy of a deep learning-based computer vision model against manual expert identification of multi-cell husk phytoliths from wheat ( Triticum boeticum/dicoccoides ), barley ( Hordeum spontaneum ), and oats ( Avena sativa ). Conducted via an online survey in 2024 with twelve respondents (92% completion rate, one respondent did not finish), the survey presented 18 phytolith images selected based on: 1) deep learning perfo…
Anthropic Activity Markers 2.0
Anthropic Activity Markers (AAMs) were formalized over 10 years ago as a toolkit to infer human activities from biological and geochemical signatures preserved in sediments. This paper presents AAMs 2.0, a revised analytical framework that integrates compositional data analysis (CoDA) and geostatistics, as the appropriate statistical foundations for this approach. We first outline the theoretical motivation of this framework, demonstrating that t…
Advancing Methodological Integration in Multi-Proxy Archaeobotany
Dutch wetlands hold key evidence for the onset of farming, yet plant proxies from levee records outside excavated settlements have been largely underused. This study applies a comparative framework to plant macroremains, pollen, phytoliths and charred herbaceous plant tissues (CHPT) from a levee core to assess wetland suitability for early agriculture. Proxies were sampled from identical horizons, converted to relative depth-wise densities and re…
Hidden in Plain Sight
Developing Geo-Ethnoarchaeological Methods for Studying Archaeological Pastoral Sites
This paper presents the aims, methods, and some initial results of the project ‘(Re)Constructing the Archaeology of Mobile Pastoralism (CAMP)’, a multi-disciplinary investigation into anthropogenic deposits from pastoral contexts in dryland regions. Ethnoarchaeology has played a pivotal role in transforming the study of pastoralism, particularly in environments where material traces are often ephemeral and underrepresented in the archaeological r…
Thinking with Amazonian Indigenous Peoples to expand ideas on domestication
Indigenous knowledges are being increasingly recognized as fundamental for environmental governance, ecosystem management and biodiversity conservation. However, they tend to be recognized by Western science only when they converge with Western scientific knowledge, while ontological differences are generally treated as irrelevant or unreasonable beliefs. Given this scenario, embracing difference as a productive and fundamental aspect to truly un…
Spatial analysis of Amazonian Dark Earth formation supports an anthropic origin at the Caldeirão site, Brazil
Predicting plant water availability from phytolith assemblages
Integrating spatial analyses and microbotanical remains
In archaeology, the study of past plant processing activities in domestic spaces has hitherto relied greatly on the observed distribution of macrobotanical and artefactual remains. However, the surfaces where such activities took place can themselves preserve microscopic remains, potentially traceable to the activity that originated them. This paper presents new aspects of plant-related tasks, and the use of living space, at household level, in N…
Open Practices in Phytolith Research
The open research movement has gained momentum in the last decade and no academic can ignore the necessity to make research more open, as it improves reliability, sustainability and reusability of data. In this paper, we present the results of a community-based survey concerning the extent to which open practices are known and applied within the phytolith research community. The survey covered aspects of research including the use of open source/…
Beyond identification
Animal dung is still considered a secondary by-product of domestication, even though a growing body of evidence is showing that humans recognized its properties as fuel and fertilizer and utilized dung prior to—and alongside—the process of animal domestication. In this paper, we review the advancements made in dung identification over the last decades and suggest a multi-proxy workflow for fast screening for dung in the field laboratory and more …
Phytoliths and lithics
Lithic tools are generally considered ́secondary artefactś when it comes to the Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Harappan Civilisation. However, they were utilized for an array of different functions and formed part of day-to-day life of people. Until now, scholars have worked exhaustively to understand the technology behind manufacturing these tools, raw material acquisition patterns and their typological distributions througho…
Charring effects on stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values on C4 plants
Experimental studies demonstrated that charring affects stable isotope values of plant remains. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the impact of charring to reliably interpret δ13C and δ15N values in archaeobotanical remains before using this approach to reconstruct past water management, paleoclimatic changes, and infer paleodietary patterns. Research so far has focused mostly on C3 plants while the charring effect on C4 plants is less under…
Re-producing public space
In 2020, nation states across Europe restricted access to, and use of, public space to prevent the spread of COVID-19. As almost all public spaces in Europe were consequently affected by restrictive measures, so too did outdoor retail markets drastically change. Some had to close down completely, whereas others operated under the sway of severe limitations for traders and customers. By re-engaging with the work of the late Michael Sorkin, it coul…
Moving marketplaces
Research on outdoor retail markets has focused on the diverse ways in which markets constitute public spaces where diversity and social inclusion coexist with conflict and reproduction of inequalities. This approach has prompted existing studies to focus on place-politics in terms of group- and spatially-bounded processes. In this paper, we take a relational mobility perspective to show that markets are not delineated and fixed entities. By appro…
