IPAMAA's Leah Bernardo-Ciddio successfully defended her dissertation "Ceramics, Craft Communities, and Cultural Interactions in the First Millennium Adriatic: Production and Trade of Apulian Matt-Painted Pottery" on Thurs, March 14.
Leah's dissertation "focuses on uncovering the dynamics of Iron Age Adriatic societies. Through an analysis of material culture, especially matt-painted pottery, Leah investigates how people moved, interacted, and formed identities. Using updated methodologies, she explores production, distribution, and consumption patterns of this pottery across the various segments of the Adriatic in the context of wider interactional phenomena. She specifically prioritizes examining this pottery through a practice- and production-focused lens, establishing a baseline for the behaviors of producer communities in the South Adriatic and for elite consumers in the Middle and North Adriatic. Leah's case studies revealed local adaptations to external influences and the role of pottery in elite identity construction and regional exchange networks. She has also situated studies of the so-called Adriatic koine, and Adriatic archaeology in general, within their specific geopolitical and historiographical contexts, to explore the longtime salience of the koine concept and to offer clarity on how to move past its description and towards an analytical framework. Overall, her research aims to provide a deeper understanding of the Adriatic's significance within the broader Mediterranean context, highlighting its impact on historical trajectories in the wider Mediterranean world through the first millennium BCE."
Our warmest congratulations, Dr. Bernardo-Ciddio!
