Center for Global Antiquity

Lorenzo Castellano is an archaeologist whose research explores past human–environment relationships. He earned his Ph.D. in Ancient Studies from the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University (2022), following an M.A. in Archaeology (2012) and a B.A. in Cultural Heritage Studies (2008) from the University of Milan, Italy. Before joining the Joukowsky Institute, he was a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, where he coordinated activities at the Ancient Agriculture and Paleoethnobotany Laboratory, and a Postdoctoral Lecturer in Archaeology at NYU’s Department of Anthropology.

As part of an overarching interest in the study of the relationships between people and environment, Castellano's research concentrates on the study of ancient agricultural systems, with a geographic focus on Western Asia. He is especially interested in the relationship between agricultural strategies and political complexity, the impact of climatic and environmental change on agricultural systems, and long-term patterns of landscape transformation. His work is strongly interdisciplinary, drawing on Archaeological Methods and Theory, Archaeobotany, Paleoenvironmental Research, and Western Asia Archaeology and History. He has participated in archaeological fieldwork and research across a wide range of chronological and cultural contexts in Italy, Egypt, Iraq, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.