I am an archaeologist with a strong interest in the Mediterranean economy and trade patterns from the Roman period to the Early Middle Ages. I completed my PhD in December 2020 through a joint supervision programme between the University of Palermo (Italy) and Aix-Marseille University (France). My research focused on exchange networks between North Africa and Sicily, particularly examining African pottery here imported between the 1st and 7th centuries CE. Currently, I am a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow working on the EU-funded research project FIRS: Frontiers Inside Roman Sicily.

• 2024. Postdoctoral fellow, The British Columbia University and Aix Marseille University.
• 2021. Expert in Landscape archaeology, University of Palermo.
• 2021. Seasonal lecturer, University of Palermo.
• 2020. PhD in Archaeology, joint supervision between the University of Palermo and Aix Marseille University. Doctor Europaeus.
• 2018. Stage in petrography, mineralogy and microanalysis, GeoLab, Italy.
• 2016. Master in Archaeology, University of Palermo.
• 2015. Erasmus+, Aix-Marseille University, France.
• 2014. Bachelor in Classical Literature, University of Palermo, Italy.

Research Interests

• Archaeology of Roman Sicily and Africa.
• Mediterranean Economy and Trade During the Roman Empire and Early Middle Ages.
• Integrated Approach Applied to the Study of Ancient Pottery.
• Spatial Analysis and Geographic Information System.
• Data Management and Data Analysis.
• Semantic Web, Knowledge Graphs, and Ontologies.
• Open Science and FAIR Data.

Research Areas

• Roman Studies
• Archaeology and Material Culture
• Digital Humanities

Projects

The FIRS (Frontiers Inside Roman Sicily) project is collaborative research involving the Department of Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies at British Columbia University, the Centre Camille Jullian at the University of Aix Marseille, and the Archaeological Park of Lilybaeum-Marsala.

The objective is to investigate the many and varied causes that triggered changes in trade patterns, social behavior and cultural practices in Sicily between the 5th and 7th centuries CE. The specific research objectives of the FIRS project are:

1. Analyzing the quantity of ceramic finds from five key sites in western Sicily, investigated in the second half of the 20th century but largely unpublished. These are the rural settlements of Campanaio and Castagna, the Roman villa of Durrueli, and the port cities of Palermo and Lilybaeum (Marsala).

2. Modeling an ontology to represent and manage a vast and heterogeneous amount of archaeological information. I use the open-source software Protégé to provide a new theoretical basis for Late Antiquity and Early Medieval Sicily.

3. Analyze the distribution of artifacts on a subregional scale using the free and open-source software QGIS to identify specific patterns and their change over time. As a result, I will produce an interactive web map using the free and open-source software Leaflet. It will be the starting point to develop a web atlas on Late Antique and Early Medieval Sicily.

The FIRS project complies with the Open Science. All the data follow the FAIR principles and will be deposited in a trusted repository (Nakala). All the research outcomes will be uploaded on Hal Open Science.

– A. Castrorao Barba, G. Battaglia, A. Canale, F. Ducati, R. Miccichè, F. Pisciotta and A. Romano (submitted). Materiality of daily life in the suburbium of Islamic Palermo, Journal of Islamic Archaeology.

– F. Ducati (forthcoming). Sicilian townscapes between the 5th and 6th centuries CE, Der Islam.

– E. Pezzini, C. Aleo Nero, F. Ducati and V. Sacco (forthcoming): Le case romane di piazza della Vittoria a Palermo tra tardoantico e alto medioevo: nuovi dati dall’archivio e dai magazzini del Museo Salinas, in L’Isola dei Tesori.

– M. Turci, P. Tomassini, F. Ducati, M.L. Stoppioni, A. Poletto and J. Ferrandis Montesinos (forthcoming). Pitture di Ostia Antica. Primi dati dai recenti scavi nel complesso suburbano del quartiere costiero (IV, XVII, 4), in G. Lepore and C. Caminneci (eds), Pictura parietum. Connessioni mediterranee in età ellenistica e romana, Atti del 6° Colloquio dell’Associazione Italiana Ricerche Pittura Antica (Agrigento 6-8 luglio 2023).

– F. Ducati (forthcoming). Pottery in rural Roman Sicily: imported and locally produced wares at Campanaio (AG), Papers of the British School at Rome – reports.

– F. Ducati and R.M. Cucco (2024). North African pottery in Palermo: preliminary findings from the Montevergini excavations, Cartagine. Studi e Ricerche 9, doi: 10.13125/caster/5998, http://ojs.unica.it/index.php/caster/.

– F. Ducati (2023). Le paysage rural de la Sicile méridionale au Ve siècle après J.-C. : le cas de Cignana, Antiquité Tardive 31: 229-236.

– F. Ducati (2023). Cignana Archaeological Project (Sicilia): ceramiche di produzione africana dall’insediamento di età imperiale in contrada Viticchié, in V. Caminneci, E. Giannitrapani, M. C. Parello and M. S. Rizzo (eds), Late Roman Coarse Wares 6. Sixth International Conference on Late Roman Coarse Wares, Cooking Wares and Amphorae in the Mediterranean: Archaeology and Archaeometry Land and sea: pottery routes, Agrigento, 24th – 27th May 2017, Oxford, Archaeopress («Roman and Late Antique Mediterranean Pottery 19»): 867-873.

– E. Blake, R. Schon, A. Wigodner, F. Ducati and V. Moses (2023). Rapporto preliminare della prima missione archeologica a Segesta dell’Università dell’Arizona (stagione 2022), Elymos: 61-86.

