New Archaeology Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellows

Congratulations to Flora Andreozzi and Genevieve Godin who have been awarded 2-year Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships to be hosted by the UCL Institute of Archaeology (2025-27).

MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships support researchers’ careers and foster excellence in research. Fellowships are open to excellent researchers of any nationality and enhance the creative and innovative potential of researchers holding a PhD who wish to acquire new skills through advanced training, international, interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral mobility. 

Flora will undertake the research project ‘FLOGYPT: Ancient Egyptian floral arrangements: a modern analytical key for the identification of their plant species and the study of their operational chain’ mentored by Dorian Fuller.

The peculiarity of Egyptian archaeobotanical material has created many difficulties in its study over the last two centuries. Floral compositions (dry ancient garlands and bouquets found in tombs of the Pharaonic and Greco-Roman periods) have no comparison in Mediterranean and European archaeobotany, as they preserve parts of dehydrated plants with which the archaeobotanist has commonly not been trained to compare and study. The result is that to this day, many floral arrangements found in contemporary excavations remain unpublished, creating gaps in information regarding ancient Egyptian flora and cultural practices that use flora as raw material.

The project will therefore focus on the development of specific identification tools for the plant species of this material available to all archaeobotanists who may find themselves dealing with Egyptian material. The numerous floral compositions preserved at the UCL Petrie Museum and Kew Gardens will be used as ancient material to developvalid species identification criteria. The project will propose identifying morphological characters of the species which can be established primarily with low magnification observation, and only secondarily with the collection of thin sections to be observed under a light microscope or samples for the SEM.

The result will be a specific protocol and an analytical key for the analysis of ancient Egyptian floral compositions which will finally also bring greater uniformity in the identification of the species of floral compositions and their publications. Furthermore, all dissemination phases of the project will try to involve the ongoing archaeological excavations in Egypt as much as possible, to create a fruitful and mutual exchange on the presence and study of this material. Finally, the results of the identifications made on museum objects will be integrated with textual and iconographic evidence to explore the sociocultural dynamics behind these objects.

Genevieve will undertake the research project ‘SE-HHLUI: Sewer Ecologies: The Hidden Heritage of London’s Urban Infrastructure’ mentored by Rodney Harrison.

Thousands of kilometres of tunnels run under the streets of London, keeping waste contained and concealed. London inherited this sewerage system from the Victorians, most notably Chief Engineer Joseph Bazalgette, prompted by the Great Stink of 1858. While it has endured remarkably well, population growth means that tens of millions of tonnes of untreated sewage now overflow into the Thames every year, posing a serious environmental threat. 

This project moves beyond sewers as purely technical infrastructures to consider the relationship between public attitudes to waste and pollution, and the material dynamics of waste management from the Victorian era to the present day - a topic that is particularly relevant considering the growing effects of waste in the Anthropocene. 

Its main objective is to examine sewers as integral parts of London’s urban heritage, through the interdisciplinary lens of heritage studies, contemporary archaeology, ecocriticism, and urban studies, bringing them together within the scope of the environmental humanities as an ecology of sewers. Such an ecology can shed light on how infrastructures produce heritage legacies that engage humans, nonhumans, and the environment, and have ramifications for what it means to live in the contemporary city. In doing so, a form of urban infrastructural heritage that is concealed yet emergent can be unveiled. 

This knowledge can further aid cities in solving complex problems relating to global challenges such as clean waterways, climate adaptation, and infrastructure modernisation. Much like climate change itself, ecologies are difficult to envision and need to be actively sought out. A deeper understanding of London’s sewers, from the creation of its sewerage system to the present day, can address the question of what it means to live alongside these legacies, and demonstrate the relevance of crafting futures that acknowledge their role in our co-constructed, shared world.

Welcome Flora and Genevieve!

We see archaeology as an internationally inclusive endeavour and inspire to create a vibrant, collaborative and supportive research environment for all our community. 

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