Gianna Ayala
Biographic Data
| ID | 3593984 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gianna Ayala |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gianna |
| FAMILY NAME | Ayala |
| SIGNATURE | AYALA G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Sheffield |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1283-3985 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 56 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
A House on the Hill: Late Bronze Age Pulses and Isotope Agroecology at Knossos Gypsades, Crete
New archaeobotanical and isotopic analyses from the lower Gypsades hill, Knossos provide a detailed snapshot of agricultural practices associated with a modest household during the Late Bronze Age, a few hundred metres to the south of the palace. The discovery of in situ charred concentrations of five pulse crops in a storage room enabled archaeobotanical and stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic investigations of the household’s agricultural pract…
Understanding the long-term development of an irrigation network using a sinuosity-based automatic classification of waterways
This study investigates the use of planform sinuosity as a metric to produce an automatic classification of waterways in the pre-modern and present-day irrigation networks in the Konya Plain in south-central Türkiye. Results show that such automatic classification may replace a time-consuming manual classification or provide a preliminary classification for subsequent manual refinement, depending on the number of classification categories used, t…
Resilience and adaptation of agricultural practice in Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey
Andrew Sherratt’s ‘Water, soil and seasonality’, World Archaeology (1980), signposted a long-term debate surrounding early farming adaptations to riverine landscapes in western Asia and Europe. Recent research at Çatalhöyük in central Anatolia, a key case study in Sherratt’s ‘floodplain cultivation’ model, enables integrated, evidence-based assessment of the local hydrology and agroecology, and of farmers’ resilience over more than a millennium. …
Holistic approaches to palaeohydrology: Reconstructing and modelling the Neolithic River Çarşamba and the riverscape of Çatalhöyük, Turkey
Alluvial landscapes have long been considered optimal locations for Neolithic settlement because of the availability of water and nutrient-bearing silts. However, the dynamics of these landscapes have often been underestimated in relation to the interactions of precipitation, temperature and vegetation at catchment scale, along with flow and geomorphic processes in the channel and adjacent areas. In this paper we employ a multi-method approach to…
Recovering the Hidden Landscape of Copper Age Sicily
The Late Copper Age/Early Bronze Age transition has traditionally been seen as an enigma in Sicilian prehistory. The relatively incomplete nature of the archaeological record has been interpreted as a marker of societal contraction, population movement and increased dependence on pastoralism. It has become increasingly apparent that the preservation and recovery of these archaeological sites have played a highly significant role in the way that s…
From Storage to Disposal: A Holistic Microbotanical Approach to Domestic Plant Preparation and Consumption Activities in Late Minoan Gypsades, Crete
The analysis of microbotanical remains (starch grains and phytoliths) from food-related domestic contexts and artefacts has the potential to provide insights into daily plant preparation and consumption activities. In particular, pottery vessels offer an unparalleled comparative framework for the study of food preparation and consumption, since pottery is used for a variety of domestic food-related activities, including storage, processing and se…
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…
Çatalhöyük and Its Landscapes
T he landscape surrounding the site of Çatalhöyük has been transformed by centuries of land use and agricultural improvements (fig. 1). The most recent transformations started in the early twentieth century aiming to improve agricultural productivity by carrying out extensive irrigation and land-reclamation programs (Roberts 1990). Irrigation water was brought via the Beyşehir-Sugla canal system which was completed around 1911 (Money 1919), bring…
Geoarchaeology of Bronze Age Europe
Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of the alluvial landscape of Neolithic Çatalhöyük, central southern Turkey: The implications for early agriculture and responses to environmental change
The archaeology of the mafia: A material investigation of extortion, justice and reprisal in Palermo, Sicily (1982-2012)
This article examines the Sicilian mafia and the physical manifestation of the legal responses to criminal activity in Palermo, Sicily between 1982 and 2012, a period marked by increasing criminal violence against the state. We look at the commemoration of key public figures assassinated by the mafia as a way to understand episodes of illegal activity as well as the ways that different people and groups respond to these acts of terrorism. We also…
Recovering the Hidden Landscape of Copper Age Sicily
