Profile

Marta Luciani is Associate Professor for the Archaeology and History of Western Asia. She holds a PhD from the University of Naples, L’Orientale and at the University of Vienna a venia legendi for the Archaeology and History of the Ancient Orient. Since 2004 at the University of Vienna, she teaches Neolithic, Copper, Bronze and Iron Ages of Western Asia.
She is spokesperson of the Cluster “Archaeology and Material Culture” of the Vienna Doctoral School of Historical and Cultural Studies.
Marta Luciani’s expertise encompasses settlement and funerary archaeology in the regions of Mesopotamia, Syria, the Levant, Anatolia, and the Arabian Peninsula.
Leading cutting-edge projects, currently including the Joint Archaeological Project at Qurayyah, Saudi Arabia, the Northwest Sulaimaniyah Survey and excavations at Chemchemal in Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as studies on finds from Nuzi at the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, she plays a pivotal role in advancing our understanding of ancient civilizations.
Gender archaeology and the empowerment of women in Western Asia are additional points of engagement.
Marta Luciani is a member of the Vienna Anthropocene Network (https://anthropocene.univie.ac.at/members/#c487484), and the Research Focus “Visual Cultural History – Cultures and Media of the Visual”.
She organized and published the proceedings of international symposia on the Archaeology of Arabia (2013, 2016 and 2018), the 10th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East (ICAANE 2016) and on recent trends in the study of Late Bronze Age pottery (2014).

Key Research Topics

• Settlement, funerary and landscape archaeology in Mesopotamia, Syria, the Levant, Anatolia and the Arabian Peninsula
• Methods and techniques of field archaeology
• Material culture of Western Asia and Interdisciplinary Studies  (Archaeometry, Petrography, NAA, Bioarcheology,  Stable Isotopes, aDNA, Residues Analysis, Archaeometallurgy and Ancient Mines)
• Western Asiatic Seals and sealings
• Iconographic and  Gender Studies
• Historical geography and regional studies of Syria and Mesopotamia
• Capacity building: Training and empowering today’s female colleagues in Western Asia

Published research of the last 5 years

1. Processes of Oasis Formation in the Arabian Peninsula

• Luciani M. 2023b. Qurayyah. Thematic Dictionary of Ancient Arabia. Online edition 2023. Available at https://ancientarabia.huma-num.fr/public/dictionary/definition/qurayya-al DOI: doi.org/10.60667/tdaa-0138
• Luciani M. 2023a. Archaeology in the Land of Midian. Excavating the Oasis of Qurayyah. Biblical Archaeology Review 39/4, pp. 32-39.
• Lüthgens C. – Luciani M. – Prochazka S. – Firla G. – Hoelzmann P. – Abualhassan A.M., 2023. Watering the Desert: Oasis Hydroarchaeology, Geochronology and Functionality in Northern Arabia, The Holocene 33/5, pp. 562-580. doi.org/10.1177/09596836231157292
• Luciani M. (ed.) 2021b. The Archaeology of the Arabian Peninsula 2: Connecting the Evidence. Proceedings of the International Workshop held at the 10th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East in Vienna on April 25, 2016. Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2021. 244 p. (OREA; Vol. 19). ISBN 978-3-7001-8630-4
• Luciani M. 2021a. On the Formation of ‘Urban’ Oases in Arabia: New Perspectives from the North West. In Luciani M. (ed.), The Archaeology of the Arabian Peninsula 2: Connecting the Evidence. Proceedings of the International Workshop held at the 10th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East in Vienna on April 25, 2016 (OREA; Vol. 19), Vienna, pp. 89-118.
• Luciani M. 2019. Qurayyah. In Capodiferro A. – Colantonio S. (eds.), Roads of Arabia: Archaeological Treasures from Saudi Arabia. Catalogue of the Exhibit at Museo Nazionale Romano, Diocletian Baths in Rome. Milan: Mondadori Electa S.p.A, pp. 140‐155.
• Hüneburg L. – Hoelzmann P. – Knitter D. – Teichert B. – Richter C. – Lüthgens C. – Alsaud A. S. – Luciani M. 2019    . Living at the wadi – integrating geomorphology and archaeology at the oasis of Qurayyah (NW Arabia). Journal of Maps, 2019 Vol. 15, No. 2. pp. 215‐226.

2. Settlement Landscapes in Mesopotamia

• Luciani M., 2024. The 3rd Millennium Evidence from the North Western Sulaymaniyah Survey (NWSS). A Preliminary Assessment in Couturaud B. (ed.), Early Bronze Age in Iraqi Kurdistan, Presses de l'Ifpo, Beirut, pp. 85-105.

