Niccolò Mazzucco

Niccolò Mazzucco is an archaeologist specialising in the study of the transition from hunter-gatherer economies to early farming societies. His research draws on material culture to reconstruct economic and subsistence practices and their development over time, with particular attention to the long-term relationships between human communities, environment, and agriculture. He adopts an interdisciplinary approach combining archaeology, experimental methods, use-wear analysis, archaeobotany, and quantitative methods. His work focuses on socio-economic transformations from the Neolithic to later prehistory in the Mediterranean, Southwest Asia, and the Arabian Peninsula. He is currently involved in the excavation of Neolithic sites in Jordan, Oman, Spain, and Italy.

The project

Title: The Mesolithic–Neolithic transition across a broad geographical framework

"This project consists of four lectures on topics related to archaeology, with a particular focus on the transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic across a broad geographical area. The four lectures will be titled: 1. The Pre-Pottery Neolithic site of Ba'ja: history of research and new perspectives on the end of the PPNB in the southern margins of the Fertile Crescent. 2. Early agricultural systems in the Mediterranean: the case of La Marmotta. 3. The spread of the Neolithic and the influence of climatic dynamics on socio-cultural transformations: case studies in the Mediterranean and the Arabian Peninsula. 4. The last hunter-gatherers: dynamics of transformation in the final European hunter-gatherer societies."

Hosting institution: École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)

Selective Bibliography

• MAZZUCCO, N., Huet, T. & Gibaja, J. F. (2025). The Neolithic expansion across the central and western Mediterranean: revisiting the radiocarbon framework. In: Berta Morell-Rovira, F. Xavier Oms, Gerard Remolins & Juan F. Gibaja (eds.), Exploring death: understanding the life of Neolithic societies in the Western Mediterranean, pp. 11-20. Oxbow Books.
• MAZZUCCO, N., Ibáñez, J.J., Anderson, P., Kotsakis, K., Kita, A., Adaktylou, F. & Gibaja, J.F. (2024). Use-wear evidence for the use of threshing sledges in Neolithic Greece. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 56: 104579.
• Mineo, M., Gibaja, J.F., MAZZUCCO, N. (editors) (2023). The Submerged Site of La Marmotta (Rome, Italy): Decrypting a Neolithic Society. Oxbow Books. ISBN: 9781789258714
• MAZZUCCO, N., Mineo, M., Arobba, D., Caramiello, R., Caurso Fermé, L., Gassin, B., Guilbeau, D., Ibáñez, J.J., MORANDI, L. F., Mozota, M., Pichon, F., Portillo, M., Rageot, M., Remolins, G., Rottoli, M., Gibaja, J. F. (2022). Multiproxy study of 7500-year-old wooden sickles from the Lakeshore Village of La Marmotta, Italy. Scientific Reports, 12: 14976.
• MAZZUCCO, N., Sabanov, A., Antolín, F., Naumov, G., Fidanoski, L., & Gibaja, J. (2022). The spread of agriculture in south-eastern Europe: New data from North Macedonia. Antiquity, 96(385): 15-33.