Pamela Fragnoli

Pamela Fragnoli serves as Coordinator of the Ceramic Lab within the Archaeological Sciences division at the Austrian Academy of Sciences' Archaeological Institute (OeAI), while teaching at the University of Vienna since 2017. Her career spans international research projects across the Mediterranean and Southwest Asia, with leadership roles including heading the Materials Analysis research group (2017-2020) and the Archaeometry department in the Object Itineraries research group (2011-2020). Since 2022, she has been a team leader in the Human Evolution and Archaeological Sciences (HEAS) network and core member of the OeAI Heritage Sciences unit.

Her research focuses on the diachronic study of craft organization in relation to cultural, economic and political transformations, reconstruction of exchange networks through raw material and object analysis, and cross-craft interactions involving technology transfer and innovation. She employs interdisciplinary approaches combining petrographic, mineralogical, and geochemical methods with statistical analysis to investigate ancient ceramic production systems.

Analysis of her 15 most recent publications reveals consistent focus on Eastern Mediterranean and Anatolian sites (Arslantepe, Ephesus, Malatya), with methodological emphasis on integrated analytical techniques (petrography, geochemistry, micromorphology) applied to ceramic, clay, and earth-based materials. Key thematic trends include craft standardization metrics, raw material procurement strategies, and the relationship between political centralization and production organization across millennia.

Fragnoli has supervised numerous academic theses in clay, mortar, stone, ceramic, and pigment analysis while mentoring early-career researchers. Her laboratory leadership includes directing the Ceramic Lab since 2024 and previously heading the Archaeometry unit, where she developed methodological frameworks for multi-analytical investigations of archaeological materials.