Italy

On Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th October 2025, Montevarchi (Tuscany, province of Arezzo) hosted PaleoFest, the Prehistory Festival. The event was organized by the Montevarchi Paleontological Museum and the Accademia Valdarnese del Poggio, the institution that owns the museum.

Roman construction is a recurring theme in archaeology, having been studied through many lenses: architecture, materials, urbanism, ornamentation, economics, religion, and so forth. Nevertheless, many aspects of the building process have seldom been the focus of these analyses, especially the specific actions and craftsmen involved in the chaîne opératoire. It is the aim of the Fabri Tignuarii – the roman college of building craftsmen – to delve into the specifics of roman construction...

This study explores the role of experimental archaeology in investigating ancient ceramic production techniques. Utilising materials analysed by Rammo (2017) from the fortified settlements of Asva, Ridala, and Iru in Estonia, we focus on two types of impressions on sherds dated to the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. Our aim was to test the hypotheses concerning the execution methods of these impressions and evaluate the effectiveness of experimental methodologies in recreating them...

Ettore Mazza is an Italian artist specialised in paleoart and historical illustration. After graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, he made his debut with his first comic book, Il sentiero delle ossa (The Path of Bones), which tells the story of two young men living between the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods, in a rapidly changing world that will soon reveal its full brutality. Ettore collaborates with archaeologists, biologists, paleontologists, and content creators to create illustrations that depict the evolution of life on Earth and humanity’s journey through various eras.

During the Roman period, small metal screw threads were used both as fastenings and to impart motion. This paper, which is an extended version of my previous article, will show that it is possible to produce metal screw threads using very simple technology. The tools and expertise to carry out this work is...

Within textile Archaeology several key Etruscan sites provide experimental archaeologists with ample evidence for research and recreation. This project aims to look a the textile patterns themselves, and how these weavers might have created the images found on famous Etruscan paintings...

In Italy, chocolate (Theobroma cacao L.) was introduced during the Columbian exchange, and it quickly became both an important and accessible part of the Italian culinary tradition. Today, Italy is Europe’s second-largest chocolate producer...

In the Upper Palaeolithic levels of the site of Grotta Continenza (Abruzzo, Italy), numerous shells shaped as half-moons have been found. These artifacts, being important examples of ancient ornaments, have been regularly subjects of study, but the production process has only been hypothesised...

The historiography concerning the Garum, as well as the archaeological evidence of the same, are very wide and cover the entire topic both from the historical and archaeological points of view. Can a team of archaeologists faithfully recreate Garum today, starting only with the historical knowledge available to us, and at the same time ...