– E. Romano and F. Ducati (eds) (2022). Lilibeo e il Mare. Progetto scuola museo 2021-22, Trapani, Litotipografia Grillo, http://www.parcolilibeo.it/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Lilibeo-e-il-Marec.pdf

– F. Ducati and C. Capelli (2021). Analyzing African Red Slip wares in Sicily: a first overview from Cignana and Himera surveys, Otium 10, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5702889.

– F. Ducati (2021). La Σελινουντία δυσχωρία: διὰ τῶν στενῶν, per ipsas fauces. Dalle fonti alle nuove proposte di identificazione sul terreno, Journal of Ancient Topography 31: 263-272.

– F. Ducati (2020). Fluttuazioni commerciali tra nord Africa e Sicilia meridionale: il VI e il VII secolo d.C. Cignana come caso studio, Mare Internum 12: 85-97.

– G. Polizzi and F. Ducati (2020), Fornaci e produzioni del Golfo di Castellammare (Sicilia nord-occidentale), Mélanges de l’École française de Rome – Antiquité 132/2, http://journals.openedition.org/mefra/10376.

– F. Ducati (2020). Sacelli dimenticati nell’area urbana di Akragas, in M. De Cesare, E. C. Portale and N. Sojc (eds), The Akragas Dialogue. New investigations on sanctuaries in Sicily, (Agrigento-Palermo, 29th September – 1st October 2016), Berlin: 125-131.

– G. Polizzi, F. Ducati and L. Longo (2019). Note preliminari sul rinvenimento di un’area artigianale da Contrada Amone e sulla produzione ceramica nel bacino idrografico del fiume Nocella, Notiziario Archeologico della Soprintendenza di Palermo 48: 1-15 http://www.regione.sicilia.it/beniculturali/dirbenicult/notiziarioarcheologicopalermo/48_G._Polizzi_F._Ducati_F._Longo_Note_preli.pdf

– A. Canale, V. Contino, F. Ducati and D. Ebolese (2017). Comunicazione e divulgazione della ricerca scientifica applicata all’archeologia: il punto di vista degli young researchers, in E. C. Portale, G. Galioto (eds), Scienza e archeologia. Un efficace connubio per la divulgazione della cultura scientifica, Pisa, Edizioni ETS: 163-168, http://www.edizioniets.com/priv_file_libro/3513.pdf

Conferences

– 2023. 6° Colloquio dell’Associazione Italiana Ricerche Pittura Antica, Pictura parietum. Connessioni mediterranee in età ellenistica e romana, Agrigento 6-8 luglio 2023.

– 2022. Lilibeo e il Mare. Progetto Scuola Museo 2021-2022. Parco archeologico di Lilibeo-Marsala.

– 2019. Arte è scienza. Un giorno al Museo: Archeologia e Archeometria si incontrano. Parco archeologico di Lilibeo-Marsala.

– 2019. 25th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists. Beyond paradigms. University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.

– 2017. Scienza ed Archeologia, un efficace connubio per la diffusione della cultura scientifica, Università degli Studi di Palermo – 27 Ottobre 2017, Museo archeologico regionale A. Salinas – 28 Ottobre 2017.

– 2017. Late Roman Coarse Wares 6. Sixth International Conference on Late Roman Coarse Wares, Cooking Wares and Amphorae in the Mediterranean: Archaeology and Archaeometry Land and sea: pottery routes, Agrigento, 24th – 27th May 2017.

– 2016. The Akragas Dialogue. Nuove Ricerche sui Santuari in Sicilia. Colloquio intenazionale sulla dimensione architettonica, ritual e sociale dei santuari greci di Sicilia, a partire dal caso di Agrigento, Agrigento 29-30 Settembre 2016, Palermo 1 Ottobre 2016.

Participation as co-author

– 2024. American Institute of Archaeology Annual Meeting 2024. Chicago, IL. Authors: Schon, Robert – Blake, Emma, Wigodner, Alina – Ducati, Fabrizio – Moses, Victoria.

– 2023. L’Isola dei Tesori. Ricerca archeologica e nuove acquisizioni. Convegno internazionale, Museo Archeologico Regionale Pietro Griffo, Agrigento 14-17 dicembre 2023. Authors: Pezzini, Elena – Aleo Nero, Carla – Ducati, Fabrizio – Sacco, Viva.

– 2023. Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists 2023. Belfast 30th Aug – 2nd Sept 2023. Weaving narratives Session 505: For an archaeology of households: narratives, landscapes, materiality, inequalities, gender, race, ethnicity. Paper title: Excavations of domestic space at Segesta, Sicily: results of the 2022 and 2023 seasons of the Arizona Sicily Project. Authors: Schon, Robert – Blake, Emma – Ducati, Fabrizio – Wigodner, Alena.

– 2023. Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists 2023. Belfast 30th Aug – 2nd Sept 2023. Weaving narratives Session 706: On land and underwater. detection and evaluation of archaeological sites: comparative methodology on a European scale [archaeological prospection community]. Paper title: Ostia: new research for the reconstruction of the coastal areas. Authors: Turci, Marcello – Poletto, Alice – Ducati, Fabrizio – Montesinos, José – Stoppioni, Maria Luisa – Salomon, Ferréol – Saintenoy, Albane – Mathé, Pierre-Ethienne – Uehara, Minoru.

– 2023. Simon Keay Award in Mediterranean Archaeology 2023-24, British School at Rome, Italy.

– 2023. Horizon MSCA Individual Fellowship – Global fellowship, Canada-France-Italy.

– 2022. DFG-funded fellowship at RomanIslam – Center for Comparative and Transcultural Studies, Hamburg University, Germany.

– 2018. Resident fellowship at the École française de Rome, Italy.