PhD in Technologies for Cultural Heritage - since XXXVI Cycle

Alessia graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Cultural Heritage Sciences, specializing in Archaeology, from the University of Turin in 2007. She obtained a Master’s degree in Underwater Archaeology from the University of Pisa in 2010 and completed her postgraduate specialization in Archaeology at the University of Sassari in 2019.

Alessia has extensive training in underwater archaeological interventions, including collaboration with the Centro de Arqueología Subacuática de Cataluña (CASC, 2009-2010). She holds OTS certification as a Surface Supplied Inshore Air Diver (International Diving School Association, 2010) and is a certified DiveMaster (CMAS). She has also lectured in scientific diving training (ISSD 2018).

In 2013, Alessia joined the Ministero dei Beni Culturali e Turismo, working at the Museo Archeologico di Torino, now part of the Musei Reali di Torino. Since 2020, she has developed a research focus on biomolecules in museum collections and is currently pursuing her PhD in the Tech4Culture program at the University of Turin.

Object biography and biomolecular archaeology.

An integrated approach for the study, conservation and valorisation of organic artefacts from the Museo di Antichità (Musei Reali Torino)

Abstract

Biomolecular archaeology is increasingly employed to elucidate the biological origin of organic artefacts, offering valuable insights into human-environmental interactions, notably in the raw materials selection for object manufacture. This approach also facilitates a broader spectrum of interpretations concerning cultural heritage (CH) preserved within museum collections. 

The ‘object biography’ framework proves valuable for cataloguing and managing cultural heritage, encapsulating available information about artefacts. Scientific techniques, including mass spectrometry for ancient protein analysis (the thesis’ primary analytical method), contribute to a dual objective: determining the raw material of the object (its ‘first life’) and assessing its preservation (‘second life’), such as by identifying the presence and condition of consolidant glues. Proteins, as exceptionally well-preserved biomolecules in CH amenable to non-invasive or minimally invasive museum-compatible sampling, are central to this study.

This doctoral project applies these biomolecular methodologies to biological artefacts within the archaeological collections of the Turin Antiquities Museum (Musei Reali di Torino). By examining diverse scales of human experience and selected case studies, we aim to acquire significant archaeological information regarding past relationships between humans and the the Piedmontese environment. Given the collection’s heterogeneity, this research is grounded in the concept of object biography, exploring three illustrative case studies: individual dolphin-shaped fibulae (micro-scale), a substantial assemblage of osseous objects from distinct sites sharing a common archaeological culture (mid-scale), namely Longobard osseous material culture, and the comprehensive biological materials (human and animal bone, biomolecules embedded in potsherds) from the Neolithic Chiomonte-La Maddalena site, entirely housed within the MRT storerooms (macro-scale).

Contemporary perspectives on CH challenge widely upheld anthropocentric views, which may be reflected also in new museum set-up. The imperative for periodic re-evaluation of the finds drives the conservative mission of museums but also wider consideration: the main results of this research consist of establishing a baseline for future biomolecular studies on osseous materials from the MRT collections, identifying clear evidence of undocumented historical restoration treatments, and developing a method for addressing archaeological collections from the 1980s that are becoming legacy collections.

Keywords

Bioarchaeology, biomolecular archaeology, palaeoproteomics, mass spectrometry, peptide mass fingerprint, museology, conservation, organic artefacts, museomics, human-environment relationships

 

2021

•  T4C Basic Training, 41h 
•    Doctoral school complementary training, 31h
• Introduction to Public Engagement. University of Turin, Scuola di Dottorato. Online. 29 October 2020, 2h
• Basics of Project Writing. University of Turin, Scuola di Dottorato.1st February 2021, 2 h
• Strumenti per la ricerca documentale. Conoscere i servizi e le collezioni cartacee e digitali di UniTo.University of Turin, Servizi Bibliotecari di Unito e Polo CLE, 10th March 2021, 2h
• Corso di Formazione Generale alla Salute e Sicurezza per i Lavoratori. University of Turin. 11th March 2021, 4h
• ISPAS Project: Open Science A to Z.University of Turin, Scuola di Dottorato.11, 13 & 14 May 2021. 12h
• ISPAS Project: FAIR data basics. University of Turin, Scuola di Dottorato.17, 19 & 21 May 2021 9h
• Other courses, 12h
• ComWork basic training: Museum and Catalogue. Stefania Vecchio/Musei Reali of Turin. 16 June 2021, 4h
• Zooarchaeology Short on-line course. Sheffield/on-line, 15th September 2021, 8h

2022

• Academic Writing and Presentation Skills. CLA UNITO. 15th December 2021, 30h
• From Prehistory to the 22nd Century. Introducing technological support to an archaeological museum exploring needs, challenges and technologies. University of Turin. T4C seminar, 4th - 6th, Aprile 2022, 15h
• Il Valore Dell’etica Nella Nuova Visione Di Museo. CNR. 16th November 2022. 2h.
• Moodle of the Doctoral School
• How to make the most out of your scientific paper. University of Turin.Doctoral School, 19th April 2022, 2h
• The Research Ecosystem and Its Evaluation. University of Turin. 19th April 2022, 2h
• Principi Fondamentali Privacy.  University of Turin. 30th June 2022, 4h
• BeArchaeo 2nd summer school. Scheduled from the 27th to the 29th of September in Okayama (Japan)

2023

• Basics Of Project Writing. UniTo.  3-9-12 May 2023. 4h. 
• Tools And Indicators In The Procedures For Evaluating And Analysing Scientific Output. UniTo. 28th September, 3rd October 2023. 8h. 
• The lecture series “Current Topics in Heritage Science” of the IPERION HS. On line. 