The Late Copper Age/Early Bronze Age transition has traditionally been seen as an enigma in Sicilian prehistory. The relatively incomplete nature of the archaeological record has been interpreted as a marker of societal contraction, population movement and increased dependence on pastoralism. It has become increasingly apparent that the preservation and recovery of these archaeological sites have played a highly significant role in the way that s…
Erosion modeling of past land‐use practices in the Fiume di Sotto di Troina river valley, north‐central Sicily
The chronology and pattern of Holocene landscape development in the Nebrodi Mountains of north‐central Sicily, seen in valley alluviation and the pedological record, has been investigated in the Fiume di Sotto di Troina valley. Intensive geomorphological survey has revealed three phases of alluvial aggradation reflecting increased hillslope disturbance during the late Pleistocene and Holocene. The results of sediment analyses, archaeological surv…
Seeing is believing: Questions of archaeological visibility in the Mediterranean
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of the alluvial landscape of Neolithic Çatalhöyük, central southern Turkey: The implications for early agriculture and responses to environmental change
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…
Erosion modeling of past land‐use practices in the Fiume di Sotto di Troina river valley, north‐central Sicily
The chronology and pattern of Holocene landscape development in the Nebrodi Mountains of north‐central Sicily, seen in valley alluviation and the pedological record, has been investigated in the Fiume di Sotto di Troina valley. Intensive geomorphological survey has revealed three phases of alluvial aggradation reflecting increased hillslope disturbance during the late Pleistocene and Holocene. The results of sediment analyses, archaeological surv…
From Storage to Disposal: A Holistic Microbotanical Approach to Domestic Plant Preparation and Consumption Activities in Late Minoan Gypsades, Crete
The analysis of microbotanical remains (starch grains and phytoliths) from food-related domestic contexts and artefacts has the potential to provide insights into daily plant preparation and consumption activities. In particular, pottery vessels offer an unparalleled comparative framework for the study of food preparation and consumption, since pottery is used for a variety of domestic food-related activities, including storage, processing and se…
Çatalhöyük and Its Landscapes
T he landscape surrounding the site of Çatalhöyük has been transformed by centuries of land use and agricultural improvements (fig. 1). The most recent transformations started in the early twentieth century aiming to improve agricultural productivity by carrying out extensive irrigation and land-reclamation programs (Roberts 1990). Irrigation water was brought via the Beyşehir-Sugla canal system which was completed around 1911 (Money 1919), bring…
Resilience and adaptation of agricultural practice in Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey
Andrew Sherratt’s ‘Water, soil and seasonality’, World Archaeology (1980), signposted a long-term debate surrounding early farming adaptations to riverine landscapes in western Asia and Europe. Recent research at Çatalhöyük in central Anatolia, a key case study in Sherratt’s ‘floodplain cultivation’ model, enables integrated, evidence-based assessment of the local hydrology and agroecology, and of farmers’ resilience over more than a millennium. …
Holistic approaches to palaeohydrology: Reconstructing and modelling the Neolithic River Çarşamba and the riverscape of Çatalhöyük, Turkey
Alluvial landscapes have long been considered optimal locations for Neolithic settlement because of the availability of water and nutrient-bearing silts. However, the dynamics of these landscapes have often been underestimated in relation to the interactions of precipitation, temperature and vegetation at catchment scale, along with flow and geomorphic processes in the channel and adjacent areas. In this paper we employ a multi-method approach to…
Seeing is believing: Questions of archaeological visibility in the Mediterranean
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Seeing is believing: Questions of archaeological visibility in the Mediterranean
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Erosion modeling of past land‐use practices in the Fiume di Sotto di Troina river valley, north‐central Sicily
The chronology and pattern of Holocene landscape development in the Nebrodi Mountains of north‐central Sicily, seen in valley alluviation and the pedological record, has been investigated in the Fiume di Sotto di Troina valley. Intensive geomorphological survey has revealed three phases of alluvial aggradation reflecting increased hillslope disturbance during the late Pleistocene and Holocene. The results of sediment analyses, archaeological surv…
Recovering the Hidden Landscape of Copper Age Sicily
The Late Copper Age/Early Bronze Age transition has traditionally been seen as an enigma in Sicilian prehistory. The relatively incomplete nature of the archaeological record has been interpreted as a marker of societal contraction, population movement and increased dependence on pastoralism. It has become increasingly apparent that the preservation and recovery of these archaeological sites have played a highly significant role in the way that s…
