My Marie Curie project PythiaPlus, funded by the EU Commission (2021-23), explored the epigraphic cultures of the Mediterranean using Artificial Intelligence. It developed 3 collaborative streams:
1) Ithaca, the first AI model for restoring, dating and placing Greek inscriptions. The project was published on the cover of Nature and was co-lead by myself and Dr Yannis Assael (Google DeepMind).
2) Survey of all state-of-the-art Machine Learning applications to ancient languages, discussing issues regarding data bias, ML methods and standards.
3) Several real-world epigraphic case studies from Greek Sicily.
In 2024 I will begin a Leverhulme EC Fellowship at the University of Nottingham on a new project funded by the Leverhulme Trust, entitled Connecting the Past: Deep Neural Networks for Ancient Greek Networks. Stay tuned!
My DPhil dissertation investigated the burial practices of migrant and indigenous communities in Archaic and Classical western Sicily, incorporating comparative epigraphic evidence. I was awarded the G. Nenci prize by the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa for best doctoral thesis on ancient Sicily.
I continue to work on ancient Sicily today as cooperation partner of the Consuming the East in Sicily project (University of Vienna - FWF), where I am responsible for the study of the inscriptions on the transport amphorae from the necropoleis of Himera. I also enjoy publishing new epigraphic material from Himera and its hinterland.