The challenge of the unique and unprecedented, comment on Agnihorti et al. (2021)
Archaeobotany of Brazilian Indigenous Peoples and Their Food Plants
No Rain, No Grain? Ethnoarchaeology of Sorghum and Millet Cultivation in Dryland Environments of Sudan, Pakistan, and Ethiopia
Drylands cover more than 40% of the earth’s land surface, are found on all continents, and are home to 30% of the world’s population. Due to water scarcity, they are generally considered unsuitable for lasting human settlement. While pastoralism has been reconceptualized recently as a rational, efficient, and sustainable way to live in drylands, agriculture without irrigation is generally considered unfeasible in hyper-arid and arid drylands. Thi…
Archaeology and ethnography demonstrate a human origin for Amazonian Dark Earths
Archaeological research provides clear evidence that the widespread formation of Amazonian Dark Earths (ADEs) in tropical lowland South America was concentrated in the Late Holocene, an outcome of sharp demographic growth that peaked towards 1000 BP. In their recent paper, however, Silva et al. propose that the high fertility of ADE is not of anthropic origin but instead the result of alluvial deposition starting in the Middle Holocene (8200-4200…
Phytolith analyses from Khil and Kaf Taht el-Ghar (Western Maghreb)
In this paper we present the results of phytolith investigations at two archaeological sites in northwestern Morocco: Khil (Tangier) and Kaf Taht el-Ghar (Tétouan). The two sites located in Western Maghreb, one on the Atlantic and one on the Mediterranean coast, were investigated in the framework of the AGRIWESTMED project. Phytolith analysis complemented archaeobotanical, geoarchaeological and archaeological investigations to better identify pla…
Automated detection of archaeological mounds using machine-learning classification of multisensor and multitemporal satellite data
Significance This paper illustrates the potential of machine learning-based classification of multisensor, multitemporal satellite data for the remote detection and mapping of archaeological mounded settlements in arid environments. Our research integrates multitemporal synthetic-aperture radar and multispectral bands to produce a highly accurate probability field of mound signatures. The results largely expand the known concentration of Indus se…
Prehistoric pigment production on Rapa Nui (Easter Island), c. AD 1200–1650
Although Rapa Nui has been proposed as a classic example of cultural collapse, this hypothesis has been repeatedly questioned. This paper investigates cultural continuity on Rapa Nui following the onset of deforestation through a study of red ochre pits. Red ochre pigments are well-known from various contexts on Rapa Nui, but until recently its origin and the extraction process involved in their production were not precisely understood. New excav…
A Long-Term Assessment of the Use of Phoenix theophrasti Greuter (Cretan Date Palm)
Most research on the plant genus Phoenix has focused on Phoenix dactylifera (date palm) due to its worldwide economic importance. Comparatively less attention has been devoted to other species within this genus that are also socio-economically important at a local scale, such as Phoenix theophrasti (Cretan date palm). The aim of this paper is to bring focus to this “forgotten” palm through an ethnobotanical survey of its uses by present-day tradi…
The Exploitation of Plant Resources by Neanderthals in Amud Cave (Israel)
The ‘invisible’ product
Phytoliths as a tool for investigations of agricultural origins and dispersals around the world
Shell middens as archives of past environments, human dispersal and specialized resource management
Stratigraphic and spatial variability in shell middens
Millet microremains-an alternative approach to understand cultivation and use of critical crops in Prehistory
Anthropic activity markers and spatial variability
Micromorphological perspectives on the stratigraphical excavation of shell middens
Experimental micromorphology in Tierra del Fuego (Argentina)
Archaeology at the micro-scale
A Simple Method of Extraction of Opal Phytoliths from Sediments Using a Non-Toxic Heavy Liquid
Shell midden research
Temperature, compression and fragmentation
Millets and Herders
Botanical evidence suggests that North Gujarat (India) was a primary center of plant domestication during the mid-Holocene. However, lack of systematic archaeobotanical research and significant taphonomic processes have so far hampered the possibility of substantiating this hypothesis. This paper explores the role of plants in the subsistence strategies of early-middle Holocene populations in this semiarid region and the processes leading to plan…
Diversification, Intensification and Specialization
A tale of multi-proxies
A methodological approach to the study of microbotanical remains from grinding stones
The missing crop
State formation and water resources management in the Horn of Africa
Intensification of agriculture and irrigation are often considered triggers for both the flourishing and demise of civilizations. Was irrigation a key factor of state formation and urban development in northern Ethiopia? We argue that a household-based management of farmland and water would have provided a strategy sustainable over the long term and flexible enough to adjust to population expansion and contraction at the ancient capital of the Ki…
Towards high-resolution shell midden archaeology
Directions in current and future phytolith research
The Seasonality of Wetland and Riparian Taskscapes at Çatalhöyük
