University of Gothenburg
University of Gothenburg
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Serena Sabatini

Researcher

Department of Historical
Studies
Telephone
+46 31-786 52 17
+46 766-18 52 17
Mail
serena.sabatini@archaeology.gu.se
Visiting address
Renströmsgatan 6
41255 Göteborg
Room number
J618
Postal address
Box 200
40530 Göteborg

About Serena Sabatini

Serena is Associate Professor of Archaeology at the University of Gothenburg and a scholar of European and Mediterranean Bronze and Early Iron Age Studies. Her research focus stretches from the study of long distance trade and exchange, to wool economy, textiles and metal production, burial traditions and issued of social complexity and identity.

Serena received a Master Degree in European Protohistory (1999) from the University of Rome La Sapienza and a PhD in Archaeology (2007) from the University of Gothenburg. The PhD dissertation (House urns. A European Late Bronze Age Trans-cultural Phenomenon) provides a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the so-called Late Bronze Age North European house urns, discussing at the same time issues of transculturality and of the impact of long-distance relations on local practices.

In 2012, after a number of short terms research projects, teaching experience, and maternal leave, she became a full time researcher at the University of Gothenburg. Since then she has been involved in a number of international projects (see below). She also carried out a substantial teaching activity as lecturer in both Archaeology and Classical Archaeology and Ancient History at the Department of Historical Studies, University of Gothenburg (see below).

Current Research Projects

2022-2026. Coordinator of the Corex project From Correlations to Explanations: towards a new European Prehistory, financed by an ERC Synergy grant and directed by Prof. Kristian Kistiansen.

2020-2025. PI of the project The missing link? Sardinia and the Bronze Age Metal Trade between Scandinavia, Atlantic Europe and the Mediterranean (Missing Link) financed by the Swedish Research Council. This project aims to investigate the role of Sardinia in the metal trade between Scandinavia, Atlantic Europe and the Mediterranean during the Bronze Age.

2020-2024 Swedish representative in the Management Committee for the EuroWeb COST action CA19131 - Europe through Textiles: Network for an integrated and interdisciplinary Humanities (EuroWeb).

2017-2022. Researcher within the The Rise II project (Towards a new European Prehistory. Integrating aDNA, isotopic investigations, language and archaeology to reinterpret key processes of change in the prehistory of Europe) directed by Professor Kristian Kristiansen and financed by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond.

2018-today Scientific director of the Understanding Urban Identities (UUI) project, the aim of which is to investigate the urban development in Southern Etruria over the long durée from the Bronze Age until Late Antiquity. The UUI is a research program (in progress) aiming to anchor the study of the broader historical processes with the archaeological record from the site of Vulci (Southern Etruria, Italy), which constitute the main focus of the UUI fieldwork activity.

Recently Concluded Projects

2016-2019. In 2015, together with Sophie Bergerbrant (University of Gothenburg), and Karin M. Frei (National Museum of Denmark) she carried out the project Bronze Age wool economy: production, trade, environment, husbandry and society (THESP), funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. The project has been characterized by a completely new approach to the issue of wool production and trade which takes into account and explores the human animal relation and the complex interplay between environment, culture and society beyond wool economy. Serena's main contribution has been to shed light on the significance of Bronze Age wool economy at both a macro and micro scale in particular drawing upon the well-documented material from Montale in northern Italy.

2012-2016. Researcher within The Rise of Bronze Age societies project directed by Prof. Kristian Kristiansen and financed by an ERC advanced grant.

Teaching

List of courses in which I work/worked as course coordinator (including teaching, examinations, coordination of seminars, and of student excursions):

  • Nordic and European Bronze Age
  • European and Mediterranean Bronze Age
  • Introduction to archaeology
  • Archaeology: Intermediate course - Archaeology and society
  • Children, Youth and Archaeology
  • Mediterranean Prehistory
  • Archaeology: Introductory course - Nordic Prehistory and Early history
  • Classical Archaeology and Ancient History: Intermediate course - Individual scientific assignment

List of courses in which I am/have been actively involved for specific sub-courses or classes:

  • Textiles in pre-modern societies
  • Archaeological fieldwork in the Mediterranean regions
  • Archaeology: Introductory course
  • Archaeology: Intermediate course: Individual Student essays
  • Archaeology: Advanced course
  • Classical Archaeology and Ancient History: Intermediate course - Ancient Art and Archaeology
  • Classical Archaeology and Ancient History: Intermediate course - Individual Student essays
  • Classical Archaeology and Ancient History: Introductory course - Italic and Roman culture and society
  • Fashion and clothing history: from prehistory to 1900
  • Man and Sea: Historical and Archaeological Perspectives