Francesca Colangeli will join the UCL Institute of Archaeology as a British Academy International Fellow for 2 years (from March 2026) to undertake a research project titled the Medieval Glass Economies: Southern Italy’s Role in the 8th to 13th-Century Mediterranean Networks.
In the late 1st millennium CE, the Mediterranean glass economy was fundamentally transformed and divided into two glassmaking worlds: Europe where natron glass was recycled and the Islamic world where soda plant ash technologies developed. Southern Italy, where these traditions intersected, provides the ideal laboratory to investigate how consumption patterns, demand, and manufacturing practices changed across various political regimes.
Drawing on newly excavated glass assemblages from multiple sites in eastern Sicily, Campania, and Lazio, Francesca’s project combines typological, chemical, and spatial data to identify the characteristics of local production and trace exchange networks and create the first comprehensive framework for understanding the interface between different glassmaking worlds in medieval Italy and the broader Mediterranean.
According to Francesca:
I am really excited to come to UCL and join its vibrant community at the Institute of Archaeology, where I will advance my research on medieval glass economies, exploring how the interface between different cultures shaped recycling, production, and exchange in the medieval Mediterranean. I look forward to engaging with colleagues in an inspiring international environment.”
Francesca will join our vibrant Islamic archaeology and archaeological science communities at UCL and benefit from complementary research being undertaken at the Institute of Archaeology, led by her sponsor Corisande Fenwick, including her ERC project EVERYDAYIslam and related initiatives on economic and technological change in the medieval Mediterranean. She will collaborate with Institute of Archaeology colleagues including Emeritus Professor Ian Freestone, the leading specialist in Islamic glass and Viva Sacco, British Academy International Fellow working on the project The Islamic Glaze Revolution, which explores artisans and consumers in the medieval central Mediterranean.
Corisande Fenwick says:
This is a pioneering project which will answer two of the most pressing questions in medieval Mediterranean glass studies: what was the relationship between the ‘recycling’ world of medieval Europe and the ‘plant ash world’ of the Islamic Mediterranean and how did medieval glass economies actually work?”
The Institute of Archaeology also hosts the Islamic Archaeology Research Network, co-ordinated by Corisande, which takes a multi-pronged historical, archaeological and scientific approach to the Islamic world and runs an annual Islamic Archaeology Day with SOAS.
The British Academy International Fellowships Programme provides support for outstanding early career researchers to make a first step towards developing an independent research career through gaining experience across international borders.
Congratulations Francesca! We look forward to welcoming you to UCL.
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