Seasonal variation in the natural world of Neolithic Çatalhöyük shaped the organization of daily life and the social world of its residents. Seasonal cycles in climatic patterns, hydrology, growing seasons of wild and domestic plants, and seasonal behaviors of herded, hunted, and gathered animals would have affected the overall productivity of the landscape and consequently the rhythms of social life (e.g., Fairbain et al. 2005; Pels 2010). These…
Potentials and limitations for the identification of outdoor dung plasters in humid tropical environment
Dung has been an important material used by humans since at least the early Neolithic Period. It accumulated within domesticated animal enclosures and it was used as fuel and fertiliser as well as construction material. While the formers were studied in details, to date, the use of dung as a construction material received less attention. Here, we present a geo-ethnoarchaeological pilot study aimed at understanding the archaeological formation pro…
What is on the craftsmen's menu? Plant consumption at Datrana, a 5000-year-old lithic blade workshop in North Gujarat, India
Morphometric distinction between bilobate phytoliths from Panicum miliaceum and Setaria italica leaves
A Simple Method of Extraction of Opal Phytoliths from Sediments Using a Non-Toxic Heavy Liquid
The Exploitation of Plant Resources by Neanderthals in Amud Cave (Israel)
Droughts, food and culture
International Code for Phytolith Nomenclature 1.0
BACKGROUND: Phytoliths (microscopic opal silica particles produced in and between the cells of many plants) are a very resilient, often-preserved type of microfossil and today, phytolith analysis is widely used in palaeoenvironmental studies, botany, geology and archaeology. To date there has been little standardization in the way phytoliths are described and classified. SCOPE: This paper presents the first International Code for Phytolith Nomenc…
Palaeoecology and the Harappan Civilisation of South Asia
Environmental Evidence from the Minaret of Jam Archaeological Project, Afghanistan
Capitale d’ete de la dynastie Ghuride, le site de Jām en Afghanistan, connu pour son celebre minaret, fut abandonne lorsque les Ghurides furent vaincus par Khorezm-Shah. Lors d’une mission archeologique sur l’impact archeologique d’une construction de route dans la region, la presence de nombreux vestiges organiques concernant la flore et la faune ont ete decouverts. En 2005, une mission a donc ete organisee avec pour but precis d’etudier l’envir…
Excavation of a burnt mound at Meur, Sanday, Orkney
In early 2005 a cluster of orthostat stones was exposed by coastal erosion at Meur, Sanday, Orkney. The excavation revealed a stone trough within the centre of an open space defined by walls. It was associated with at least one compartment and a secondary corbelled cistern with an overflow drain and was surrounded by a mound of dark soil and burnt stones. This burnt mound structure, comparable with other burnt mounds in the Northern Isles, was oc…
Excavation of a burnt mound at Meur, Sanday, Orkney
In early 2005 a cluster of orthostat stones was exposed by coastal erosion at Meur, Sanday, Orkney. The excavation revealed a stone trough within the centre of an open space defined by walls. It was associated with at least one compartment and a secondary corbelled cistern with an overflow drain and was surrounded by a mound of dark soil and burnt stones. This burnt mound structure, comparable with other burnt mounds in the Northern Isles, was oc…
Total excavation of a later prehistoric enclosure at Braehead, Glasgow
Total excavation revealed a later prehistoric multi-ditched and multi-palisaded enclosure succeeded by unenclosed settlement. Despite the obvious investment of time and labour in the construction of the numerous palisades and three large concentric ditches episodic, seasonal use of the site is strongly indicated. Total artefact retrieval produced a cannel coal assemblage which has thrown light on the manufacture of the cannel coal bracelets so ty…
Banana Cultivation in South Asia and East Asia
South Asia provides evidence for introduced banana cultivars that are surprisingly early in the Indus Valley but late elsewhere in India. Although phytolith data are still limited, systematic samples from fourteen sites in six regions suggest an absence of bananas from most of Neolithic/Chalcolithic South Asia, but presence in part of the Indus valley. Evidence from textual sources and historical linguistics from South Asia and from China suggest…
Variability of the phytolith record in fisher–hunter–gatherer sites
Taphonomical aspects of silica phytoliths in the loess sediments of the Argentinean Pampas
State formation and water resources management in the Horn of Africa
Intensification of agriculture and irrigation are often considered triggers for both the flourishing and demise of civilizations. Was irrigation a key factor of state formation and urban development in northern Ethiopia? We argue that a household-based management of farmland and water would have provided a strategy sustainable over the long term and flexible enough to adjust to population expansion and contraction at the ancient capital of the Ki…
Micromorphological perspectives on the stratigraphical excavation of shell middens
Experimental micromorphology in Tierra del Fuego (Argentina)
Shell middens as archives of past environments, human dispersal and specialized resource management
Temperature, compression and fragmentation
The ‘invisible’ product
Towards high-resolution shell midden archaeology
Stratigraphic and spatial variability in shell middens
Shell midden research
Taphonomy and phytoliths
Archaeology at the micro-scale
Opal phytolith extraction in oxisols
Combining phytoliths and δ13C matter in Holocene palaeoenvironmental studies of tropical soils
Geography (60 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (53 works) · Archaeology (50 works) · Biology (42 works) · Ecology (41 works) · Phytolith (31 works) · Geology (27 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (27 works) · Agriculture (21 works) · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies (20 works)