The Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology (ICAC) welcomes Marta Tosolini, who has joined the institute as a predoctoral researcher with an FPI grant within the framework of the MEDLANDS project, led by Dr Arnau Garcia Molosa and Dr Alfredo Mayoral Pascual, as part of the Landscape Archaeology Research Group (GIAP).
Tosolini began her doctoral research in June 2026. Her research focuses on human–environment interactions during the Holocene, based on the analysis of sediment cores from the surroundings of ancient Abdera, in northeastern Greece. Her research combines a multiproxy approach, including pollen, non-pollen palynomorph (NPP) and sedimentary microcharcoal analyses, with geoarchaeological and archaeological data. The aim is to reconstruct landscape evolution and understand the relationships between sociocultural practices and environmental changes.
As part of the project’s international collaboration, she will spend the first two years of her PhD undertaking a research stay at the Institut des Sciences de l’Évolution de Montpellier (ISEM, CNRS), in France, under the supervision of Ana Ejarque and as a member of the Archéobiologie et Paléoenvironnements (ArcheoPal) team.
On 26 September, Tosolini took part in a fieldwork campaign in Abdera, where she conducted phytosociological studies and vegetation sampling to build a modern reference dataset for pollen analysis. This information will be combined with the fossil record to investigate vegetation dynamics and socio-environmental relationships in the region. The fieldwork also allowed her to become familiar with the diversity of the landscapes in the study area, from the Rhodope Mountains and the Nestos River to the lagoons and coastal areas.
She graduated in Archaeology and Art History from the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II in 2021, where she completed her master’s degree in 2024. Her academic background combines archaeology, ancient topography, geoarchaeology and palynology, disciplines she has applied to the study of ancient landscapes and patterns of human settlement.
In 2024, she collaborated with the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli on the PRIN 2022 IN.RES.AGRI. project, which focuses on ancient agricultural landscapes in southern Italy. Subsequently, with the support of an InBound scholarship, she completed a second-year master’s programme (Master 2) in Quaternary Studies, Prehistory and Bioarchaeology at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris, where she specialised in palynology applied to the reconstruction of past vegetation and landscapes.
ICAC warmly welcomes her and wishes her every success in this new stage of her research career.