3. Studies in the Material Culture of Arabia

• Luciani M. 2024. Chapter 23. Farther Horizons: The Late Bronze Age to Iron Age Transition beyond the Southern Levant. In Masetti-Rouault M. G.– Calini I. – Hawley R. – D’Alfonso L.  (eds.), Ancient Western Asia Beyond the Paradigm of Collapse and Regeneration (1200‐900 BC). Proceedings of the NYU-PSL International Colloquium, Paris Institut National d’Histoire et de l’Art, April 16-17, 2019. New York: Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University Press, pp. 555-590.
• Luciani M. 2023. Transitions in Material Culture of the 2nd Millennium BCE: The Middle Bronze to Late Bronze Shift Seen from Northwest Arabia. In Hausleiter A. (ed.), Material Worlds: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Contacts and Exchange in the Ancient Near East. Proceedings of the Workshop held at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW), New York University 7th March 2016. Oxford: Archaeopress, pp. 53-77.  doi.org/10.32028/9781803276489
• Luciani M. – Abualhassan AM. 2022. Qurayyah 2018. Report on the Fourth Season of the Joint Saudi Arabian‐Austrian Archaeological Project, ATLAL. The Journal of Saudi Arabian archaeology. Vol. 32, pp. 19-60.
• Luciani M. – Asiri R. 2022. Qurayyah 2017. Report on the Third Season of the Joint Saudi Arabian‐Austrian Archaeological Project, ATLAL. The Journal of Saudi Arabian archaeology. Vol. 31, pp. 27-57.
• Luciani M. – Alsaud A.S. 2020. Qurayyah 2015. Report on the First Season of the Joint Saudi Arabian‐Austrian Archaeological Project, ATLAL: The journal of Saudi Arabian archaeology. Vol. 28. pp. 47‐77.

4. Iconographic and Gender Studies

• Luciani M. 2021. Canons of Iconography: Water, Animals, Gods and Humans, in C. Bührig – M. van Ess – I. Gerlach – A. Hausleiter – B. Müller-Neuhof (eds.), Klänge der Archäologie. Festschrift for Ricardo Eichmann, Harrassowitz Verlag, pp. 277-288.
• Luciani M. 2020. On women made of clay. Enquiries on the meaning of an Ancient Near Eastern non‐ elite (?) production. Zeitschrift für Orient‐Archäologie 13 (2020), pp. 214-231.

5. Seals and sealings in Nuzi, Iraq at the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East

• Luciani M. 2022. Review of Mönninghoff, H., Der Palast in Nuzi: Studien zur formalen Struktur des Palastgebäudes und den Funktionen der Palastinstitution, Schriften zur vorderasiatischen Archäologie 18. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2020, BASOR 387, pp. 246-248.
• Luciani M. 2019a. Between Enduring Symbols and Elite Identities: New Glyptic Evidence from Nuzi. In Valentini S. –Guarducci G. (eds.) Between Syria and The Highlands: Studies In Honor Of Giorgio Buccellati & Marilyn Kelly‐ Buccellati. Rome: Arbor Sapientiae, pp. 238‐254.
• Luciani M. 2019b. The long life of a royal seal and the Nuzi bullae in the Harvard Semitic Museum. In Pieńkowska A. et al. (eds.), Stories told around the fountain: Papers offered to Piotr Bieliński on His 70th Birthday. Warszawa: University of Warsaw Press, 2019. pp. 355‐391.

Current Projects and Grants

Since 2014 PI of the Joint Qurayyah Archaeological Project, Heritage Commission of the Saudi Ministry of Culture and University of Vienna augustus.foundation/initiatives/qurayyah-nw-arabia/

2024-2027 PL/PI of the international FWF-funded research project “ANAPAN A New Approach to Pottery of Arabia and its Neighbors” Project no. I6562 under the WEAVE scheme (DFG-funded DAI/German Archaeological Institute). It includes National (ÖAI/ÖAW, TU Wien, University of Innsbruck) and International Partners (University of Sydney, M.I.T., Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum, University of Oxford, Yarmouk University) www.fwf.ac.at/forschungsradar/10.55776/I6562

2024 grant recipient of the Shelby White – Leon Levy Foundation Program for Archaeological Publications for the publication project “Unearthing Qurayyah I. Report on the 2015-2019 Excavation Seasons” whitelevy.fas.harvard.edu/people/marta-luciani

Since 2020 PI of the Pilot Project “Pottery Production and Exchange Networks in Ancient Arabia and the Near East (University of Vienna, ÖAI/ÖAW; Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, M.I.T., TU Wien, FU Berlin, VIAS) and (co-PI: Dr. P. Fragnoli) Holzhausen‐Legat/ÖAW hist-kult.univie.ac.at/forschung-und-digitales/forscherinnengruppen/pottery-production-and-exchange-networks-in-ancient-arabia-and-the-near-east/

Academic Career

2024: spokesperson of the Cluster “Archaeology and Material Culture” of the Vienna Doctoral School of Historical and Cultural Studies

2023: member of the STUKO DSPL 41 (Study Commission of the Doctoral School) and since 2020→ of the STUKO of the SPL 6

2019: member of the Committee (Doktoratsbeirat) of the Vienna Doctoral School of Historical and Cultural Studies

2019: Associate Professor of Archaeology of Ancient Western Asia (tenured), Department of Prehistoric and Historical Archaeology, University of Vienna.

2015-16: Adjunct Professor and Visiting Scholar at New York University’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW), New York, New York. U.S.A.

2014-18: Associate Professor (tenured) of Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology and History at the Department of Oriental Studies, University of Vienna.

2007: member of the Committee (Doktoratsbeirat) of the Doctorate of the Faculty for Philological Cultural Studies

2004-14: Assistant Professor (tenured since 2010) of Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology and History at the Department of Oriental Studies, University of Vienna.

Academic Education

2007: Habilitation at the University of Vienna, Austria: venia legendi for Archaeology and History of the Ancient Near East.

1999: Post-graduate Specialization (specializzazione) in Archaeology of the Ancient Near East at the University of Pisa, Italy, with distinction.

1996: Ph.D. (dottorato di ricerca) in Mesopotamian Studies at the Istituto Universitario Orientale, Naples, Italy, with distinction.

1991: M.A. (laurea) in Ancient Near Eastern History at the University of Padua, Italy, with distinction.

_{Website content: M. Luciani, July 2024}