The archaeology of the mafia: A material investigation of extortion, justice and reprisal in Palermo, Sicily (1982-2012)
This article examines the Sicilian mafia and the physical manifestation of the legal responses to criminal activity in Palermo, Sicily between 1982 and 2012, a period marked by increasing criminal violence against the state. We look at the commemoration of key public figures assassinated by the mafia as a way to understand episodes of illegal activity as well as the ways that different people and groups respond to these acts of terrorism. We also…
Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of the alluvial landscape of Neolithic Çatalhöyük, central southern Turkey: The implications for early agriculture and responses to environmental change
Geoarchaeology of Bronze Age Europe
Recovering the Hidden Landscape of Copper Age Sicily
The Late Copper Age/Early Bronze Age transition has traditionally been seen as an enigma in Sicilian prehistory. The relatively incomplete nature of the archaeological record has been interpreted as a marker of societal contraction, population movement and increased dependence on pastoralism. It has become increasingly apparent that the preservation and recovery of these archaeological sites have played a highly significant role in the way that s…
From Storage to Disposal: A Holistic Microbotanical Approach to Domestic Plant Preparation and Consumption Activities in Late Minoan Gypsades, Crete
The analysis of microbotanical remains (starch grains and phytoliths) from food-related domestic contexts and artefacts has the potential to provide insights into daily plant preparation and consumption activities. In particular, pottery vessels offer an unparalleled comparative framework for the study of food preparation and consumption, since pottery is used for a variety of domestic food-related activities, including storage, processing and se…
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…
Çatalhöyük and Its Landscapes
T he landscape surrounding the site of Çatalhöyük has been transformed by centuries of land use and agricultural improvements (fig. 1). The most recent transformations started in the early twentieth century aiming to improve agricultural productivity by carrying out extensive irrigation and land-reclamation programs (Roberts 1990). Irrigation water was brought via the Beyşehir-Sugla canal system which was completed around 1911 (Money 1919), bring…
Holistic approaches to palaeohydrology: Reconstructing and modelling the Neolithic River Çarşamba and the riverscape of Çatalhöyük, Turkey
Alluvial landscapes have long been considered optimal locations for Neolithic settlement because of the availability of water and nutrient-bearing silts. However, the dynamics of these landscapes have often been underestimated in relation to the interactions of precipitation, temperature and vegetation at catchment scale, along with flow and geomorphic processes in the channel and adjacent areas. In this paper we employ a multi-method approach to…
Resilience and adaptation of agricultural practice in Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey
Andrew Sherratt’s ‘Water, soil and seasonality’, World Archaeology (1980), signposted a long-term debate surrounding early farming adaptations to riverine landscapes in western Asia and Europe. Recent research at Çatalhöyük in central Anatolia, a key case study in Sherratt’s ‘floodplain cultivation’ model, enables integrated, evidence-based assessment of the local hydrology and agroecology, and of farmers’ resilience over more than a millennium. …
Understanding the long-term development of an irrigation network using a sinuosity-based automatic classification of waterways
This study investigates the use of planform sinuosity as a metric to produce an automatic classification of waterways in the pre-modern and present-day irrigation networks in the Konya Plain in south-central Türkiye. Results show that such automatic classification may replace a time-consuming manual classification or provide a preliminary classification for subsequent manual refinement, depending on the number of classification categories used, t…
A House on the Hill: Late Bronze Age Pulses and Isotope Agroecology at Knossos Gypsades, Crete
New archaeobotanical and isotopic analyses from the lower Gypsades hill, Knossos provide a detailed snapshot of agricultural practices associated with a modest household during the Late Bronze Age, a few hundred metres to the south of the palace. The discovery of in situ charred concentrations of five pulse crops in a storage room enabled archaeobotanical and stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic investigations of the household’s agricultural pract…
Geography (12 works) · Archaeology (11 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (10 works) · Archaeological Research and Protection (7 works) · Geology (6 works) · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History (5 works) · History (5 works) · Bronze Age (4 works) · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (4 works) · Maritime and Coastal Archaeology (4 works)