Lecture 5: Timing the spread of creative innovations by Homo sapiens and Neanderthals using the radiocarbon dating method 19.1.2023

Lecture 7: Proteomics in the cultural heritage field: the case of fibrous proteins 16.3.2023

Lecture 9: Ethical sampling: from 'seed to fruit' and beyond  18.5.2023

• Palaeoproteomics and Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS). Dr. Michael Buckley (University of Manchester, United Kingdom) for Transmitting Science. November 2nd-9 th, 2023. 24h.

• InTo Brain PE workshop about scientific communication. UniTo. April, May 2023. 16h.
• BeArchaeo Summer School in Turin. UniTo. 19-21.6.2023. 20h.
• Tech4 Culture final event 22 giugno T4C event. Egiptyan Museum of Turin. 5h.

Capo M.§, Monticone A.§, Sakalauskaite J., Marucco F., Demarchi B (2022), From paper to data: a georeferenced list of prehistoric personal ornaments from the Italian archaeological record. Archaeologica Data Journal, 2, 92-101. ISBN: 9788892850538. 

Monticone A., Heritier E., Pergolizzi B., Dal Bello F., Mecarelli E., Boano R., De Vingo P., Pessione E., Panero E., Demarchi B. (2024). Combing through museum collections. The contribution of ZooMS to the taxonomic identification of Longobard combs and other daily life objects of animal origin. IJO, apr 2024. Internationa Journal of Osteoarchaology, 31 March 2024 https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.3295 Volume34, Issue2 March/April 2024, e3295

Iacovera R., Gardenghi C., Monticone A., Fontani F. , Nenzioni G., Latorre A.,  Ciucani MM , Reggiani P., Fabbri E., Caniglia R. , Mucci N., Luiselli D., Demarchi B., Cilli E. L’utilizzo delle biomolecole antiche per la caratterizzazione dei reperti archeofaunistici rinvenuti nel sito di Cava a Filo,  Istituto Italiano di Preistoria e Protostoria. Submitted July 2022.

Lorenzatto A., Quiri E., Monticone A., Importazione E Distribuzione Delle Anfore San Lorenzo 7 Nella Cisalpina Occidentale, in Rei Cretariae Romanae Fautores, VOL. 48, in press. Submitted 30 Jan 2023.

Monticone A., Petitti P., Demarchi B., Panero E. (2024). Oggetti e Biografie. Archeologia museale e approcci biomolecolari. Riprendere ed arricchire capitoli di archeologia grazie alle collezioni, in Atti del Convegno CONNESSIONI. Roma  BPI – Bullettino di Paletnologia Italiana edited by the Museo delle Civiltà. Submitted July 2023.

Monticone A., Panero E., Pepi F., Petitti P. Vivere sull’Acqua. Vita quotidiana nell’età del Bronzo in Piemonte. Catalogo della Mostra a cura di Elisa Panero.

• Sharper, La Notte dei Ricercatori 2020 & 2021. The Researchers’ night, in 2020 and 2021 called SHARPER is the main european Public Engagement event. I was present curating the technical part of two webinars dedicated to the Bones memorandum-of-understanding between the Musei Reali and the Department of Life Sciences and System Biology (University of Turin) and then presenting the beginning of my PhD research.
• Uni Together Project: Zima L’enzima. L’archeologo biomolecolare spiegato ai bambini. This PE initiative, regarded the writing of a brief narration for the lower grade schools to be ‘peer reviewed‘ by undergraduate students with the aim of both explaining the peer review process and to make research accessible to the younger generation.
• Sharper 2022. While I was in Japan for the BeArchaeo Project, I participated in the 3rd PE event of the European Researchers’ night by sending a video to explain museum based research in Italy and during my japanese experience.
• ADI Conference, Cervelli in città: ‘ Archeologia Biomolecolare’. Biblioteca Civica Dietrich Bonhoeffer. 5th June 2023.
• InTo Brain Final event at Cinemambiente, Turin, 8th June 2023. InTo Brain had been a PE project aimed in teaching to scholars how to clearly write scripts for video for science documentary. It’s been a very special experience, and the results of the group I was part of, were presented at the main Environmental Cinema Event in Turin (CinemaAmbiente).
• In Feb 2023 opening of the exhibition VIVERE SULL’ACQUA. I was engaged in writing some of the panels of the exhibition and more over in projecting, planning and leading laboratories with high school students in May/June 2023.
• The U-Night 2023 and 2024 held in the Royal Gardens offered the opportunity to enhance the work stemming from my research and the memorandum of understanding between the MRT and the Archaeobiomics research group.
• During the 3Y of PhD I contributed to on-line contents of the website pages and social media of the ArchaeoBiomics lab.

• 2021
  X Convegno Nazionale di Archeozoologia. 2021 (Siena, 3-7 novembre). Oral presentation
  Alessia Monticone et al. Studio archeologico e biomolecolare dei reperti di origine animale nelle collezioni archeologiche dei Musei Reali di Torino: il caso dei pettini Longobardi.
  Istituto Italiano di Preistoria e Protostoria 2021 (Ferrara, 20-23 ottobre). Oral presentation
  Beatrice Demarchi, Rosa Boano, Jorune Sakalauskaite, Alessia Monticone, Gianluigi Mangiapane, Patrizia Petitti, Elisa Panero. Analisi paleoproteomiche di materiali organici provenienti da collezioni preistoriche: il caso dei Musei di Torino.
  
  
• 2023
  UAW Archaeology of the Uplands. Bologna. 24.2.2023
  Alessia Monticone, Elisa Panero, Cynthianne Spiteri, Beatrice Demarchi. Un approccio di archeologia museale al ri-studio del sito neolitico di Chiomonte-La Maddalena (Piemonte, Italia). Revisione ed aggiornamento dei dati dal 1988 al 2023. A museum and archaeological approach to restudy the Neolithic alpine site of Chiomonte-La Maddalena (Piedmont, Italy). Review and integration of data: 1988 to 2023.
  
  Pzaf Post Graduate Zooarchaeology forum. Zagreb, Croatia. 26.5.2023, Monticone Alessia, Panero Elisa, Spiteri Cynthianne, Boano Rosa, Cilli Elisabetta, Luiselli Donata, Demarchi Beatrice. New data from old bones: the Chiomonte-La Maddalena Neolithic alpine site (Piedmont, Italy)
  
  XXV Congresso nazionale dell'Associazione Antropologica Italiana (AAI). Torino, 6 -8.9. 2023.
  Monticone Alessia, Panero Elisa, Petitti Patrizia, Boano Rosa, Spiteri Cynthianne, Santovito Alfredo, Cilli Elisabetta, Luiselli Donata, Stefanini Irene, Pessione Enrica, Demarchi Beatrice. Molecular biographies of people, animals and places: the case of Neolithic Chiomonte-La Maddalena, Western Alps.
  
  
• 2024
  OMICS & HERITAGE. CNR, Rome. 14 and 15.5.2024
  Alessia Monticone, Elisa Panero, Beatrice Demarchi. Omics at the Musei Reali di Torino. Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) for taxonomic identification of osseous objects and the detection of restoration glues from legacy collections.
  
  EAA, Rome. 30.8.2024
  Alessia Monticone, Marlisa Mazzola, Elisa Panero, Rosa Boano, Chintyanne Spiteri, Elisabetta Cilli, Donata Luiselli, Antonio Curci, Enrica Pessione, Beatrice Demarchi. Biomolecular archaeology as a tool for rediscovering the Chiomonte-La Maddalena neolithic site (Italy, Western Alps).

Posters at Conference

• XXIV Congresso dell'Associazione Antropologica Italiana. Chieti. 7-10 Sept 2022. Poster
  Angela Sciatti, Alessia Monticone, B. Demarchi, R. Boano, M. Capo, C. Gardenghi, M. Mazzola, M. Meloni, E. Heritier, E. Panero, A. Radini, J. Sakalauskaite, S.Sandron, C. Spiteri, L. Yeomans. Studi morfologici, microscopici e molecolari sui beni culturali di origine biologica: strategie di ricerca e comunicazione.
  
  
• XXV Congresso nazionale dell'Associazione Antropologica Italiana (AAI). Torino, 6th -8th of September 2023.
  Monticone Alessia, Heritier Erika, Pergolizzi Barbara, Dal Bello Federica, Mecarelli Enrica, Boano Rosa, De Vingo Paolo, Panero Elisa, Pessione Enrica, Demarchi Beatrice. A ‘museomic’ application of ZooMS for the identification of Longobard grave goods
  
  
• ISBA 10: New Horizons in Biomolecular Archaeology, Estonian National Museum, Tartu, Estonia. 13 to 16 of September 2023. Monticone Alessia, Panero Elisa, Petitti Patrizia, Boano Rosa, Spiteri Cynthianne, Codlin Maria, Santovito Alfredo, Cilli Elisabetta, Luiselli Donata, Stefanini Irene, Pessione Enrica, Demarchi Beatrice. Biomolecular archaeology as a tool for reconstructing site biographies: the case of the 1980s rescue excavations at Chiomonte-La Maddalena, Western Alps.

• Organization of the final event Early Settlers of Piedmont Alps between Climate Change and Innovation (APICI), CRT grants (2020) at the MRT, March 2024
• Upcoming ISBA 11, Turin, August 26-29, 2025. Part of the MRT organizing committe